Soaking Up The Moon

The Weeknd “Gasoline”

I love that as The Weeknd drifts out further into the realm of new wave he’s taken on an over the top British affect – in the case of this song, “it’s 5 AM my toime again.” Winking at a previous generation of dour synthpop does more to alleviate a tension in the music than spoil the mood, and starting from this point gives him some runway before getting to the extremely bleak lyrics about reaching out to someone while relapsing and pondering what seems like imminent death. A lot of what he’s singing here could easily come off as maudlin, but the slightly playful tone makes it all go down smoother while suggesting that as dramatic as this is it’s all just a routine to him. This is, after all, the guy whose most famous song is also about being wasted and calling someone at 5 AM because “when I’m fucked up, that’s the real me.”

The music, largely composed by Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never, is a marvel of programming and well selected synth tones. Just as The Weeknd nods to the likes of Level 242 and When In Rome in his vocal without getting too far off from his grounding in modern R&B, Lopatin suggests 80s-ness more than he evokes anything specific from the era. “Gasoline,” like a lot of the songs on Dawn FM, moves The Weeknd from the more overt pastiche of the smash hit “Blinding Lights” towards a more timeless musical expression of decadance in which ’80s synthpop is just one of many spices in the curry.

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