The production is slightly harsher and streaked with violence, befitting the lyrical content- "Life of the Party", the best and most disturbing song here, is based around doom-like guitar riffs that suggest something truly terrible about to happen. There's the same ineffably skeezy vibe and a genuine sense of the album-as-journey, brought upon by smart sequencing and Tesfaye's willingness to complicate his devilish, drug-addled Lothario persona. Though there's less breathing space on Thursday, and fewer melodic hooks, it still feels of a piece with House of Balloons. Beyond that and a handful of "unofficial" but suspiciously high-budget videos, we have the music on these two mixtapes. We've seen a few smoky, black and white photos disseminated via Tumblr that perfectly fit the music's bad vibes there have been a couple of live dates and apparently, the project has two associated producers helping to craft a sprawling, drugged-up R&B sound: Doc McKinney, best known for Esthero's Breath From Another and another guy named Illangelo. Months later, all we really know about the Weeknd is that there's a singer named Abel Tesfaye with an earthy The-Dream-like voice and a lecherous persona that's both repellent and compelling. And those that do probably don't have a Drake co-sign and such a carefully managed cloak of anonymity. But not many artists, especially in the Internet era, show up with such a well-developed aesthetic (a very foggy, of-the-moment variation on mainstream radio's slow jams) and something as self-assured as the House of Balloons mixtape. It sounds a bit ridiculous to say that the Weeknd avoid the sophomore slump with Thursday, given that the Toronto crew's first release arrived just five months ago.