The Weeknd - King Of The Fall (2014)

In July 2014 Canadian singer Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, released a promotional single titled 'King Of The Fall' to streaming services, to promote his King Of The Fall Tour. The song was later officially re-released by XO and Republic Records in September 2020, accompanying the release of his remixed track 'Rambo (Last Blood)' on the deluxe edition of Bryson Tiller's first studio album 'Trapsoul'. The initial release of 'King Of The Fall' followed that of his 2014 single 'Often', which was released a month prior, and the song is considered by critics and fans alike as being a staple song in his discography. The release of the two singles hinted to fans that a new album was on the horizon, and although Tesfaye had already began writing new songs, and had enough material for a new record, Republic Records offered him more opportunities to gain mainstream attention, and it was ultimately shelved. Instead, he released 'Earned It' on the soundtrack to James Foley's film '50 Shades Of Grey', and a collaboration with Ariana Grande on 'Love Me Harder'. His next official album was 2015's 'Beauty Behind The Madness', which included 'Often', but none of the songs that he'd recorded for the abandoned record, and so here they are in the form of an album that could have slotted in between 'Kiss Land' and 'Beauty Behind The Madness' in his discography. 

Track listing

01 Be God 
02 Potion  
03 Ebony 
04 In The 90's 
05 Devil May Cry 
06 Intrinsic Worth 
07 DBS OCT  
08 King Of The Fall
09 Lust Spell 
10 Quatre Neuf 
11 Pullin' Up 
12 In The Mood 
13 Marilyn / Witches And Panthers 

The Weeknd - The Noise (2009)

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer, known professionaly as The Weeknd, who began his musical career in 2009 by anonymously releasing music to YouTube. The following year he met Jeremy Rose, a producer who had an idea for a dark contemporary R&B musical project, and after initially trying to pitch the idea to musician Curtis Santiago, Rose played one of his instrumentals for Tesfaye, who freestyle rapped over it. This led to the two collaborating on an album, with Rose producing three songs, 'What You Need', 'Loft Music', and 'The Morning', amongst a few others that Tesfaye had sung on, but the sessions were ultimately scrapped. Rose let Tesfaye keep the tracks he had produced under the condition that Rose would be credited for them, but in December 2010 Tesfaye uploaded the three afore-mentioned songs to YouTube under the username "xoxxxoooxo", with the posts subsequently receiving coverage from various media outlets, including Pitchfork and The New York Times. Before adopting the stage name The Weeknd, Tesfaye recorded with production group The Noise in 2008/2009, but before the results could be released he split with them and founded his XO record label in 2011, releasing the critically acclaimed mixtape 'House Of Balloons'. The Noise were justifiable annoyed by this, and leaked snippets of their tracks in 2011, before leaking the whole session in 2016. The sessions with The Noise were intended to be a darker sound to what fans might know, with plentiful use of auto-tune, and although these are only demos, I'm sure fans will still want to hear them to get a feel for what Tesfaye was doing in those early years. 

Track listing

01 Birthday Suit  
02 Do It 
03 Through Her 
04 Material Girl 
05 Rescue You 
06 Appointment 
07 Xray 
08 Cure 
09 In The Mood (Bulleez'n'Nerdz)
10 Superhero