This past summer, you couldn’t be in the car and listen to the radio without hearing The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face,” playing.

“Can’t Feel My Face” was named “U.S. Song of The Summer” by Spotify along with his own bass-filled hit “The Hills” as runner up.

On August 28, The Weeknd released his second studio recorded album titled “Beauty Behind the Madness.”

With his album being No.1 on Billboard’s top 100 for 3 weeks in a row, The Weeknd has now skyrocketed into fame after years of trying to get to where he’s at now.

For about two years, the 25 year-old Canadian artist, Abel Tesfaye (also known as The Weeknd), remained something of an underground artist that not many people knew of before.

After running away from home at the age of 17 with a group of friends, Tesfaye worked on his music, performed at nightclubs and did everything possible to get his name out to the public.

It has now paid off, gaining hundreds of fans and earning him critical acclaim by publications such as “Rolling Stone.” Tesfaye had released three free mix tapes (House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence) in hopes that a record producer would eventually sign him.

The first mix tape that he released was House of Balloons in 2011, featuring songs such as “Wicked Games” and “High for This.” After seeing the mix tape’s success, Tesfaye decided to release the two other mix tapes soon after. In 2012, he finally got signed with Republic Records and landed a spot at the world renowned Coachella music festival in California featuring the artist Drake in performing their song “Crew Love”.

Tesfaye’s new album BBTM consists of 14 songs and some are quite different than his usual dark and sexual R&B sound.

This album has a feel of pop in certain aspects, which can be heard in “Can’t Feel My Face” and an electronic-sounding part specifically in the song “Losers,” which is completely un-Weeknd-like and took a while to get used to.

But I have two main things about this new album that I completely love. First is the fact that we see more into Tesfaye’s sweeter/romantic side which was never really portrayed in his past songs compared to his new songs such as “Acquainted,” “As You Are,” and “Shameless.” Next, is his new openness to collaborations. His pain-filled yet angelic voice blends in perfectly with his featured artist Ed Sheeran in “Dark Times” and with Labrinth in “Losers.” Within each song, Tesfaye shares a little bit of his personal life in between the lines which includes a lot of explicit content that involves sex, women, and drugs.

The tracks on BBTM are different than some of Tesfaye’s other songs when it comes to his music style. The music is still slow enough to relax to, but is also capable of getting you in a hyped up mood.

I give this album 8.5 stars thanks to all of the components that he put forth and to what he has accomplished with his new album.

I have to say I’m left with hunger for more, and I have anticipation to find out what’s next from The Weeknd.