Those borrowed hooks mean that House of Balloons is the part of Trilogy most affected by the remaster. The cyclical choruses of 'What You Need', 'The Morning', and 'High For This' in particular are both immediately striking and subtly ingratiating, overtures to pop radio that operate outside of it. But the Weeknd show a flair for melody that allows every richly atmospheric song on House to stand on its own, boasting strong (and sometimes borrowed) hooks that embrace repetition without feeling manipulative. It's a continuation of the purple-tinted R&B and hip-hop hybrid forged by The-Dream and Drake, with eye-of-the-quiet storm assurance of Sade and Aaliyah and industrial and trip-hop touches that range from Nine Inch Nails to Tricky. On House, the Weeknd introduce an aesthetic that, over the course of the rest of the three tapes, gradually evolves into something deeper and less based in traditional songcraft. It has the only Weeknd songs you might play at a celebration, and the only point where the illicit behavior feels alluring. House of Balloons is the 'fun' part of the story, though that's a relative term.

But Trilogy as a whole sets up a narrative that was previously only implied. Which isn't easy: in spite of Tesfaye's diaphanous voice and the lush production, these are heavy records, with tempos that slow to a codeine drip for five minutes or more.

While the previously available versions of House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence already felt definitive, a three-hour immersion provides a new way in, assuming you are willing to take it as a single piece. It's not unprecedented for someone to put out three albums in a year, but TrilogyВ suggests an ambitious and rigorously planned Work of Art. This is evident in the project's early anonymity,В the unified typography, the striking photographs, the ambitious videos and, most important, the fact that Tesfaye called his three releases of 2011 aВ trilogy. But there's one catch: If you weren't checked out completely during 2011, you've already heard the vast majority of Trilogy, for free.В So it's understandable if you're wondering whyВ this set,В which collects the Weeknd's three 2011 mixtapes in one package and adds three additional songs, exists in the first place.В But presentationВ mattersВ to the Weeknd. If you checked out completely in 2011, Trilogy has all the makings of a blockbuster: 22-year old Toronto native Abel Tefsaye along with producers Illangelo and Doc McKinneyВ developed a state-of-the-art R&B template and scored several radio hits they're associates of megastar Drake, and have playedВ sold-out club shows and rapturously received festival appearances.

The weeknd discography