Weeknd Music For Rainy Workdays

If you can’t be snuggled up in bed gazing at the water droplets on the window and enjoying alternate whiffs of rain-fresh air and your blanket, you have to hope at least for a little personal space on public transport (I got a seat today!) and some music that simultaneously captures the pathos of the situation and takes you away from it. For all the rainy mornings after the best nights of your life, when you still have to drag yourself out of bed and go to work, The Weeknd made this album (downloadable for free at their website!) for you, the bereft but surviving. It’s so gonna turn up on TV series soundtracks.

This morning I basically just put the whole album on and stared moodily out of the bus window at the drenched world beyond, but if you prefer your emo moments to be song-length only, then I highly recommend:

• The Morning: The morning after R. Kelly’s Ignition.[1. And speaking of Ignition, if you haven’t already read this classic ILM thread where John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats goes completely nuts about the song, you really should.]

• Wicked Games: Would have belonged on Kanye’s 808s And Heartbreak if Kanye could actually sing as well as The Weeknd’s vocalist. Trust me, you have never heard the words “Let me see that ass” sung with such anguish.