Call Out My Name

WTF is happening in this video? It is packed with super abstract, mind-bending concepts, thanks to director Grant Singer, and of course, the moodiest mainstream artist on the planet, The Weeknd. It is refreshing to see visuals that live up to a track, with both mediums editing well with each other, like when Tesfaye boot-stomps on the downbeat, or when bats explode to the rhythm. The deep, cool blue of the opening shot would have been beautiful enough, yet when the music really kicks in, the surprises keep coming, and surprisingly, the images strive to be further deciphered.

Tesfaye sings his opening lines like a lullaby; "We found each other. I helped you out of a broken place. You gave me comfort. But falling for you was my mistake." As the dramatic piano builds, Tesfaye casually recites lyrics that are actually very personal; "I put you on top, I put you on top, I claimed you so proud and openly, and when times were rough, when times were rough, I made sure I held you close to me." This seems to be about Selena Gomez. They had a steady relationship where he took time off tour to support her through surgery, and at the end of the day, he feels like he got the short end of the stick. "Girl, why can't you wait 'til I fall out of love?"

This is a heavy slow jam. Halfway into the track, Tesfaye's voice bleeds into distortion, and his emotions sound very pleading and hurt. If his ex would just call out his name, he would come for her. He looks like the prince of darkness, with his black trench coat flapping in the wind. Time stands still in a wasteland where animals are frozen in motion. A terrifying, alien-like creature dressed in all white is somewhere waiting to be found, but the viewer can never quite make the features out. Is this the evil ex? Or some forbidden, demonic love? This whole video is on drugs.

When listeners are seeking to enjoy themselves, the train’s initial stop likely would be Michael Jackson or Bruno Mars, Artists who’ve shown an enthusiastic interest in the abundance of life’s offerings; Alternatively, should they seek a cavernous dwelling, occupied by depression & the weight of self-loathing, chances of choosing The Weeknd skyrocket to a comfortable 100% - Luckily for him, “Call Out My Name” continues Tesfaye (The Weeknd)’s reign over this emotional spectrum, an appropriately titled track for the sense of dread & doubt it creates. Demonstrating the void one feels as a relationship is pushed to its limits & inevitably destroyed, he describes the sensation of holding reverence for an individual who no longer desires your love; It’s a gloomy picture, one which every 1 in 2 people are sure to have witnessed at some point, as everyone eventually gets dumped, and one Tesfaye manages to expertly convey in his signature Weeknd fashion.
Now, certainly, the content of “Call Out My Name” is such that an audience of any caliber may relate to the subject matter, but that doesn’t necessarily make it anything outstandingly unique; Tesfaye gets sad, somebody turns on a synthesizer & constructs a melody to his morose ramblings. If it weren’t for his recent ventures into uplifting electronic resonance, aided by the powerful presence of Daft Punk, one might assume this is all Tesfaye knows how to write, as “Call Out My Name” is simply a reskinned sample of his 2015 hit “Earned It.” Where this specific arrangement stands out is in its fragility, earnest in delivery, much in opposition to his typical ego-centric tales of debauchery & an assumed addiction to fallacy-inflated grandeur – The Weeknd is a character Tesfaye can never be, yet this track strangely manages to show listeners possibly the only real side they’ve ever seen of him, broken & bruised from an overactive case of infatuation, just like the rest of us.
Humanizing as it may be, “Call Out My Name” remains a modest B- in terms of melodic interest & skill utilization, only able to maintain the audience’s attention when watching the aesthetic-AF lyric video attached to this project – Were it not for the visual aid, this track might have passed under even the keenest of noses, too derivative to make much of an impact. Luckily for Tesfaye, the influence of celebrity heightens the social awareness of his releases, his rabid fanbase hyping up the most mundane of entries, so long as they’re fed a steady flow of fresh content to consume.