House of Balloons


House of Balloons is the debut mixtape by Canadian singer The Weeknd. It was released as a free download on March 21, 2011, then was later released by XO. The mixtape was also released on The Weeknd's official website. Its music incorporates electronic and contemporary genres, including R&B and soul, along with trip hop, indie rock and dream pop tones. The contributions to the mixtape's production came from Canadian record producers such as Doc McKinney, Zodiac and Illangelo, among others. On November 13, 2012, The Weeknd released his three-part compilation album Trilogy, where the first part is the House of Balloons mixtape.
In September 2013, The Weeknd revealed that the House of Balloons is a real place, located at 65 Spencer Ave in Toronto.

Music

The album's eclectic music uses samples of Beach House's "Master of None" and "Gila", and Aaliyah's 2001 song "Rock the Boat". The title track heavily samples Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1980 single "Happy House". The track "The Knowing" samples the 1990 track "Cherry-Coloured Funk" by Cocteau Twins. Joe Colly of Pitchfork Media observed "weird, morning-after tales of lust, hurt, and over-indulgence", complemented by "lush, downcast music" on the album, and compared its "specific nocturnal quality" to that of The xx's 2009 self-titled debut. Pitchforks Eric Grandy wrote that the title track has The Weeknd "emoting in an androgynous falsetto one minute, muttering unbelievable curses the next". Paul Lewster of The Guardian viewed that, although more than half of the mixtape features samples, only the title track makes it "evident".

Promotion

The song "High for This" was featured in the promo for the final season of the HBO show Entourage in July 2011. On November 24, 2011, The Weeknd’s first official music video, for his song "The Knowing," hit the Internet on his Vimeo page. The song was first released on House of Balloons and the video was directed by French filmmaker Mikael Colombu, who has also worked with singer Cee Lo Green. The nearly eight-minute clip is described by authors Carrie Battan and Amy Phillips of Pitchfork as, "a time traveling, Afrofuturist, science fiction battle of the sexes that demands to be watched in HD."

Critical reception

House of Balloons received widespread acclaim from critics, and is considered by many to be one of the most influential R&B releases in recent years. Preceded by a string of low-profile buzz single releases throughout 2010, the mixtape attracted significant interest due to the then-anonymous identity of the individual behind The Weeknd. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating based on reviews by industry professionals, gave House of Balloons a rating of 87, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 16 reviews. Sean Fennessey of The Village Voice was impressed by the mixtape, calling it "patient, often gorgeous, and consistently louche... with the sort of blown-out underbelly and echo-laden crooning that has already made Drake's less-than-a-year-old Thank Me Later such an influential guidepost." Maegan McGregor of Exclaim! stated that House of Balloons "easily stands as one of the year's best debuts so far, hipster, top 40 or otherwise." Sputnikmusic's Tyler Fisher said that "despite being a free album, House of Balloons feels like a true album, a true labor of love." Tom Ewing of The Guardian felt that while The Weeknd's vocals and lyrics on House of Balloons "aren't especially strong by R&B standards," much of the album's attention was attracted by its strong command of mood.
In December 2011, Metacritic determined that House of Balloons was the third best-reviewed project of the year. Additionally, the mixtape was featured on several music critics' and publications' end-of-year albums lists. Complex called it the "best album of 2011;" Stereogum ranked it number 5; The Guardian ranked it number 8; The A.V. Club ranked it number 6; SPIN ranked it number 13; while Pitchfork ranked it number 10. As a whole, House of Balloons was the seventh most frequently mentioned album in music publications' year-end top ten lists. The mixtape was named as one of the longlisted of nominees for the 2011's Polaris Music Prize. The mixtape's title track, "House of Balloons" was placed on Pitchforks list of top 100 songs of 2011 at number 57, while "The Morning" was number 15.

Track listing

Sample credits