The Weeknd has returned with an eerie music video for his song “Out of Time,” released April 8. “Out of Time” is the seventh track on his latest album, “Dawn FM,” which debuted Jan. 7.
The video opens with the singer in an empty hotel room where he is suddenly approached by an attractive stranger, portrayed by “Squid Game” star Jung Ho-Yeon, and the two immediately hit it off. The video cuts to numerous shots depicting the pair completely enraptured with each other as they enjoy dinner and sing karaoke together. Following The Weeknd’s typical music video style, things go awry when the music suddenly fades as a mysterious voice interrupts the budding romance.
“Don’t you dare touch that dial,” Jim Carrey, who serves as the album’s narrator, ominously says. “Because like the song states, you are out of time.”
After menacing shots of a bloody champagne bucket and a surgical room towards the end of the music video, an elderly version of The Weeknd wakes up in an operating room to find Carrey placing a mask on his face.
“Out of Time” samples the song “Midnight Pretenders,” released in 1983 by Japanese artist Tomoko Aran. The disco and jazzy melodies that were common during Japanese 80s City Pop — an old genre of pop music in Japan — are present throughout the song, putting listeners in a state of euphoric nostalgia. Coupled with riveting lyrics sung in a delicate chord, “Out of Time” establishes itself as one of the album’s masterpieces.
The visuals of the music video are also nothing short of mesmerizing. Aside from the display of twinkling city lights in the background, Ho-Yeon and The Weeknd also roam the hotel’s hallways together. The muted color palette and the pair’s all-black outfits serve as foreshadowing of later events of the video when The Weeknd is pulled from his dream-like state into the harsh and bright reality of his existence.
Following the success of his previous albums, The Weeknd returns with “Dawn FM,” a new 80s-inspired album that perfectly crafts each song seamlessly. The Weeknd enjoys grappling with topics such as the afterlife, nihilism, self-destruction, love and betrayal in his songs. He has done so since his debut in 2011, and he continues to do so with new releases, each more refreshing and nuanced than the last. With his previous album “After Hours” marking the beginning of a new trilogy, fans have speculated that “After Hours” serves as The Weeknd’s metaphorical demise, while “Dawn FM” begins his transition to the afterlife. In “Dawn FM,” The Weeknd continuously flirts with the idea of death in tracks such as “Every Angel Is Terrifying” and “Gasoline.”
“Picture the album being like the listener is dead. And they’re stuck in this purgatory state, which I always imagined would be like being stuck in traffic waiting to reach the light at the end of the tunnel. And while you’re stuck in traffic, they got a radio station playing in the car, with a radio host guiding you to the light and helping you transition to the other side,” The Weeknd said in an interview with Billboard. “So it could feel celebratory, could feel bleak, however you want to make it feel, but that’s what The Dawn is for me.”
This purgatorial state of living in between dream and reality and love and agony is clearly reflected in the visual and auditory elements of “Dawn FM.” The 80s pop element of the album serves as a paradox to the darker and more brooding lyrics of the songs. This theme is reflected in the video when the lyrics “There’s so much trauma in my life / I’ve been so cold to the ones who loved me, baby” accompany Ho-Yeon and The Weeknd’s joyous karaoke session montages. The events of the video showcase that The Weeknd is merely stuck in a blissful reverie, and his reality at the end of the tunnel is much bleaker. His decadent youth is stripped away from him, and he is quite literally “out of time.”
Catchy music partnered with striking visuals and intriguing storylines makes it easy to see why The Weeknd has been hailed as one of the most influential artists of the decade. His refreshing candor on the struggles and flaws of human existence is perhaps why he has become such an appealing figure in the music industry. With his upcoming summer tour “After Hours Til Dawn” starting this July in his hometown of Toronto, The Weeknd is a must-see act.
Kamilla Jafarova is an Entertainment Intern for the spring 2022 quarter. She can be reached at kjafarov@uci.edu.
