Echoes of Silence

In a surprise move, R&B artist The Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye has released his 3rd mixtape of the year, the long-awaited and promised Echoes of Silence. Like House of Balloons and Thursday, the mixtape is rife with hazy drug-riddled crooning and features 9 tracks. My personal pick for early favorite is the warped "Initiation," which debuted back in October. You can get the mixtape right here.

It's only a matter of time before these tracks get the big-budget video treatment of tunes like "The Knowing." In the meantime, enjoy the still incredible "unofficial" video for "Wicked Games."

"Wicked Games"- House of Balloons

Here's What's in Store

Abel Tesfaye, the singer of the "one-man project" The Weeknd.

If you don't already know who The Weeknd is, I'll back-track for just a second. The Weeknd is an alternative-R&B project out of Toronto headed by Abel Tesfaye. He has already released two well-regarded Internet-albums, House of Balloons  and Thursday, and grabbed all sorts of promotion from fellow Canadian Drake. For his promised third album this year, Echoes of Silence, Tesfaye has released the first cut from the album. The track, entitled "Initiation" has everything listeners have come to love about The Weeknd: manipulated vocals, lots of sex-talk, and all-sorts of promises of drugs. The song can be found on his official Soundcloud and is also streaming below. No official date has been announced yet for the album.

"Initiation"- Echoes of Silence