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The Weeknd · S3 E1
Thursday
The second mixtape. Darker, more cohesive, and obsessed with the cycle of weeknight excess
Five months after House of Balloons, a second free mixtape appears on the same website with zero warning. Thursday is darker, tighter, and built around one suffocating concept: the night before the weekend swallows you whole.
Portishead -- Glory Box (1994). The trip-hop blueprint that haunts every second of Thursday. Beth Gibbons aches over beats that crawl, desire soaked in unease, beauty built on top of something deeply uncomfortable. When you hear Thursday's smoky, claustrophobic production, this is one of the ghosts in the room.
Glory Box -- Portishead (1994)
Built on a sample of Isaac Hayes' "Ike's Rap II," this track rewired what a love song could feel like. Beth Gibbons' voice drips with desperation over a beat so slow it seems to be sinking into the floor. Listen for Adrian Utley's guitar solo that tears through the final minute: one of the most unexpected turns in '90s music, a gentleness shattered by distortion. Illangelo has spoken about his roots in trip-hop, and Thursday's sonic palette descends directly from the world Portishead built.
A New Producer, A New Sound
Jeremy Rose produced much of House of Balloons, but by Thursday, Abel had found a new primary collaborator: Carlo "Illangelo" Montagnese. The shift was not just personnel. It was a complete change in sonic philosophy. Where Rose drew from post-punk and shoegaze samples, Illangelo brought darker electronic textures, tighter arrangements, and a production ear shaped by trip-hop and industrial music.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why did Abel switch producers after his first mixtape?
What does the title "Thursday" represent in The Weeknd's mythology?
The Birds Pt. 1 -- The Weeknd
A standout deep cut from Thursday that captures the mixtape's emotional core in four minutes. Over a sparse, echoing beat, Abel confesses to pushing someone away while simultaneously begging them not to leave. It is one of the earliest examples of the contradiction that defines his best work: cruelty delivered in the most beautiful voice in the room.
Thursday proves the first mixtape was no accident, and Abel has found a producer who matches his ambition note for note. But there is one track on this tape that changes everything: Drake steps into The Zone, and Toronto's two biggest rising voices share a microphone for the first time.
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