The Weeknd has been teasing his new album Dawn FM for quite some time, but it wasn’t enough to grant it no. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart. It’s his first album in years to miss out on the top spot, but does that make it a failure?
Upon its release on January 7th, Dawn FM was met with rave reviews from the critics, and Variety even went so far as to describe it as “possibly The Weeknd’s best and most fully realized album to date.” The Canadian singer truly branched out and experimented with many musical styles, from his signature mixture of pop and R&B to EDM, hip-hop, and new wave.
Dawn FM is definitely a big triumph from the creative point of view, and its failure to debut at no. 1 doesn’t change that. It may be The Weekend’s first studio album since his debut LP Kiss Land to debut at no. 2, but it managed to top the charts in many countries outside of the US, starting with Australia and the UK.
Dawn FM also wasn’t very far behind Gunna’s DS4Ever, which topped the charts this week with 150,300 equivalent album units earned. It hit no. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 148,000 units, and it might soar higher since it’s not facing tough competition in the upcoming weeks.
