The Weeknd: "Wicked Games"

The week of magic is upon us!! Lollapalooza starts this Friday. Juke Box Hero and I are cranking out final recommendations all week, starting with the Weeknd, Saturday at 6 p.m. on the Red Bull stage.

What better way to remind ourselves of the fact that it’s Monday and the beginning of another work week than featuring a song from Ontario-born R&B vocalist and songwriter Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd? The silky-voiced 22-year-old has only just burst on the scene in the last couple years, but his paltry catalogue of three mixtapes has already drawn critical acclaim from numerous music mags and critics. Oh, and he had an hour-long set to himself at the wildly popular Coachella Festival in April earlier this year.

Style-wise he’s a little reminiscent of Ben Harper, though guitar does figure a bit less prominently for The Weeknd. And there is perhaps a less-heavy influence from psychadelica. But the wide crooning range is definitely there: Tesfaye works his vocal spectrum beautifully by sliding between full and head voices with nimble precision.

Tesfaye’s smooth tenor bears a resemblance to the King of Pop’s, gaining him both extra credit as well as extra scrutiny. For some reason, “Wicked Games” reminds me of MJ’s “Dirty Diana.” (Fast forward to 1:10 to avoid gratuitous crowd noise.)

Obviously there’s a bit more electronic production going on in the 1988 performance versus the 2012 to make it more exciting. But I like that in each case we’re basically just seeing one man on stage – making it easier to conclude that while singers lucky enough to have voices like Terfay’s may draw comparisons to Michael, no one comes close to his pure energy delivery level. Yes, totally different kinds of songs, these, and could we ever call MJ an R&B artist? Maybe not, but the point is The Weekend is already a mighty musical force for being in the same paragraph as MJ with just two years of “public” (YouTube was an early recording-sharing platform in 2010) experience under his belt.

Now, Lolla-goers, you’re in somewhat of a tough spot: Though I can’t fairly speak to Washed Out, LP and Skream & Benga, The Weeknd goes on just 15 minutes prior to Franz Ferdinand (Saturday, 6 p.m.) and finishes 15 minutes prior to him. The savvy festivaller will bounce around, and it should be possible to see some of both acts, if not more, depending on how quickly the stage crews are moving.

Franz is great, but that’s my recommendation. And it may be nice to have a break from that inevitably dense, sweaty, and disgusting mass of people screaming the words of “Take Me Out” over and over again. So in both the case of the actual weekend and the band, each signifies a getaway from the grind.