Hey, hi, and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

So already before having shot this video, I have, multiple times over, listened to this brand new collaborative track between Abel, aka The Weeknd, and Playboi Carti, a song that has been getting a lot of discussion today. Because obviously on this track, we have two incredibly massive artists, both of whom are, presumably, presumably, it's Playboi Carti, so we don't know, presumably on the cusp of dropping brand new records. So you would hope, given the respective impact and size of both of these artists, that they would come through on a new song together and they would absolutely smash it.

I've also heard a snippet of this track in the recent Brazil performance that Abel did with Playboi Carti, live on stage. The overall vibe in the midst of that performance snippet wasn't too bad aesthetically. Basically, the track seemed like it was a sensible combination of both of their respective sounds and styles.

Now that I've heard the entire thing, I can at least confirm that because on the track, you have in the background this very repetitive synth-y instrumental with a pretty basic trap beat, exactly what you would expect from Playboi Carti formula-wise.

But what makes this beat make sense for Abel, though, is that the synth textures are very smooth. The production overall is so spacey and eerie, so it's not super harsh. It's not super rough in the way that a lot of a recent popular Playboi Carti tracks have proven to be. Abel's vocals and his overall mood and delivery do tend to come across best in an ocean of atmosphere. At the very least, this track has that.

So yeah, the instrumental is fine. And again, I'll say the aesthetics of the instrumental are fine. Creates an opportunity for overlap between Playboi Carti's and Abel's vocals. Carti, I will note, is giving us a catchy flow on the front end of the track with a lot of inflection switch-ups across his verse. It sounds like three to four different rappers by the time he's done.

But I feel like outside of this, whatever praise I could give this track, it just ends there. I mean, truth be told, there's not really a whole lot to this Playboi Carti verse outside of, I guess, a cute Die Lit reference, and then one bar where he's comparing himself to The Rock because he's wrestling his demons.

Also, considering this is Playboi Carti, opening your verse up saying that "shorty wants to come around, she wants to get hit, get hit so hard". Yeah, that's a bold choice. So, I mean, while the verse and the performance is there, I mean, again, I wouldn't say it stands out, generally, or by Playboi Carti's usual standards, I guess. It's just very average. It's passable. It's wallpaper, it's background music, it's basic. There's not really going to be any reason for anyone to remember or recall or quote this verse in a year.

Beyond this, we have The Weeknd. We have Abel all over the track who I feel like, honestly, to do this track, he dumbs down his songwriting style, and he reverts back to an older version of himself. Like, vocally, lyrically, and topically, it feels like he's going back to the Trilogy era, but without as much of the salacious content that made the music from that time period interesting. He's giving us a lighter, more watered-down version of that with a lot of lyrical flexes, with a lot of threatening postures, some illusions to a woman who's so obsessed she's getting XO tattooed all over her body.

Again, the stuff you're familiar with if you've heard anything from the original Trilogy era. But Abel doesn't leapfrog any of the bars or any of the vibes from this time period significantly on this track. Nor does he provide a banger chorus on this song either. He just pulls out a few refrains over the same repetitive beat without anything in the way of a significant change, emotionally or melodically, for that matter.

Despite the fact that this is going to be one of the most talked-about collaborations of the month, it sounds like he's genuinely phoning it in. I get I guess in a way, he is putting in just about as much effort as Playboi Carti typically puts into his tracks, and maybe going the extra mile would have just created a separation between him and Carti on the track, creatively speaking.

But still, overall, at the end of the day, a lack of effort on the track is a lack of effort. Now, I don't know between "Dancing in the Flames" sounding as basic and as plain as it did, and now this track just completely lacking wit, energy, ambition, anything. I'm getting less and less excited to hear what Abel has coming up next in this new era of his career.

And what's unfortunate is I have a feeling the audience, for the most part, is going to be fine with this, and they're not going to expect or demand more from it. The fact that it does the bare minimum in delivering a palatable vibe will be enough. Enough to get us to the next song, the next single, the next whatever that we're just going to listen to for 15 minutes before we pass on to the next thing. Because it does at least that.

Nobody's going to talk about how truly mediocre this track is, and that's what it is. It's mediocre as hell. I'm going to leave it there. What are your thoughts on this track if you've given it a listen? Because I truly do not think it's living up to the title of it, being timeless.

Anthony Fantano. The Weeknd. Playboi Carti, Forever.