The second single "Twenty Eight" was released on November 13. It's a fitting video – its film noir, Twin Peaks-y vibe perfectly matches the track's subtle sexy-creepy energy". Abrams jealous, a woman dancing in lace lingerie, and Drake. The video was released on November 7, 2012, and is described by music blog Pretty Much Amazing 's review as having "a lot of camera obscura effects, a forest of multicolored balloons, lens flare that would make J. This video had been rumoured for months and was a popular track given the collaboration of OVOXO, a crew formed by Drake and the Weeknd. His fourth video release, and third to promote Trilogy, was for " The Zone", a collaboration with fellow Toronto musician, rapper Drake. The song charted at number 43 on the Canadian Hot 100, it reached number 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The album's lead single "Wicked Games" was released on October 22, 2012.
This time, the shot opens on a dancing, purse-lipped model type, but her shadow soon vamps away from her body, and torments Tesfaye until the track's end". Chris Martins of Spin describes the video, "The clip is almost a sequel to the similarly shot "Rolling Stone" video, wherein a woman draped over the singer's back mysteriously disappears by the song's end. The video for his first official single from Trilogy, a revamped version of " Wicked Games", was released just weeks later on October 18, 2012, again through his website. The gloomy side represents the mainstream world while the other side represents the underground. The "Rolling Stone" video takes place in a dimly lit studio which represents the two worlds I have been stuck in. I usually don't like to 'spoon feed' my audience because I grew up idolising story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same. According to music magazine NME 's website, in an open letter to his fans the Weeknd posted on his website in regards to the "Rolling Stone" video, "Because I am a man of few words, I chose to make a viral video to show you how I felt and where I stand. The Weeknd previewed the album at a listening party in New York City on October 24. Promotion Ī video accompanying the track "Rolling Stone" was released on October 3, 2012, to promote the album's release. To re-release the mixtapes' music for retail, the Weeknd had to obtain clearance from the recording artists he had originally sampled for certain songs, including Beach House for "The Party & the After Party" and Siouxsie and the Banshees on "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls" the sample of Aaliyah's " Rock the Boat" on "What You Need" was excluded from Trilogy. " Twenty Eight", "Valerie", and "Til Dawn (Here Comes the Sun)" were included as bonus tracks at the end of each of the compilation's discs.
The mixtapes were subsequently remastered and compiled for Trilogy, along with three previously unreleased songs, which were recorded at Liberty Studios in Toronto. In September 2012, the Weeknd signed with Republic Records in a joint venture with his own imprint label XO.
The Weeknd released the mixtapes online as free digital downloads. The mixtapes were principally recorded with producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo, at Dream House and Site Sound Studios in Toronto additional sessions took place at Sterling Road Studios.
In 2011, the Weeknd released a series of mixtapes- House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence- and garnered both critical acclaim and a growing fan base.