chili

6y

· edited

Wonder if Doc put him on to him later in his life

He’s obviously a big fan of The Beautiful Ones, on numerous occasions he’s placed the track on various Spotify playlists:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0v7paA2MjbZHnx9q4kIj95?si=c_qagJgMQL-Slr9NBOwnrw

https://open.spotify.com/user/theweeknd/playlist/6bgsAZOo2yttIlFDubiFiI?si=2QTQNXpoSlSo9TEg3ttYZg

But I definitely agree with you and @Grenouille about Abel mostly paying an homage to P through subtle instrumental/production choices, rather than trying to ape some of his ideas for his own music (In Your Eyes is 100% inspired by MJ’s Another Part Of Me)

Two examples confirming this is the drum production on “Secrets” and “Nothing Compares”. Both tracks pay similar homage to P as to my ears, both tracks seem to use Linn LM-1 and Linn Drum, the drum machine that was essential to the establishment of prince’s Minneapolis Sound in the 80’s. I’d say the Linn is to Prince as to what the MPC is to Kanye.

Prince was known for running multiple filters, gated reverb and pitch control to get the drum sounds that is often associated with his sound. “Secrets” in particular uses this dry, gated reverb sound that is very similar to the Linn drum sounds on prince’s “Kiss”. Listen to how the snares sound in both tracks specifically;

Prince uses way more reverb on the kick, but as a whole, the drums are pretty similar, sonically.

Nothing Compares is a bit of a different case, as it doesn’t use any of those aforementioned effects on the drums, and goes for a more “vanilla” sound, which is something that P rarely did in his heyday, but did more when revisiting the Drum in his later days. I think the Linn drum usage here is a less obvious example of a prince homage due to its lack of effects, but I do find Nothing Compares to have an astonishingly similar sonic atmosphere to P’s “Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)”. In terms of songwriting, both tracks deal with themes of the sense of vulnerability in failed relationships.

TLDR: Abel is a huge fan of The Beautiful Ones, some Weeknd songs use similar drum production choices as Prince did.

Salaryman

6y

Need the rage.. they spit in this man’s face

Salaryman

6y

Need the rage.. they spit in this man’s face

Salaryman

6y

Need the rage.. they spit in this man’s face

Cam Skattebo Fan

6y

Brother you dropped a classic last night for real. The best music I’ve ever heard come out of KTT

Grenouille

6y

Link?

Salaryman

6y

Need the rage.. they spit in this man’s face

Salaryman

6y

Need the rage.. they spit in this man’s face