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Just hours after debuting a loc-less crown and revealing the art for his third studio LP, Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, dropped the first single from his new project.

“Starboy,” toting the same name as the album, is a seamless marrying of the past and the present. “This one will feel aggressive and warm,” he told fans in July. The dark prince listeners came to love isn’t completely gone (the bridge finds Tesfaye glorifying his girl’s affinity for snorting coke off of ebony tables worth $20,000), but, as we learned from Beauty Behind The Madness, he’s not boxing himself in either.

The presence of French electronic music duo Daft Punk, who Kanye famously sampled for “Stronger” in 2007, lends a breath of fresh air to Tesfaye’s melancholy pop. Beauty Behind The Madness was an advancement of his sound, but perhaps this was the collaboration he needed to polish things off. Tesfaye’s comfortably found his seat within mainstream music, and it seems he’s here to stay.

“For a while, I didn’t focus on the commercial success,” he told Canadian journalist Anupa Mistry last year. “I really was going at the punk aspect of everything, which worked, but I felt like it got redundant.

For Tesfaye, it’s about opening the doors of his music to the world.

I’ve had this door open for a long time and now I’m inviting people in,” he continued. “It’s going to be fun, and I’m going to use this opportunity to make great music because I know the whole world’s listening. It inspires me. Now that I know people are expecting and anticipating great music, I’m going to make great music. With great power comes great responsibility.”

Starboy is slated for November 25 release and available for pre-order via iTunes.

Listen to a preview of “Starboy” below.

Hear the full song via Spotify.

SOURCE: Twitter, Pitchfork | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

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Hear The First Single From The Weeknd’s Forthcoming Album, ‘Starboy’  was originally published on theurbandaily.com