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Music

The Weeknd's New Mini-Doc Goes Behind the Madness of 'My Dear Melancholy,'

'He Was Never There' doesn't tell you a whole lot of concrete info, but it's damn cool in Abel Tesfaye's inimitable style.

The Weeknd is about a week and change into the rollout of his surprise album My Dear Melancholy,, and while we have cinematic music videos yet to accompany the moody music, Abel Tesfaye has released a six-minute visual guide of sorts to the album called He Was Never There. Directed by fellow Torontonian Joachim Johnson, it's not a visual album like Mania but instead is an experimental short documentary that goes behind the scenes of making My Dear Melancholy,.

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While there are plenty of shots of Tesfaye recording vocals and listening back to tracks, there's not a coherent narrative or any explicit insight into said process. Instead, think of the film as a mood board, capturing the horror-movie VHS dread that inspires Tesfaye's general sonic outlook. It's brief and inventively shot, and you can watch it above.

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