“Secrets”

When the Weeknd arrived mysteriously in 2011, one of the first signs that Abel Tesfaye would be different from his R&B peers could be found in his choice of samples—from Siouxsie and the Banshees to Cocteau Twins to Beach House to a more likely Aaliyah. Five years later, the very nature of sampling in pop has changed. Big-budget stars like Beyoncé see no reason not to repurpose other artists’ killer lines for themselves. Here on “Secrets,” a Starboy bright spot, Tesfaye’s reference points capture a bit of pop’s present and his own past. He pulls out two ’80s new wave gems—the Romantics' “Talking in Your Sleep” and Tears for Fears’ “Pale Shelter”—and constructs a montage of a chorus, interpolating and quoting the former while sampling the latter. (No less, he quotes Jeff Buckley in his opening line.)

As much as these recycled parts define “Secrets,” Tesfaye and his producers (Cirkut, Doc McKinney, Sir Dylan) rearrange them to create something as catchy and compelling as their source tracks, albeit with a different vibe. In keeping with the Daft Punk robot-prints all over Starboy, they add an “Around the World”-ish beat and a jangly disco guitar line. Tesfaye almost doesn’t sound like himself, both in that he’s belting in his mid-range rather than his heavenly falsetto, and that he’s not singing about his usual debauchery.

When Tesfaye isn’t singing about drugs and hot, meaningless sex, we typically hear him detailing what leads to this vicious cycle: his trust issues with women. The Weeknd can’t shake the fact that his girl is cheating on him in her dreams, but he also knows R.E.M.-cycle love crimes aren’t worth getting irreconcilably mad or sad over. Instead, he throws on a couple old favorites and retools them as dreamy, mid-tempo dancefloor fodder to take his mind off it. After those radio bangers about getting inconceivably blitzed, we could all use a little respite from the Weeknd.