Love isn’t always as it seems. Sometimes, it can be deceiving. Soul crushing, even. Just ask The Weeknd. Otherwise known as Abel Tesfaye, this man apparently knows all about heartbreak.
In fact, he knows so much about it that he’s just released “Call Out My Name,” the lead single from his new six-track EP, My Dear Melancholy. In this song, The Weeknd shares a piece of his badly broken heart with the world.
This isn’t the first song that he’s written about love, but it does seem to be the first about his wildly popular ex, Selena Gomez, if the rumors are to be believed. The two musicians dated for 10 months before the relationship was cut short. Now, The Weeknd has channeled his hurt into a smooth R&B sound, belting out unfiltered emotions and raw lyrics in an effort to win back the lover who left him.
What begins as a beautiful love story soon gets gutted as The Weeknd recognizes this briefly flowering romance wasn’t meant to be: “We found each other/I helped you out of a broken place/You gave me comfort/But falling for you was my mistake.”
It’s certainly not for a lack of effort on his part, either. The Weeknd says he gave this woman all that he had: “I put you on top … /I claimed you so proudly and openly/And when times were rough … /I made sure I held you close to me.” Alas, such selflessness wasn’t enough.
Now, he longs to hear her “call out my name when I kiss you so gently” once more. Or, at the very least, he wishes she’d have the decency to “wait ‘til I fall out of love” before moving on to the next guy.
Despite these confessional lyrics, however, in real life The Weeknd perhaps struggles a bit in the honesty department. Because when she asked him how he felt about the whole break up, he says, “I said I didn’t feel nothing, baby, but I lied.”
Then he adds, “I almost cut a piece of myself for your life.” That might sound morbid. But most fans are interpreting these lines as a reference to The Weeknd’s rumored willingness to give Gomez one of his kidneys for her recent transplant (though she ultimately chose another donor).
But he never had a chance. Because, according to him, he was ultimately “just another pit stop,” someone to toy with “’til you made up your mind.” In the end, he fears that “you just wasted my time.”
This subdued, anguished song doesn’t have the kind of explicit lyrics that we hear so often these days—which is to its credit. But it doesn’t exactly have an upbeat ending, either, which might serve to reinforce similar feelings in those who listen to this morose and melancholy song repeatedly.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
