Released: 2011
What a difference a decade makes: Long before the reflexlive, globe conquering pop of now, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye released the mixtape House of Balloons, a debut which stripped away the gloss of R&B and reduced it to a seedy, alleyway club soundtrack.
The people here were going nowhere, lost and submerged in the murk and sleaze, a workd of pushers and users and desperation wherre they were hunters or prey, or both. High For This takes us right to it’s heart, Tesfaye’s voice childlike against the backdrop of strangulated booty funk and deserted lot beats. In a decade that would never really come to terms with itself, here for the first time was it’s soul laid bare.
