'I'm like goddamn bitch I am not a Teen Choice/ Goddamn bitch I am not a bleach boy.' 'I just won a new award for a kids show/ Talking 'bout a face coming off a bag a blow,' the Weeknd raps in one key line, nodding to his Teen Choice Awards nomination for 'I Can't Feel My Face,' becoming perhaps the first artist to put that particular award show on blast. It's very literally a reminder of who The Weeknd is and where he stands in the industry. The album's fourth track serves as the author's personal introduction to Starboy.

It still communicates that depraved, hungry restlessness, as all good Weeknd music has, overlaid with enough pop veneer to make it palatable, but not inauthentic. 'Starboy,' the title track and the tightest composition on the album, is one of The Weeknd's most balanced pop tunes. Here are a few of Starboy's immediate standouts that may help the cautious listener ease into The Weeknd's new nightmare.

Most of the album settles into The Weeknd's bleary trap-driven R&B, with satisfying shreds of melody and cunning lyrical turns scattered throughout. There are a few new sounds in the bag as well: a little vapor wavy synth jam in 'I Feel It Coming,' some more uptempo house in 'Rockin'.' Spanning 18 tracks, the album careens through many corners of The Weeknd's usual musical interests - dilated-pupil club jams and vengeful ballads.

The latest chapter of The Weeknd's evolving career, titled Starboy, has opened after a long tease - and it's a sinister one.

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