Single Review: ADVM “Weekend”

The numbers speak for themselves – just in the brief time people have been talking about him, ADVM has brought in a lot of attention online through the release of his lead single “Weekend,” which is a track that borrows a little from pop and a whole lot from hip-hop but essentially is almost guaranteed to get your hips swinging no matter what umbrella you want to place it under. There hasn’t been much time for ADVM to transition from obscurity to star-caliber indie performer, but he isn’t letting that impede his solid performance in this track, which I think is one of his growing scene’s most mature and accomplished compositions to date.

It’s always a good thing when an artist works the production quality of a release into the aesthetics of the content being recorded, and in “Weekend” everything from the equalization of the vocal to the style of mix lends some beautiful bizarreness to the music we might not have experienced without the extra dash of zany experimentalism. You can’t play by the rules when you’re trying to rewrite history the way this artist is, and from where I sit this single only further pushes ADVM’s artistic profile away from the mundanity of his competitors and towards fresh, undiscovered realms in alternative music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZqxpiqilBU

There’s nothing quiet about this beat, and yet the drums aren’t particularly monstrous compared to the vocal at all. Honestly, the percussion could have been a lot louder without intruding on the melodic elements in this song, but I suppose if ADVM was trying to establish a thoroughly minimalistic foundation with the groove, it would make sense to give it as few fireworks as possible. Regardless of the technicalities, his concept results in a fun, club-worthy single in “Weekend” that doesn’t feel completely confined to being a dancefloor soundtrack (which is a lot harder than it might sound). 

This song features an interesting balance of hard and soft instrumental faceting, but the additional detail here is undeniably necessary to maintain a depth in the narrative we wouldn’t be exposed to in a simple spoken word performance. Unlike a lot of his contemporaries based inside of the Canadian scene, ADVM the rapper isn’t afraid to be ADVM the pop musician when it benefits the emotional substance of what he’s trying to communicate with the audience, and while this used to be standard among music’s top shelf, it’s unfortunately become so rare a feature that he sounds exceptional in this instance for wearing it so well. 

The bottom line here is that if you’re not already listening to ADVM and following his rise to stardom, you need to be – and “Weekend” is the perfect gateway to his catalog. I hope the rest of any future album tracklist is as fierce as this leadoff number is, and having chosen this as the first teaser of the hot summer ahead, I think it’s going to be a rather engrossing affair when it does become available worldwide. ADVM is a captivating player, and the full force of his abilities is on display in this song. 

Penelope Goss