Timbaland compares The Weeknd’s Dawn FM album to Michael Jackson’s Thriller

Since its surprise release on 7 January, Dawn FM - the new album from The Weeknd - has received pretty much universal acclaim.

One of those to sing its praises was none other than super-producer Timbaland; in fact, he’s even gone so far as to compare it to the biggest-selling album of all time - Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Commenting on social media while listening to the new record, Timbaland said: "This album’s different, yo. This shit right here, this on some Thriller shit. Trust me when I tell you. And the way he dropped this shit yo… congrats. This shit is amazing."

Timbaland compares The Weekend’s new album “Dawn FM” to “Thriller” by Michael Jackson pic.twitter.com/SWzUchAxHSJanuary 7, 2022

Dawn FM does have a Thriller connection, of course - MJ producer Quincy Jones delivers a spoken-word performance on A Tale By Quincy. Timbaland himself has a link with the King Of Pop, too - he was part of the production team on Xscape, the posthumous Jackson album that was released in 2014.

Much of the synth-pop flavoured Dawn FM was co-produced by experimental electronic artist Oneohtrix Point Never, while other collaborators on the record include Max Martin, Swedish House Mafia, Tyler, The Creator, Calvin Harris and Jim Carrey.

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.