Watching the music video for 'Earned It', written for the film Fifty Shades of Grey, the first thing to catch my eye wasn’t actually the burlesque performers.

Abel Tesfaye – stage name The Weeknd – was wearing a suit.

He was wearing a suit, and delivering a fluttery waltz. Not at all what I had expected from the now explosively successful R&B artist, who first hooked fans with a series of dark and ethereal mixtapes in 2011. Beauty Behind The Madness, on which 'Earned It' now features, boasts collaborations with hit producers Max Martin and Kanye West and appearances from Labrinth and Ed Sheeran. Abel, I thought, was selling out.

It is rare for R&B to be described as gothic, rarer still for something gothic to be classified as chillout music. This is the niche Tesfaye had found, though. He was able to sing angelically, but about a hedonistic, seedy underworld. It was new, it was distinctive, but it was just outside the realms of pop. Perhaps what he needed more than anything was just something a little catchier.

'Can’t Feel My Face', a true summer hit with a disco groove, is The Weeknd with a pop makeover courtesy of Max Martin. Despite the comparison its lyrics draw between love and cocaine, it is one of Tesfaye’s few songs which are family-friendly enough to be played in the car on the school run without raising eyebrows. He’s gone commercial, and it seems to have worked. He is joined by a stellar cast of guests - on 'Prisoner' he finds a partner in crime in fellow crooner Lana Del Rey, and he and Labrinth have cooked up 'Losers' together. Less believable, admittedly, is his casting of Ed Sheeran in 'Dark Times' as a womaniser slumped at a bar till the early hours of the mornings (“you should have seen the other guy” – really, Ed?).

Meanwhile 'Tell Your Friends' is both a toast to fast living and an insight into Tesfaye’s stretch of homelessness in Toronto. From this song alone there is a definite sense that The Weeknd is being more reflective in this album, contemplating past failures, considering what needs to stay the same and what needs to change.

Listening to the album, it quickly becomes obvious that he hasn’t sanitised his lyrics or abandoned that unique mood for the sake of commercial appeal. Take 'Often': with its brooding sex appeal, slow thumping beat, and warped, trippy vocals, it feels like the hit song Abel was searching for when recording 2013’s Kiss Land. The same electric shiver can be found in 'The Hills', in which Abel’s slurry vocals creep along ominously before launching into a harsh, anguished chorus with a heavy synthetic bassline. Tracks like these that make one thing certain: The Weeknd can pack a punch.   

It is true that there is very little thematic range on the album. Abel has long cast himself as a self-medicating bad boy who’s sexually insatiable and too emotionally damaged to sustain a functioning relationship. This seems to be the way he wants to keep things. 'Acquainted' is hypnotic and seductive, and builds up to an anticlimactic “I’m so glad we’re acquainted”, while his deceptively soothing 'Shameless' teases the listener with the promise of a love song before it becomes obvious that “I’ll always be there for you” is meant in reference to booty calls and not emotional support.

But if you’re a fan of The Weeknd, his depraved persona is part of his appeal. That’s partly why the final song, 'Angel', is such a let-down; Abel seems to be telling us at the last minute ‘Hey, I’m a nice guy really’. Downright soppy, it seems reminiscent of a Meatloaf ballad with its tedious pace and cheesy choral arrangements. It’s odd, though, that a retro beat proves a mistake for The Weeknd in this instance, as '80s groove is something he usually masters – just one listen to the disco funk of 'In The Night' and you’ll understand why he is being called the new Michael Jackson.

The album marks The Weeknd’s fully-fledged arrival onto the pop scene. What is clear, however, is that he has not expanded to a larger audience at the cost of losing his own original sound. His music remains simultaneously a celebration of excess and a lament to emotional damage, but has been energised by an infusion of pop power. Undeniably, his album is one of the most striking of the year.