The Weeknd is turning down the heat. Just days after releasing his new electro pop single, “Dancing in the Flames,” the singer (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye), switched things up and stripped things down on an unplugged version of the song.
The acoustic take on the first single from Tesfaye’s upcoming studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, was accompanied by a sedate official video in which the singer croons the song over subtle acoustic guitar while seated in a darkened studio and wearing a hooded robe covered with golden patterns.
“I can’t wait to see your face/ Crash when we’re switchin’ lanes/ My love’s beyond the pain/ But if I miss the brake/ We’re dancin’ in the flames,” Tesfaye croons over strummed guitars on the alt version of the song that strips away the insistent beat and bubbling new wave keyboards of the original.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is the third and final installment in Tesfaye’s After Hours and Dawn FM trilogy. The track got a premiere during the singer’s recent one-night-only show at Estádio MorumBIS in São Paulo, Brazil on Sept. 7, where he wore the same gold-flecked robe as he does in the unplugged “Flames” video. Though the Hurry Up Tomorrow track list has not yet been revealed, based on what was teased at the show in Brazil, a few of the presumed titles of other new songs he debuted at the gig were “Run Away” and “In Heaven.”
A release date for Hurry Up Tomorrow has not yet been officially announced.
Listen to the acoustic version of “Dancing in the Flames” below.