Beauty Behind the Madness by The Weeknd

Beauty Behind the Madness, the Weeknd's second studio album, arrived on August 28, 2015, through XO and Republic, and it's the moment Abel Tesfaye dragged his shadowy alternative R&B into the bright lights of pop without scrubbing off the grime. The credits read like a summit: Max Martin, Kanye West, Stephan Moccio and Ali Payami among the producers, with Labrinth, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey stopping by.

"Can't Feel My Face" is bouncing pop sugar with something darker fizzing underneath, while "The Hills" is all menace and throb; both went to number one on the Hot 100. "Earned It", the slow-burning ballad from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, picked up an Oscar nomination. The album became his first US number one, moving 412,000 units in its opening week, and won the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.