The Weeknd: “Secrets”: Lies, Eyes and ‘80s Samples

To anyone who remembers the ‘80s, the latest from The Weeknd, entitled “Secrets,” is a trip down memory lane. Lyrics in its chorus are pulled from The Romantics’ 1983 hit, “Talking in Your Sleep”; the transition from chorus to verse includes a direct pickup from Tears for Fears’ 1983 song, “Pale Shelter,” more specifically Curt Smith’s high-vocal climb of the lyric, “completely in command.”

The video, filmed in part at the Toronto Reference Library, sets a cold, barren tone to match the lyrical content that tells of a relationship full of lies, revealed “every time you close your eyes.” Ominous male figures in capes, which the female lead later runs away from, are perhaps indicative of her past catching up to her. Low-angle camera shots of these suitors, peering over balconies are reminiscent, in part, of the masquerade-ball scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. Use of deep red and the blossoming white bed that creates various geometric shapes also evoke other Kubrickian imagery.