House of Balloons
| House of Balloons | ||||
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| Mixtape by The Weeknd | ||||
| Released | March 21, 2011 | |||
| Genre | Alternative R&B | |||
| Length | 49:34 | |||
| Label | XO | |||
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| The Weeknd chronology | ||||
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| Singles from House of Balloons | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 87/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| The A.V. Club | B+ |
| The Boston Phoenix | |
| Consequence of Sound | B |
| Drowned in Sound | 8/10 |
| Now | 4/5 |
| Pitchfork | 8.5/10 |
| PopMatters | 9/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Sputnikmusic | 4/5 |
House of Balloons is the debut mixtape by Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd. It was released as a free download on March 21, 2011, by XO. The mixtape was also released on his official website. Its music incorporates electronic and urban genres, including R&B and soul, along with trip hop, indie rock and dream pop tones. The contributions to the mixtape's production came from Canadian record producers such as Doc McKinney, Zodiac and Illangelo, among others.
The album's eclectic music uses samples of songs by Beach House and Aaliyah's 2001 song "Rock the Boat". The title track heavily samples Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1980 single "Happy House". The track "The Knowing" samples "Cherry-Coloured Funk" by Cocteau Twins. Joe Colly of Pitchfork Media observes "weird, morning-after tales of lust, hurt, and over-indulgence" complemented by "lush, downcast music" on the album, and compares its "specific nocturnal quality" to that of The xx's 2009 self-titled debut. Pitchfork Media's Eric Grandy writes that the title track has The Weeknd "emoting in an androgynous falsetto one minute, muttering unbelievable curses the next". Paul Lewster of The Guardian views that, although more than half of the mixtape features samples, only the title track makes it "evident".
The song "High for This" was featured in the promo for the final season of the HBO show Entourage in July 2011. On November 24, 2011, The Weeknd’s first official music video, for his song "The Knowing," hit the Internet on his Vimeo page. The song was first released on House of Balloons and the video was directed by French filmmaker Mikael Colombu, who has also worked with singer Cee Lo Green. The nearly eight-minute clip is described by authors Carrie Battan and Amy Phillips of Pitchfork as, “a time traveling, Afrofuturist, science fiction battle of the sexes that demands to be watched in HD.”
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