Not wanting to full-on steal the title from Berlin’s signature 80s classic, The Weeknd’s latest single is called “Take My Breath” instead of “Take My Breath Away,” even if these are the words spoken in the chorus. Picking up where the serial killer vibes and general love of the sexual freaky deaky left off on After Hours, The Weeknd offers a less bloody version of the “In Your Eyes” (another 80s song title) video, this particular one being directed by Cliqua.
Commencing with a sunset that looks pulled straight out of the Jonas Åkerlund-directed “Ray of Light” video, The Weeknd ambles toward the direction of the silhouetted cityscape, eventually making his way through a tunnel so that he can get to the club where he’ll experience the titillating form of foreplay he’s seeking.
Working with the producer that won’t ever seem to quit, Max Martin, “Take My Breath” is another synth-drenched number that speaks to The Weeknd’s current love of 80s-inspired sounds and aesthetics. Including, apparently, the 1986 Lynch classic, Blue Velvet. A film in which Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth not only famously screams such memorable lines as “Baby wants to fuck!” but also tools around town with an oxygen mask that he can readily draw from, huffing the dubious stimulant whenever he feels the urge to “take his breath,” as The Weeknd might call it.
As for The Weeknd, he sports a similar oxygen mask designed to inhale nitrous oxide and cut off breath supply as a means to “feel alive.” Since that’s, tragically, what we’ve come to in this flatlined society of banality and waiting out the apocalypse.
In collaboration with Oscar Holter and “Abel Tesfaye” himself, Martin’s production, which mirrors the styles presented on the other recent hits he created for The Weeknd, “Blinding Lights,” “In Your Eyes” and “Save Your Tears,” is key to establishing the dramatic tone of lyrics like, “I know temptation is the devil in disguise/You risk it all to feel alive, oh yeah.” This applies, obviously, to The Weeknd engaging in a little “breath play” with a woman who catches his eye on the dance floor (again, these scenes echo a less bloody version of the “In Your Eyes” video, wherein the object of The Weeknd’s affection dances around with his decapitated head).
Scenes of The Weeknd and his “dame” for the night finding “fun” new ways to cut off each other’s oxygen supply seem like they were pulled straight from one of Booth’s wet dreams (or maybe Lynch’s). Even the primary line from the chorus, “Baby says take my breath—away!” emulates the speech pattern of Booth. Then, of course, there is the pandemic timeliness of such a song, as we’re all out here having our breath taken away on the daily by wearing masks that, indeed, minimize airflow (a trope that was already trending in last year’s Tenet).
But more than anything, the song is a nod to wanting to achieve a high that appears to, rather than allow you to “feel something,” make you experience a blissful void…sort of like the “pure being” gambit in I Heart Huckabees. In any case, it’s likely that Dorothy Valens would still want nothing to do with this man either.
