Kavinsky‘s breakout came when his 2010 song “Nightcall” made it into opening credits of Ryan Gosling’s Drive, so it’s only natural the French producer’s ’80s-coated, synth-riffing brand of house would benefit from putting someone else out in front. The man known to his government as Vincent Borgeley has been crafing pulse-quickening accompaniment for future Miami Vice speedboat chase scenes since several years ago, when Parisian labels like Kitsuné were putting out compilations full off the stuff, but this year’s Outrun is a SPIN Essential album. On the LP, we wrote that “Odd Look” “cruises sleekly, its synth riffs gleaming and monolithic.” This remix (via SoulCulture) casts the Weeknd in the dark-hunk Gosling role, and the Toronto singer is more focused than we’ve heard him lately on the sprawling “Kiss Land” and Portishead-echoing “Belong to the World.” In his breathy falsetto, Abel Tesfaye addresses a romantic interest whose “hesitation speaks to me more than a million words per minute.” He’s bitter, but his longing is obvious — an emotional context that’s a neat fit for Kavinsky’s shadowy bombast.
//www.youtube.com/embed/OSW2zeM3yLU
