The rumours of an imminent release started during the week when the Canadian singer posted a cryptic screenshot of a text conversation to someone named ‘La Mar’ on his instagram. His text to the mystery La Mar read, “should we drop Friday? I’m indifferent to be honest.”

A post shared by The Weeknd (@theweeknd) on Mar 27, 2018 at 4:21pm PDT

An eagle eyed fan also spotted an advertisement for the new album, whose title, album cover and release date had not been released yet, on a billboard in shoreditch.

.@theweeknd ‘My Dear Melancholy’. pic.twitter.com/2dbNV35xBJ

— Grant Brydon (@GrantBrydon) 29 March 2018

‘My Dear Melancholy’ was released without fanfare on Spotify and iTunes at midnight in the US.

The release comes in the wake of two No. 1 albums – Beauty behind the Madness in 2015 and Starboy in 2016.

Give it a listen below