2011 song by the Weeknd
"House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls" is a song by the Canadian singer the Weeknd, and serves as the third track from his debut mixtape, House of Balloons (2011). It was written by the Weeknd alongside producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo.[3] The track was released with the rest of House of Balloons on March 21, 2011, through XO. The song was later remastered and commercially released on the Weeknd's first compilation album, Trilogy (2012), and was included on the deluxe edition of his second compilation album, The Highlights (2024).
Background and composition
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Weeknd said that the inspiration for the first part and the mixtape's title came from a house located in Parkdale, Toronto, stating that him and his friends would throw parties and have balloons to make it more "celebratory".[4]
The song's producer, Doc McKinney, stated that two different demos of the track were made. The first demo is only "Glass Table Girls", which features a completely different instrumental and vocal take, while the second demo is a 25 minute version of the existing song, with multiple freestyle verses.[5][a]
The song is a two-part track, which are two songs combined together into one track. In the first part, "House of Balloons", the Weeknd sings about a party he is at in his "Happy House".[7] The song is built around a sample of "Happy House" by the British band Siouxsie and the Banshees.[7][8] McKinney stated that he initially conceived the beat for the song in 2008, intending it for Santigold before he played it to the Weeknd.[7] The song has the Weeknd sing about a party,[8] unconvincingly telling the listener that it is "happy here, in a happy house".[7] While ranking the Weeknd's best beat switches, Billboard's Bianca Gracie wrote about the first part's overall sound: "[a] rattling bassline, sharp synths, and [his falsetto]" mimicks the high of "whatever narcotic."[9]
Roughly three and a half minutes into the track, the track's instrumental switches to its second song, "Glass Table Girls",[9] with the sample from "Happy House" replaced by a much darker beat, described by Billboard as "brute percussion and low-end churn". McKinney noted he produced the beat and the transition due to the Weeknd's desire to rap.[7] The song's refrain is a reference to a glass table made out of a Boeing 707 wheel, commonly used to snort cocaine on. The verse features the Weeknd mixing rapping and low-pitch singing about doing coke and about sleeping with another person's girlfriend. Impact describes the Weeknd as being "completely gone" at the end.[7][10]
Critical reception
In a review of the first half of the song, Pitchfork noted how while the song may sound like a "fluffy counterpart" to "What You Need", the song has a similar level of sadness to it.[11] Pitchfork later placed it on its list of top 100 songs of 2011 at #57, with Eric Grandy saying it was "Tesfaye at his best, emoting in a androgynous falsetto one minute, muttering unbelievable curses the next."[8] Billboard named it a "song that defined the 2010's" calling the song "intoxicating and menacing", stating it is "the sound of a party degrading in real time", writing that the journey the Weeknd has in the song, from "kinda creepy but mostly chill" to "a degenerate nightmare [of a gathering of merrymakers]" only works as it does because the two songs are in one track, rather than being separated.[7] Rolling Stone declared "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls" as the Weeknd's 9th best track, noting its second half as "one of the most viscerally affecting entries in the Weeknd's whole catalog, as icy and thunderous as an avalanche."[2] Daria Patarek of Impact called the track "another incredible entry in the Weeknd's debut mixtape 'House of Balloons', which explores his rise to fame, and consequently his entry into the drug-ridden, sex-filled and money-obsessed music world."[10] Rolling Stone placed the first part of the song at #488 on its 2021 and 2024 edition of the 500 best songs of all time.[12]
Complex declared "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls" as the best song released under the XO record label, stating it defined the sound of the Weeknd's "trailblazing, totally singular debut mixtape House of Balloons," further writing that the song's sound "would swiftly dominate the Weeknd’s native Toronto and far beyond," and that it would influence an entire decade of "moody hip-hop and melancholic R&B." Complex further wrote that the song's production was a stand out, writing that it dug into a "bleak but beautiful vibe" which soon spread around.[13]
Live performances
"House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls" was performed at his first ever show at the Mod Club on July 24, 2011,[14] and was performed at the same location again for Vevo Presents: The Weeknd @ Mod Club in 2015.[15][16]
The track has been performed during all of the Weeknd's tours. Occasionally, one part of the track is performed without its other part. "Glass Table Girls" was performed by itself during the Weeknd's Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour in 2017,[17] while "House of Balloons" was performed by itself for his After Hours til Dawn Tour in 2023.[18]
A small portion of "House of Balloons" was performed during the Weeknd's Super Bowl LV halftime show on February 7, 2021.[19]
Personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.[b]
Samples
