Earlier this week, the artist born Abel Tesfaye posted a photo of himself with a bloodied face. He was shooting a video for "The Hills".

The moody, almost sinister sounding track was posted on iTunes on Wednesday without forewarning, but that's now routine strategy in the dope guerrilla marketing handbook.

The accompanying Grant Singer-directed video, shot entirely in half light, is ambiguous but suggests our protagonist has been involved in a car accident that narrowly kills his two female passengers. The storyline — if it can be called that — ends with Tesfaye walking into a palatial bedroom in someone's modestly nondescript mansion where a bevy of women confronts him. We are left hanging, and the only clues to this tragi-rap's resolution are to be found in the strands of lyrics that in part appear below. Of course, there's always the chance for a sequel....

"I only love you when you touch me, not feel me
When I'm fucked up, that's the real me
When I'm fucked up, that's the real me, yeah
I only fuck you when it's half-past, five
The only time that I can call you mine"