Ok, I lied - this release is probably bigger than Kanye's. Drake's Views has been teased for an incredible amount of time, but after almost two years of waiting it's finally here. Shortened from Views From The 6 to Views at the last minute (another likeness to Mr. West's recent behaviour), the 6 God's follow up to If You're Reading This, It's Too Late is softer, mellower, and altogether more like a follow up to his 2011 Take Care.
If You're Reading This was a bare-bones, subtle introduction to a side of Drake that we'd never seen before; Vicious, cut-throat, and hungry. A drastic, unexpected departure from the Drake we'd been used to - none of the 2009 So Far Gone or 2010 Thank Me Later was present, and you have to consider the fact that Reading This dropped out of nowhere last February. A surprise attack, if you will. After that, it got the ball rolling for one of the most successful years Drake's career ever had - Reading This was the first 2015 release to go platinum, the career of Meek Mill was destroyed beyond repair, and Hotline Bling got as close to the number one spot as you can get. His mixtape didn't review that badly, either. So with all this in mind, what confuses me is why Drake decided to back-track half a decade artistically. He basically ran the rap game last year - and I'm not saying he had the best album of 2015, hell no - so it makes no sense to ditch a winning formula and attempt to re-hash an old one. Because that's what Views sounds like. It sounds like post-Reading This Drake trying to re-create Take Care, but with half the artistic vision and effort. Post-Reading This Drake, in my opinion, doesn't sing or rap the same way 2011 Drake does. Back then, his voice was less bold, and more childish and eager. That's not an insult - I loved Thank Me Later, and dig Take Care as well. The singing then was puppyish and excited; you could hear Drake's disbelief he'd made it, and was trying his damned best to adjust to the musician he'd become. But on Views, its forced. Drake doesn't sound like this anymore. Luckily, his longtime production partner Noah "40" Shebib doesn't seem to have slacked as much, and the beats on this album are what keep it afloat for me. The best beats include 'Weston Road Flows', 'Redemption', 'Pop Style' and 'Views'. All of these songs have great synth leads, pulling from Drake's R&B days to make warm, enveloping instrumentals. Drake himself isn't bad on any of these tracks either, but another major problem he faces on the rest of the album is bad writing. There was no trash like "Yeah, how's that for real? / You toyin' with it like Happy Meal" on any of his other albums, but there is on Views. What else is there? "It's far fetched like I threw that shit 100 metres." Yikes. Think about what we got last year. "Thinkin' they lions and tigers and bears, I go huntin' / Put heads on my fire place, oh my". "I pull the knife out my back and cut they throat with it, momma / I'm Game of Thrones with it, momma". Where has that hunger gone? Once again, 40 provided on the beat side, so all is not lost. The only beats that I dislike on the albums are the minimalistic ones, such as 'Hype' and 'Grammys'. (Also, that Future feature is inexcusable. He can't even start a verse without referencing Xanax. And the hook is ear-grating. Am I the only one worried that this guy is gonna keep showing up to ruin every album he's on this year?) Those types of instrumentals fit well on Reading This because they were imaginative, and Drake's charisma oozed so confidently that he stole the show completely, but here they fall victim to the shoddy wordplay Drake has found himself using. PARTYNEXTDOOR has a guest feature on "With You" and on paper I shouldn't like this track, but it's undeniably catchy and sticks in my head indefinitely. Rihanna duets with Drake on 'Too Good' and it's one of the few relationship crooners on Views that stands out from the rest, quality-wise. It's a good song, reminiscent of early Drake in a good way, rather than a bad one. When the album turns dancehall, starting on track 11 'Controlla', the features of Beenie Man and Wizkid both do decent jobs at keeping the musical shift interesting. If you can deal with "I get green like Earth day"-level bars, or if you can at least let them breeze over the top of your head, you'll have no problem enjoying Views. I may have a lot of criticism for Views, but I still managed to like it, a little bit. I've mostly got 40 to thank in that regard, cause Aubrey didn't do so well this time. It's not like every single line on Views was garbage - "Weston Road Flows, I did this shit for my nigga Renny / Back when we couldn't buy pizza cause we were down to pennies" is one of my favourite lines - but music isn't something you can take out of context. Last year, Drake warned us; "Do not speak to me like I'm that Drake from four years ago, I'm at a higher place." This year, he sounds like Drake from five years ago. Once the tiger has bared it's claws for the first time, your perspective of it changes forever. 6.5/10 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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