Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind is NOT GOOD

Lyrics

(sigh) Yeah, this new Drake album... is NOT GOOD. (explosion animation and sound effect) Yes, we have a brand new surprise album from Drake, which I didn't expect Drake to come back with a new release so quickly after last year's CLB, since that seemed like such a big album roll out for Drizzy, and I can't imagine too much has been happening with him drama-wise since then and now that would inspire any grand displays of emotions or diary-like verses spit over cinematic soul chops, but I suppose this new record isn't so much about Drake as much as it's about a shift in sound. Which in theory is grеat, because I think Drake has been in sеvere need of a switch up since Views, as CLB saw him at so many weirdly awkward emotional lows and commercial highs that were so preposterous they were pretty much parody. But Honestly, Nevermind does present Drake in a new light, over a series of beats inspired by house and dance music. There are a lot of quarter note kicks on this record, pianos and keys that skip across the grooves, a few builds and drops, but all delivered in this vaguely moody in-your-feels vibe that we expect pretty much any Drake record to fit into. This is not the sound of like some wild EDM festival or anything like that, really more of a sad solo dance party with you DJing for yourself off your laptop speakers. Like, the mix and vocals on "Flight's Booked" for example are so bricked out and distorted I can't imagine them sounding good on anything else. I get that nobody wants to hear me whine about the mixes on a Drake song, especially since a good deal of the time they are bearable, but I just have to wonder what is the use in being the biggest rap artist on the planet, with access to the best producers and sound engineers that money can buy, if your stuff is still going to have the sound quality of a Soundcloud dance music producer who's put together his first remix. And look, doing better has been a consistent problem for Drake these days because there's really been a growing sense of complacency in his records as he handed us the mostly passionless Views, the playlisted mess that he titled More Life, the bloated Scorpion... And sure, each of these records had their highlights, but for the most part they did kinda feel like Drake going through the motions. And I hoped that wouldn't be the case on a record where he is switching up his sound so boldly. And while in some ways Honestly, Nevermind is different, in so many other ways it's pretty much exactly the same. Like, I think the dance beats on this project have only given Drake more of an excuse to disconnect. Disconnect emotionally, disconnect from the need to give us anything of substance lyrically, disconnect from songwriting... Like, this record is pretty much low on lyrical details, which I get because the vibe is less about what Drake is saying and more about the melody lines that his voice is hitting as he's just kinda riffing over these instrumentals. But I feel like the product didn't need to be this one-dimensional. On songs such as "Falling Back" and "Texts Go Green" it's pretty obvious Drake couldn't have been bothered to structure these tracks in any way, he's just very limply and weakly improvising over them. And of course across these tracks Drake doesn't show the emotional and vocal range to make these four, five minute run times worth the journey, with his awkward falsettos and kinda numb mid-range. So yeah, there are cuts on this thing that feel very background, very forgettable, very wallpaper, but there are others that are downright preposterous, like the song "Currents" with the squeaky bed sample. Yeah, there's like the sound of a squeaky chair, or what I assume bed again, playing throughout the entire beat. (imitates the squeaky sound) Sounds absolutely goofy, absolutely trash, and the song "Calling My Name", is-is it even a song? It's kinda like a decent intro building things up, then a random interruption and then after that what sounds like could have been a decent piece of a longer dance cut. Granted, that final part of the song is about how a pussy is calling Drake's name. (laughs) You gotta be doing some crazy shit for the pussy to go "Aubreyyy!" "Tie That Binds" is a failed attempt at taking things in a Latin direction with what sounds like a first-year guitarist's interpretation of what flamenco guitar is. Which again, you're Drake, you could literally get anyone to play this part and yet what we have on the record is this. "Liability" is just a bad, unfinished Drake song played in slow motion for four minutes. Like, let me be clear here and say that I have no issues with Drake switching up styles on this record. It's fine, it's cool, it could have panned out into a great LP, but only if he would actually try! If only he would show some kind of effort! If only he would put something else on these songs other than the bare minimum to get by! Now look, across the LP there are a few flashes in the pan: the song "Sticky", the dance beat actually varies along the progression of the song, the grooves are tight, Drake brings some very catchy and clean flows and verses with a lot of clever bars as well, I love the one where he talks about somebody says he's changed but in fact he millions, but yeah it's just a really good hip-hop dance fusion. And then there's "Jimmy Cooks" with 21 Savage on the closer which is a very smooth piece of southern hip-hop, a lot of sweet classic horn samples, a very dark and heavy beat switch, Drake on the front end holds his own, 21 Savage sounds great in the second half. But my compliments for this record kinda start and end there. Yeah, that-that's it, that's really it. The only other tracks on this thing I kinda fuck with are mostly because of, uh, the beat and production carrying, like on "Massive" or "A Keeper", but neither of these instrumentals would I go out of my way to listen to were they not on a Drake record. Many other beats on this thing sound like Drake had a mate on Fiverr. Yeah, that'-that's sorta all I have to say about this record, there's-ther's really not a whole lot to it. I-I really think this is Drake's lowest point yet in terms of level of effort. He really put almost nothing into this record. It's so one note, badly produced, weakly sung, horrendously underwritten and yeah, a lot of the shit people have been saying about it online, about just like- you know, being the kind of music that plays over the loudspeaker at H&M, uh, for the most part, that's-that's really accurate, yeah. Yeah, this Drake record is- is not- is NOT GOOD. (explosion animation and sound effect)