“Views already a classic,” Drake raps on his new album Views, and he sounds quite convinced. The record wraps itself in the frigid instrumental casing of 2011’s Take Care, commonly considered to be the rapper’s closest thing to a hip-hop classic, while layering on the solipsism extra thick to create a final product that is undoubtedly, unilaterally Drake.
Because for all the heights Drake has reached, for all the accolades he’s accomplished, for all the numbers he’s racked up, he’s missing something. He doesn’t have a classic. You could argue for Take Care, sure, but that album was a fine steak with far too much gristle. 2013’s Nothing Was The Same had its fair share of flaws. Last February’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, as great as it was, didn’t really push any boundaries or quite exemplify Drake’s greatest strengths.
For months and months, we’ve heard about the next Drake album, previously named Views from the 6, and how it was to be Drake’s magnum opus. After If You’re Reading This satiated appetites for a while, the hunger was reignited with a string of fierce guest appearances last summer, followed by a triumphant, if undemanding, win over Meek Mill in the year’s most lukewarm beef. What a Time to Be Alive reminded us that Drake could play well with others, and “Hotline Bling” displayed not only his unabashed tendency to exist as a walking meme but his potential to exist as a full-blown pop star.
Through all of this, the specter of Views loomed large. At some point, Drake would need to take all of this momentum, and convert it into the killer album he had promised. For huge fans like myself (full disclosure: Drake is my favorite rapper), it was unclear what would come. Would he return to his simpler emotional ways? Would there be a heavy trap influence? With summer approaching, would there be tracks like “Hotline Bling” that simply exuded warmth?
Because for all the heights Drake has reached, for all the accolades he’s accomplished, for all the numbers he’s racked up, he’s missing something. He doesn’t have a classic. You could argue for Take Care, sure, but that album was a fine steak with far too much gristle. 2013’s Nothing Was The Same had its fair share of flaws. Last February’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, as great as it was, didn’t really push any boundaries or quite exemplify Drake’s greatest strengths.
For months and months, we’ve heard about the next Drake album, previously named Views from the 6, and how it was to be Drake’s magnum opus. After If You’re Reading This satiated appetites for a while, the hunger was reignited with a string of fierce guest appearances last summer, followed by a triumphant, if undemanding, win over Meek Mill in the year’s most lukewarm beef. What a Time to Be Alive reminded us that Drake could play well with others, and “Hotline Bling” displayed not only his unabashed tendency to exist as a walking meme but his potential to exist as a full-blown pop star.
Through all of this, the specter of Views loomed large. At some point, Drake would need to take all of this momentum, and convert it into the killer album he had promised. For huge fans like myself (full disclosure: Drake is my favorite rapper), it was unclear what would come. Would he return to his simpler emotional ways? Would there be a heavy trap influence? With summer approaching, would there be tracks like “Hotline Bling” that simply exuded warmth?
As it turns out, singles such as “Summer Sixteen” and “One Dance” threw off us the scent. While Views does take cues from Drake’s more recent musical output, it feels very much like Take Care did, hitting the same emotional beats while peppering in brief moments of spectacular arrogance. The drums and synthesizers are chilly, and there are many, many fingers pointed at the women in Drake’s life. It’s Toronto R&B through and through, and although Drake delivers a couple of strong rapping moments, he spends far more time singing.
Views is essentially a reboot of Take Care, taking that record’s introspective, sympathetic lead character and placing him into a universe where he’s the undisputed king. “I think I killed everybody in the game last year” was Drake’s first line on Take Care, and it was laughable at the time. Copied and pasted here, it would be a legitimate and defensible boast.
“The most successful rapper 35 and under,” he raps here on Views, on “Weston Road Flows.” My personal bias aside, that’s a cold hard fact. Drake is self-aware as ever about his incredible fame, observing on the title track that his “life is on display like Truman.”
And with the world watching, Drake gives us an album that mostly thumbs its nose at pop appeal. Of course, “Controlla” and “One Dance” are here, and they will be playing from various speakers all summer long. But outside of those tracks, there are plenty of legitimately challenging instrumentals, and an overall lack of earworm hooks.
Let’s start with the instrumentals. Drake’s longtime friend and collaborator Noah “40” Shebib returns to a prominent role behind the boards as executive producer, picking up production credits on 13 of the 19 tracks here. His influence is felt quite clearly, in the eerie, vibrating synths and harsh drum knocks that are all over the album. 40’s strongest moment comes on “Weston Road Flows,” where he flips a Mary J. Blige sample into an exquisite backdrop for one of Drake’s favored stream-of-consciousness brain spills.
Views is essentially a reboot of Take Care, taking that record’s introspective, sympathetic lead character and placing him into a universe where he’s the undisputed king. “I think I killed everybody in the game last year” was Drake’s first line on Take Care, and it was laughable at the time. Copied and pasted here, it would be a legitimate and defensible boast.
“The most successful rapper 35 and under,” he raps here on Views, on “Weston Road Flows.” My personal bias aside, that’s a cold hard fact. Drake is self-aware as ever about his incredible fame, observing on the title track that his “life is on display like Truman.”
And with the world watching, Drake gives us an album that mostly thumbs its nose at pop appeal. Of course, “Controlla” and “One Dance” are here, and they will be playing from various speakers all summer long. But outside of those tracks, there are plenty of legitimately challenging instrumentals, and an overall lack of earworm hooks.
Let’s start with the instrumentals. Drake’s longtime friend and collaborator Noah “40” Shebib returns to a prominent role behind the boards as executive producer, picking up production credits on 13 of the 19 tracks here. His influence is felt quite clearly, in the eerie, vibrating synths and harsh drum knocks that are all over the album. 40’s strongest moment comes on “Weston Road Flows,” where he flips a Mary J. Blige sample into an exquisite backdrop for one of Drake’s favored stream-of-consciousness brain spills.
Other producers make similarly great contributions. Maneesh delivers on “Keep the Family Close,” implementing grand, Kanye West-styled drums to great effect atop a host of soothing sounds. Jordan Ullman of R&B duo Majid Jordan creates a wonderful symphony of alternating drum kicks on “Feel No Ways,” while Drake comes through with one of his most inspired vocal performances. It’s one of Views’ highest peaks.
“Feel No Ways” demonstrates a forward-thinking and melodic approach to songwriting that appears occasionally here, but should be far more frequent. We know that Drake is a willing and able hook creator, so why are some of the vocal melodies so flat? On tracks like “Keep the Family Close,” he meanders in circles outside of the structured, effective hook. On tracks like “Fire & Desire,” it’s like he’s not trying at all.
Take Care suffered from the same problem. This new record is so long, so insular, that voids in creativity like these stick out like sore thumbs. Drake gets so lost in his own head, so entranced by his own personal narrative, that he’s left resting on the same, tired laurels when I’d love to hear him striking out in new directions.
The guests that appear here don’t have much to offer either. OVO signees PARTYNEXTDOOR and dvsn float in and out of the album’s middle stretch without leaving much of an impact, while What a Time collaborator Future stops by on “Grammys” to deliver what is easily one of the worst verses of his entire career. Rihanna is a bright spot, lending “Too Good” a feminine assist that makes it a fine counterpart to her own “Work.”
“Too Good” helps to break up the monotony of Drake’s frequently sleepy flow, which runs throughout Views. He simply doesn’t rap here with the same charisma and entrancing energy that he displayed on If You’re Reading This, and this can become tiring as the album goes on and on. It doesn’t help that he brings a few cringe-worthy bars that we all thought he had left back in 2010. “You toyin’ with it like Happy Meal,” really?
“Feel No Ways” demonstrates a forward-thinking and melodic approach to songwriting that appears occasionally here, but should be far more frequent. We know that Drake is a willing and able hook creator, so why are some of the vocal melodies so flat? On tracks like “Keep the Family Close,” he meanders in circles outside of the structured, effective hook. On tracks like “Fire & Desire,” it’s like he’s not trying at all.
Take Care suffered from the same problem. This new record is so long, so insular, that voids in creativity like these stick out like sore thumbs. Drake gets so lost in his own head, so entranced by his own personal narrative, that he’s left resting on the same, tired laurels when I’d love to hear him striking out in new directions.
The guests that appear here don’t have much to offer either. OVO signees PARTYNEXTDOOR and dvsn float in and out of the album’s middle stretch without leaving much of an impact, while What a Time collaborator Future stops by on “Grammys” to deliver what is easily one of the worst verses of his entire career. Rihanna is a bright spot, lending “Too Good” a feminine assist that makes it a fine counterpart to her own “Work.”
“Too Good” helps to break up the monotony of Drake’s frequently sleepy flow, which runs throughout Views. He simply doesn’t rap here with the same charisma and entrancing energy that he displayed on If You’re Reading This, and this can become tiring as the album goes on and on. It doesn’t help that he brings a few cringe-worthy bars that we all thought he had left back in 2010. “You toyin’ with it like Happy Meal,” really?
When Drake wakes up, he delivers incredible flashes that rank up there with anything in his discography. His tone turns emphatic for 30 brilliant seconds near the end of “U With Me?,” as his emotions seem to boil over. It’s completely unexpected, and easily the strongest moment on the entire album. His fourth verse on “Redemption” is similarly impressive, although it comes from a more subdued place vocally as Drake demonstrates his trademark honesty on past relationships.
I really, really wish that there were more moments like these, because as backwards as this may sound, this album plays it quite safe.
On the surface level, yes, Views may seem like a risk. This was Drake’s opportunity to leap fully into pop superstardom, or even to take a huge step towards backing his own claim as the best rapper ever, and he declined to try either. He decided, instead, to fully reassert himself as the emotional voice of a generation, or if you’ll let him tell it, the emotional voice of his city. There aren’t any ready-made bangers here, and there aren’t too many anthems either.
But look closer, and you’ll find Drake re-tracing the same lyrical steps again and again with less creativity and no-holds-barred openness than he's showed in the past. The music still pulses with the same intoxicating vibes, but like any franchise reboot, some of the luster is gone.
I do want to make it clear that Drake albums usually grow on me, and obviously the same potential lurks here. But those past efforts that did were immaculately constructed, bursting at the seams with new ideas and impressively varied in both content and tone.
Under immense pressure to create a classic with Views, I don’t think Drake assembled this album with the same care and artistic foresight that he usually brings. This is an album strictly for Drake fans, and even huge ones like myself can be disillusioned by too much Drake. Cut a few tracks and add some spice, and this is a different story. As it stands now, Views is a perfectly average effort, and quite underwhelming considering the expectations.
As for non-Drake fans, I can’t imagine they’d be very happy with this album, and I certainly know they wouldn’t consider it a classic. “If I was you, I wouldn’t like me either,” goes Drake’s parting shot to close Views after 76 minutes of self-absorption, and unless he’s won you over before you saw that image of him sitting atop the CN Tower, you’d be hard pressed not to agree.
I really, really wish that there were more moments like these, because as backwards as this may sound, this album plays it quite safe.
On the surface level, yes, Views may seem like a risk. This was Drake’s opportunity to leap fully into pop superstardom, or even to take a huge step towards backing his own claim as the best rapper ever, and he declined to try either. He decided, instead, to fully reassert himself as the emotional voice of a generation, or if you’ll let him tell it, the emotional voice of his city. There aren’t any ready-made bangers here, and there aren’t too many anthems either.
But look closer, and you’ll find Drake re-tracing the same lyrical steps again and again with less creativity and no-holds-barred openness than he's showed in the past. The music still pulses with the same intoxicating vibes, but like any franchise reboot, some of the luster is gone.
I do want to make it clear that Drake albums usually grow on me, and obviously the same potential lurks here. But those past efforts that did were immaculately constructed, bursting at the seams with new ideas and impressively varied in both content and tone.
Under immense pressure to create a classic with Views, I don’t think Drake assembled this album with the same care and artistic foresight that he usually brings. This is an album strictly for Drake fans, and even huge ones like myself can be disillusioned by too much Drake. Cut a few tracks and add some spice, and this is a different story. As it stands now, Views is a perfectly average effort, and quite underwhelming considering the expectations.
As for non-Drake fans, I can’t imagine they’d be very happy with this album, and I certainly know they wouldn’t consider it a classic. “If I was you, I wouldn’t like me either,” goes Drake’s parting shot to close Views after 76 minutes of self-absorption, and unless he’s won you over before you saw that image of him sitting atop the CN Tower, you’d be hard pressed not to agree.