Review Summary: Losing focus in a view too broad.
Perception is the hallmark of most mainstream musicians. The way the general public views an artist's mannerisms and behavior can often shape them in a way akin to that of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Toronto-based rapper, Drake is someone who has been the face of a myriad of stigmatization's in the past. He’s been deemed soft, emotional and heavily self-indulgent by several fans and naysayers alike. Despite this, his last commercially released project,
If You’re Reading This it’s Too Late was held with widespread critical appeal for its aggression and its change in tone and approach to the way everyone viewed Drake. He showed his audience a side of himself that was on top of the world. Devoid of telephone calls with his ex, firing back at the those who tried to tear down his accomplishments. He paved a way for his new self-image, one that had garnered him a number of new followers and cemented his place in the top hierarchy of modern rap and hip-hop. Drake’s latest endeavor
Views shows regression from this newfound confidence and lacks all of the focus and drive that threw him onto his peak in the first place.
Views is an album that heavily harps on Drake’s somber and compulsive obsession with his former relationships. So much so that it can be repetitive. A myriad of songs hearken to Drake’s ex’s, such as “U With Me?,” “Feel No Ways,” “Faithful,” “Child's Play,” and “Redemption.” Each of these songs are just beating at the tropes that he has already coated his entire career with and can be summed up as “You used to call me on my cellphone.” These themes were once charming in a novel and quirky sense, but they lose their charm after hearing Drake talk about his ex for the 20th time and in the most trivial and rudimentary of ways.
This album is laden with filler. Being over 70 minutes in runtime, with 20 tracks on the vanilla release it can be quite difficult to digest. That also may be due to the fact that a some of
Views’ songs sound blatantly unfinished. The end of the songs “Summer’s Over Interlude” and “One Dance” have stark and non existent transitions and in both cases the beat on each of these tracks falls out of sync. The songs “Hype” and “Still Here” open with samples that sound flat and poorly implemented and is a turnoff for both songs.These songs feel a bit lazily produced and it’s hard to shake the feeling that some of these were just thrown in to pad out the length of the record.
Views is heavily disjointed in its sound and identity. Songs like “Controlla,” “One Dance” and “Too Good” find Drake expressing his inner latino and the result is cringeworthy. Being a naturally stoic and poetic in the same vain as a 15 year-old girl who just fell out of a relationship, his use and mix of latin beats and forced accents is awkward and out of place in context of the rest of the record. Others like “Hype,” “Weston Road Flows” and “Grammys” show the most recent, aggressive side of Drake. Which is a welcome breath of fresh air.
On top of this the 20 songs seem to fall into 4 different categories of sound. They range from 80’s gospel pop inspired, trap influenced, dance beats, and EDM. Compared to his last release which had a pretty cohesive sound,
Views is lost in it’s identity. Drake seems to be trying to capture too many types of sounds here and as a result he seems to lose a lot of what draws people to him.
One of the most notable things on
Views is the absence of Kanye and Jay- Z’s verses on “Pop Style” and Popcaan’s verse on “Controlla.” Considering that these features were some of the best portions of these songs, it’s a bit strange that they’re left absent. In fact, a number of the features here are a bit baffling. Future’s verse on "Grammys" is overly repetitive and sounds like some poorly performed improv. The opening of “Faithful” almost seems like an entirely different song than the second half and having dvsn and Pimp C in the same song together is unfitting and out of place. As the antithesis, Rihanna and PARTYNEXTDOOR have some pretty solid features in their respective songs.
Lyrically
Views can be hit or miss. Some tracks have Drake throwing out some witty bars and lines about his success. This is most evidently seen in the song “Weston Road Flows:”
I gave niggas like you a reason for celebration
You number one and I'm Eddie Murphy we tradin' places
Lookin' in the mirror I'm closer than I really appear
Creepin' like Chilli without the tender, love, and care
No tender love and care and no love and affection
I got a price on my head but there's a risk to collect it
Others are just melancholic or narcissistic rambling that isn’t well written. These lines are pretty frequent, but are obvious in “Too Good:”
I'm too good to you
I'm way too good to you
You take my love for granted
I just don't understand it
No, I'm too good to you
I'm way too good to you
You take my love for granted
I just don't understand it
Years go by too fast
I can't keep track
How long did we last?
I feel bad for asking
It can't end like this
We gotta take time with this
With
Views Drake can’t make up his mind in what he wants to do. Sometimes he wants to be on top of the world. Others, he wants to lament over some lost relationships. The same could be said about the sound and musical direction of this record. It’s an emotional train wreck and it loses the focus that gave Drake a huge boost in his career in the first place.
