Drake
Honestly, Nevermind


1.0
awful

Review

by Dakota West Foss STAFF
June 17th, 2022 | 205 replies


Release Date: 2022 | Tracklist

Review Summary: See Title

Genuinely asking here: What is the point of Drake in the year 2022?

The "softest in the game" persona that he's leaned into has been played out since "Hotline Bling" was a smash, if we're being charitable, and he's admitted himself that his meteoric success has jaded him into being unambitious and bored. He has sex and he is sad and he will brag about it. Last year's awful Certified Lover Boy was hyped to be a mission statement in the same way that 2016's mediocre Views was, but ended up floating like a lead balloon. The same song and one dance has been performed again and again and again and again and again. Like his taste in women, his career is now old enough that he does not seem interested in pursuing it.

Enter Honestly, Nevermind, a surprise release with only one feature less than a year later. There was reason to optimistic, given the last time a project of his filled those two criteria it was arguably the best in his career, but the end product ends up being every bit the extremely obvious joke that the title implies, if not even worse. Drake's "seventh" album takes a surprising turn into being a nearly-exclusive dance affair. This lone, objective fact is the most interesting thing about it by a country mile. Each of the album's thirteen dance tracks are inferior versions of "Passionfruit" and dare to challenge your patience and self-worth, the culmination of which is the truly baffling "Currents", a track that incorporates rhythmic bed-creaking and a horrendous vocal performance.

And that's really the rub here. Drake has never sounded worse. His voice sounds painful, rather than pained. He sounds too exhausted from wearing his human suit to bother putting up the emotional front that helped launch him into stardom. Tracks like "Sticky" and "Massive" have a lot of potential, but are ruined every moment that Aubrey's vocals wander back into the scene. Those are really the only instances of creative production though, as many other tracks comprise of extremely suspect mixing and as much energy as the man that this album is dedicated to (who is dead, by the way).

"Jimmy Cooks" is the only good song on offer here, but is it great because it's great or is it great because it's a drop of water in the desert?

At the end of the day, it's obviously not a surprise that Drake is not putting out a release that finds him at the top of his game. What becomes harder to justify, however, is that he remains in the game at all. Hip-hop is a difficult genre to remain relevant and is largely a young man's game. Aging genre stalwarts like Kanye and Jay-Z have had their fair share of stumbles, but have shown more often than not a graceful aging of their sound. Honestly, Nevermind is an album that is so bloated, boring, and bad that it works not only as a Spinal Tap-esque self-review, but also potentially as a mission statement on how we should feel about the biggest artist of the 2010's.



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user ratings (209)
1.7
very poor


Comments:Add a Comment 
Odal
Staff Reviewer
June 17th 2022


2370 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

Put as much effort into this as Drake did

parksungjoon
June 17th 2022


47231 Comments


cover art is messy enough to almost be a brutal death metal logo

Slex
June 17th 2022


17269 Comments


I genuinely dont believe he is capable of a single good song anymore lmao

Odal
Staff Reviewer
June 17th 2022


2370 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

I actually think the cover art is kinda neat, but I like Bladee and stuff lol

parksungjoon
June 17th 2022


47231 Comments


it was meant more as an observation than a "eww its shit" sorta comment

Conmaniac
June 17th 2022


27704 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

I’m just proud of him for releasing a sub 1hr long album

MarsKid
Emeritus
June 17th 2022


21035 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

What fanbase is worse, Drake stans or Taylor stans



This review will be a test

parksungjoon
June 17th 2022


47231 Comments


tool

MarsKid
Emeritus
June 17th 2022


21035 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

Do Tool stans still exist? Been a while since I found one out in the wild.

Odal
Staff Reviewer
June 17th 2022


2370 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

I think it's gotta be Drake stans. Taylor at least has the music quality to go to war for. People riding the consistent trash that Drake puts out are insufferable

parksungjoon
June 17th 2022


47231 Comments


check the fear inoculum thread

Conmaniac
June 17th 2022


27704 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

First song is horrible

Are all these gonna be club type house wanna be beats?

parksungjoon
June 17th 2022


47231 Comments


>dudes who value an artist's sales over whether they actually like their music or not


i see with my two eyes that people like this exist and i will never comprehend

Odal
Staff Reviewer
June 17th 2022


2370 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

Every song except the last song is a club song

Keyblade
June 17th 2022


30678 Comments


damn his falsettos are straight basura

MarsKid
Emeritus
June 17th 2022


21035 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

The fascination people have with Drake/his appeal really does elude me. I'm assuming his celebrity/prior success carries a lot of weight in that regard? There's just not one iota of intrigue to what he makes.



There's much better chill hip-hop out there.

Conmaniac
June 17th 2022


27704 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Calling My Name oh god……………

Koris
Staff Reviewer
June 17th 2022


21973 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

I genuinely dont believe he is capable of a single good song anymore lmao [2]





Seriously, I don't know how anyone can defend this guy's shitty music anymore

MarsKid
Emeritus
June 17th 2022


21035 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

Some cult of personality thing or whatever

Conmaniac
June 17th 2022


27704 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Sticky / Liability / Jimmy Cooks are the only three songs that didn’t make me wanna go back to bed at 1pm



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