Drake - Views

Somber summer vibes is what Drake’s Views is filled to the brim with. His signature good-boy flow couples nicely with over an hour of material found on the new album, but it does become a bit stale after awhile. Views was promoted as if it were his magnum opus, but it is far from it.

The album’s beginning is promising, ‘Keep The Family Close’ setting the late night, dreary scene of a lonely summer. The track may be a tad overdramatic, but it’s orchestration guides the verses into big brass punches near the middle that bring it to a new level of groove. ‘9’ follows up, falling short in that while the flow is good, it seems to lack any purpose. ‘U With Me?’ has a similar issue. Drake’s dreary images with this album are accentuated with songs like ‘Weston Road Flows’, a track with a great instrumental and good flow, while maintaining that somber feeling of walking through rainy streets alone. The song is another to feature the random, anticlimax of a jet engine sample. Several tracks have it tacked on to the end, building into nothing. Lots of tracks have a darker side to them, especially in the beat. ‘Hype’ and ‘Pop Style’ in particular having some dark vibes. There are, sadly, some complete failures of songs on the record, too. ‘Childs Play’ is almost facepalm worthy. ‘Fire & Desire’ feels boring and uninspired, especially being tacked onto the album that has repeated the same theme and flow through and throughout over the course of it’s 81-minute runtime. A lot of the tracks on the album fall into the average spectrum, such as bonus track and viral sensation ‘Hotline Bling’, that at the end of the record is a slight splash of new color but still doesn’t give the album what it needs: substance.

Half of the guest spots on this album feel wasted. Some, characteristically so, though. The PARTYNEXTDOOR collab ‘With You’ is a throwaway track, and the follow up ‘Faithful’ featuring Pimp C and dvsn is no better. Two of the stand out tracks, on the record, however, are highlights on the record. ‘One Dance’ with Wizkid and Kyla has a Spanish flair and generally good vibes, and ‘Too Good’ featuring Rihanna is one of the most down-to-earth and emotional tracks on the album. That’s the sound of hip-hop love. Surprisingly, the Future guest spot on ‘Grammys’ isn’t completely trash. It’s actually pretty good, which was a treat for someone who’s sick of him. 

Drake built Views up to be a massive summer banger, but instead made a chill, late-night drive through the city kind of album. The album isn’t inherently bad, it just lacks any meat. It’s full of fillers and light tracks, all similar in theme and flow that eventually becomes bland, with flashes of brilliance in between. There’s no meat in this album, just a single monotone feel. Drake lived up to the sound his cliché is, but failed to prove it wrong. It’s not a bad album, it just needed a proper direction that Drake just couldn’t latch onto.

Favorite Tracks: Too Good, Hype, One Dance

Least Favorite Tracks: With You, Childs Play, Faithful, Fire & Desire

Rating: 7.5/10