Drake - Views

Drake
Views
2016
Spotify

Being emotional has always been a dig against Drake. He's always crying, He's always sad blah blah blah have been the calls from the public, yet they still flocked to his music in droves. A weak ass diss track, a beef with Meek Mill and an mixtape with Future lead us here to Views Drake's longest and less rap centered album ever. Is it supposed to be R&B? Is Drake a straight up singer now? You would have an argument for that point with this album, because the one thing He does not put into the record is a whole lot of rap. Even on "9" where we have what is close to a decent flow there are so many breaks to vibe out and for Drake's newest passion dancing apparently. Views seems to be that album where someone is so on the top of their game that they think anything they put out is going to be a smash regardless, and they are often right. There is no doubt that Views will be a huge success commercially, but for an artist something like this is just ridiculous. Drake has said that Views is the first time He has actually been able to record how He was actually feeling, and if this is what we find at the bottom of Drake's well then there was never much depth there to begin with. Drake is at his best when He makes anthems that everyone can relate and bang to, besides maybe "Pop Style" or "Hotline Bling" there are no songs like that on Views. There is also a big difference between a song that moves you to tears and one where the artist seems to be crying through, and it is a difference Drake doesn't seem to notice.

The one thing you will everyone talking about is the length, and they are completely right. This album is almost an hour and a half long and 20 tracks. If it was 20 bangers there would be no issue, but this album crawls like nothing I have heard before. By the 10th song you feel like you've made it through more than enough of this but you still have a whole other half of the record left! It's insane. Even with all of this, Views is still not a bad album, it just is not very good, and not what we wanted at all. A lot of the album feels a bit like a cash grab as well including "One Dance" which banks on the popularity of Tropical House and bringing it into the rap game. It is fine, but seems watered down and quite basic. So then where do we end up? Some good, some bad, and more than a lot of boring. I cannot stress how much some editing would have improved this record. There are at least 10 tracks that simply did not need to be here, and the product without them would be vastly improved. This album shows an artist that thinks they can do no wrong and that simply is not true. Even when Drake takes a stab at New Orleans Bounce on "Childs Play" it is more using a the style to bump himself up rather than embrace and leave his mark on the genre. Views undoubtedly will not go down as Drake's best, but some of the songs very well might, so then the album lands somewhere in the middle, right where Drake's bread is buttered.

5.9 out of 10