Drake: Views ALBUM REVIEW

Drake has had a pretty great couple of years recently. His last 'mixtape' If You're Reading This It's Too Late sold exceptionally well and was even critically loved to boot. In fact, that album narrowly missed being on my Top Ten list last year, and I can say with not a doubt in my mind that that album is Drakes best, most consistent work to date. Then there was the beef with Meek Mill (who lost horribly, by the way) which gave the world Drake's most fiery rap track yet with "Back To Back". All the while though, Drake was teasing us with the prospect of a new album called 'Views From The Six', now known simply as Views. This album was supposed to be Drake getting into the mindset of his city, Toronto, and giving us another album of smooth introspection.

But this album ran into trouble pretty quickly for me, because despite the track "Hotline Bling" being a personal favorite of mine (now relegated to be the lone bonus track here), the other two singles "One Dance" and "Pop Style" were both, to put it nicely, highly disappointing. They both suffer from oddly poor production and some pretty terrible lines from Drake; especially the Channing Tatum line on "Pop Style".

And truth be told, the rest of Views, aside from maybe two or three tracks (out of 20!) are just as bad. I haven't listened to a Drake album and cringed this hard since Thank Me Later, and in a lot of ways this sounds like a more expensive, and significantly longer version of that album. The songs focus too much on the soft-crooner side of Drake, and when he does rap, his bars softer than a Three Musketeers. Which is a darn shame, seeing as just a year ago, Drake was on the top of his game in all aspects.

Views just feels like Drake got caught up in his own hype and forgot to put his heart into this album; it is an album that is both ridiculously long, at an astounding 88 minutes, and gives no merit to it being even half that length. In fact, I would be hard pressed  to even assemble a solid 10 track album from the tracks given to me on Views, they're just that bland and outright terrible at points.

For the couple of high points, I gotta give it to the DMX inspired "U With Me?" which has great energy and even has a pretty catchy hook. Also, the track "Weston Road Flows" is another solid rap track and I still have to give it to "Hotline Bling" which ends the album off on an odd note, but it is still at least a solid song. And the fact that I was given a 20 track album, but had to dig, and even include bonus tracks, to find positive things to say is just so mind boggling.

I could get into all the tracks I hate or just don't like, but then this review would go on just as long as the album. In short, if it's not a goofy beat ("Feel No Ways", "Fire & Desire") or wack lines that would make Lil' B roll his eyes ("9". "Child's Play", "Views") then it is just a general lack of anything worthwhile whatsoever. Views is Drake's worst album yet, and it is a shame that it had to happen at this point in his career, when I think even former Drake haters had to admit he was getting better.

3.2/10