Album Review: Drake Views

Drake’s career serves as cautionary reminder that we should be careful what we wish for. Views’ cover shot of the Canadian rapper chilling on his ownsome at the top of Toronto’s CN tower speaks to a parlous state of mind as he releases his fourth official album. Drake is of the opinion that global fame is hollow and soul sapping – and the mother of all bummers if you’re looking for a solid relationship. You can be at the centre of the party and the loneliest guy on the planet.
The problem is that this revelation falls some way short of a newsflash, for Drake fans especially.
The 29-year-old has spent his career enumerating the ways in which the jet-set life can leave you low and listless. Six years on from his debut, he sees no reason to switch things up, resulting in a 20 track masterclass in boring your audience to distraction.
That would not be such an issue were this a low-profile addition to the Drake canon – one for him rather than his public. But Views has been launched with fanfare comparable to that attending Beyonce’s Lemonade – a weather-front of hype that sits too heavily on this shoulders of what is a slight, furtive project.
Granted, Views brims with glossy beats (as well it might with upwards of a dozen collaborators credited on certain songs) and there is at least one stab at least at a crowdpleaser in Rihanna hook-up ‘Too Good’ (the take-away: that they are each too good for the other). But that’s as close to pop as the record comes and thereafter we plunge deep, deep into Drake’s id, as he laments the pain of fame, the strain of hangers on at every turn and the inability to hold onto old lovers even as friends. It’s cold and lonely up there, sure, but Drake’s cardinal error is assuming his audience is as invested in his quarter life crisis as is the artist himself. Out now.

Rating: 4/10