Drake's New Album Is the Soundtrack to a Zara Changing Room
On midnight, June 17, Drake shock-dropped Honestly Nevermind, his seventh studio album and latest paean to the "two fingers touching" meme. Apparently, it was also opposite day, because now we have Drake doing surprise album releases and Beyoncé teasing her new album way ahead of time.
Anyways, the album features the usual mopey one-liners that'll dominate cringey Instagram captions for weeks to come — "YOUR PUSSY IS CALLING MY NAME" being particularly painful standout — but it switches up Drake's sound for a dancey feel that's more "Hotline Bling" than "Way 2 Sexy" (so much the better, really).
Honestly Nevermind is actually quite house-y, far funkier than most of the recent Drake bits and so much the better.
As someone who's still absorbed by the kitschy charms of '90s house earworms like "Believe" and "Missing" (I don't believe in guilty pleasures!), I'm actually down for Drake's new sound, much more than his other recent stuff, to tell you the truth.
There are enough introspective trap-tinged Drake singles out there already, so bringing back '90s proto-house cheese is fine by me. It also fits his corny, doe-eyed persona better than the hard-edge grime he's flirted with in the past — sorry, today's daddy Drake ain't intimidating (and that's ok, TBH).
On that note, there's more to be said about Drake's bizarre "Falling Back" music video, which features the rapper joined by a spread of sisterwives (none of which are Rihanna), but I'm just focusing on the album here.
Funnily enough, the emphasis on what Highsnobiety's Sam Cole calls the "oonts oonts" sound — which includes long vocal-free stretches as if to emphasis the R&Bounce production — has inspired myriad comparisons to the kind of flavorless dance music that peppers the speakers of so many fast fashion stores.
Not exactly a diss for Drizzy, really.
Pop music isn't so far from fast-fashion itself, anyways, and this isn't Jai Paul or Kendrick Lamar we're talking about here (again, Honestly Nevermind contains the line "YOUR PUSSY IS CALLING MY NAME").
Plus, his hits have always popped up on the airwaves at malls across the globe, but it does speak to the semi-flavorless production.
The Spanish guitar of "Tie That Binds" and vocal samples of "Massive" are nice touches, for instance, but also hardly lift Honestly Nevermind out of the realm of background noise.
Still, Drake's album is marginally more dynamic than "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to," at least, so that's something.
