This is not to say that this is necessarily a bad album. The run from opening track “Keep the Family Close” to “Hype” is Drake at his very best: the production is transcendent, the vocals are (as claimed during the Zane Lowe interview) at Drake’s highest level yet and his flow feels more under-control than ever. All the classic Drake-isms are covered in this streak - catchy hooks, a love for Toronto, nostalgic reminiscing and so on.
The Kanye-produced track, “U With Me,” is a particular standout. It’s unfortunate, because this trend begins to fall off after only a few tracks, giving way to frustrating inconsistency.ĭrake weaves between what he knows well, talking of texting mind games - “3 dots, you thinking of a reaction still” - and shade - “fuck them stories, fuck the shade they throwing.” The beat churns and claps, well in-sync with the hook and the verses, and the third verse reaches a level that seems like it should have all along, as Drake’s voice soars with anger.
“Faithful,” the center of the album, meanders with its redundancy, an adjective that describes the rest of the album all too well. During the Zane Lowe interview Drake explained that the album moves thematically from “winter, to summer and back to winter again” to reflect Toronto weather, but that theme doesn’t feel much apparent here, nor does it justify the lack of focus that plagues these later tracks.
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