Drake — ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ ALBUM REVIEW
Who told Drake that people want to hear his bedsprings cooked into a beat?
There was a time. A time when Drake couldn’t get it wrong. A time that is starting to feel like a distant memory. A better time! What happened to that time? Where did it go? I miss that time.
It’s testament to Drake’s impressive career at the top of music that he can afford to pull an album like Honestly, Nevermind out of the bag without hesitation — he’s been number one, he’s been the king of hooks, he’s thrown us more than a handful of impressive bars along the way, and some serious croons that felt like a welcome break from the rappidy-rapping Drake is very capable of going to the mattresses for. But following on from last year’s disappointing Certified Lover Boy, an album so packed-out with sub-par bars and forgettable songs that, for the first time, it made the general listening population of the world question Drake’s longevity. Had Drake finally let the crown slip from his lid? One thing’s for certain, it doesn’t seem like Drake cares because Honestly, Nevermind is without a doubt his most divisive album yet.
First off, this is a house record. Let’s call a spade a spade here. The production, which is (as always) headed up by long-time collaborator Noah ‘40’ Shebib, and topped off with heavy hitters like Carnage, Tay Keith, and Black Coffee, is a through-and-through attempt to get people’s feet moving. Bouncy rhythms flow effortlessly track-to-track, and some of the beats are truly infectious. What is not infectious, however, is the star of the show; Drizzy himself. Where to begin?
There’s really only one word that encapsulates what Honestly, Nevermind is at it’s core: boring. There’s no other way to put it. Drake sounds like he’s trying to muster up a melody in the shower for half the songs on offer here, and when he does finally hit on a good one it’s ruined by the rest of the song being bland and uneventful start to finish. In fact, some of the most memorable moments from the record are so horrifying that it doesn’t bare thinking about — for example, on the song ‘Currents’, Drake does his best sexy voice while bedsprings squeaking are literally cooked into the beat (for me at least, not the nicest image circulating round my brain.) Or on ‘Flights Booked’ where Drake’s voice is so drowned in auto-tune that it doesn’t even sound like him anymore — a shame considering Drake’s versatility with his voice has always been one of his strong suits.
There are honestly so few tracks to pull anything positive from here, I’m clawing through the album once more as I’m writing this review trying to glean any possible sparks of excellence that I may have missed. ‘Sticky’ is a welcome refresher seven tracks into the album, giving us a dose of the Drake we’re more familiar with, and one of the only times on the album he chooses to rap. The choral vocals on ‘Down Hill’ are genuinely gorgeous, so there’s that I suppose. Closing track ‘Jimmy Cooks’ featuring 21 Savage is the obvious banger, and it does indeed cap the album off nicely with both artists trading bars, even if it does feel outrageously detached from the sonic direction of the rest of the album. But on a fourteen-track album, to be able to pull just a few moments of excellence from one of the world’s biggest artists is frankly shambolic.
I’m willing to put Honestly, Nevermind down to an experiment in Drake’s discography. It’s what it is, after all. I respect the idea and the attempt at some sort of method behind the madness, but you would think that following the poor reception of his last record Drake might choose to play it a little safer, and in that regard I do respect Honestly, Nevermind’s balls. Unfortunately, it does not pay off. The house music is just okay — unlikely to impress anyone with a taste for electronica, and Drake is sounding less bothered than ever lyrically. It all culminates in Drake’s weakest and soggiest release yet, and if the slow, brooding bedroom RnB of Drake’s previous records put you to sleep, you may come close to euthanasia on this record.
2/10
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Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind is available now via OVO and Republic.
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Written by Connor Cudmore.
