Drake shakily tackles house music on surprise LP ‘Honestly, Nevermind’

No major pop figure has been as resistant to change over the past decade as Drake. Perhaps the only thing that has ever ruffled his artistic composure was when Pusha T took shots at him on his murderous diss-track ‘The Story of Adidon’ in 2018, with the famous one-liner, “You are hiding a child” that shocked the world. Nevertheless, after a few weeks, he was back to making signature Drake music, continuing to fuse Pop, R&B and Hip-Hop.

His seventh studio album, Honestly, Nevermind was released last Friday as a surprise drop. No one had expected a new Drake album this soon after his last album, Certified Lover Boy; an album as questionable in style as it was in name. Drake certainly pressed the reset button creatively with this LP; a worthy criticism that followed his last effort was that the popstar needed to find a new sound and stick to it, something he has always struggled to do throughout his albums. He did, for the most part, finally achieve that here. Taking tricks from the late 2000s and early 2010s dance music, the emphasis here is on recognizable, energetic house beats. You can look to the likes of Jamie xx and Diplo to see where the sound of this LP originates from. He also borrows from contemporary African pop, with Afropop singer and producer Tresor contributing to all 14 songs, not to mention South African-born Black Coffee being listed as one of the executive producers. “Dedicated to our brother V”, said Drake, tributing the projecting to fashion designer, DJ and friend Virgil Abloh who passed away from a rare form of cancer in November last year.

For the first time in his catalogue, Drake almost disappears himself on this record. In general, there is very little rapping, aside from that on ‘Sticky’ and ‘Jimmy Cooks’. Drake takes the background, whilst the breezy dance and house beats assume the foreground. On songs like ‘Calling My Name’ and ‘Tie That Binds’, he is practically invisible. This is probably a good thing, however – the sparse lyrics are filled with perpetual peevishness and exhibit a seriously bruised ego – “What would you do without me”, “If I was in your shoes, I would hate myself”, “How do you say to my face, ‘Time heals’? / Then go and leave me again”. Even the title, Honestly, Nevermind sounds flippant and scorned. Drake’s audience laps up his discontented persona, but this pretence is getting boring at this point. This, along with the new sound for the popstar presents a weird combination of the unexpected and ‘business as usual’.

The highs of the album are pretty good. ‘Texts Go Green’ is a fun, laidback tune for the summer months, ‘Sticky’ has some catchy cadences and beat by producer Carnage, ‘Tie That Binds’ has a solo guitar section that sounds luxurious and transports you to a beach bar abroad. ‘A Keeper’ is equally as enjoyable too, with a nice beat drop in the last thirty seconds. Nevertheless, the execution wasn’t all there across the record. The decision to add the hard-hitting, rap-heavy ‘Jimmy Cooks’ with 21 Savage after 13 dance and house music songs is a strange one. Also, there are some moments of seriously questionable singing, particularly on the opener ‘Falling Back’. Some songs could also do with being a minute or so shorter in order to keep the listener engaged.

The biggest takeaway from this latest instalment is that Drake is very clearly experimenting. There is something admirable about him reaching beyond the music his fans expect of him and making the album that he wanted to make, even if it doesn’t do numbers. Every past Drake album or mixtape, with the very odd exception, has had the same formula. It is like a software update on your iPhone; you know exactly what to expect, just with some slight tweaks in function and aesthetic, but still just the same product as the one before, so this comes as a welcome change of pace. The tribute to Virgil Abloh was touching, and not without meaning – this was the kind of music that Virgil would spin on his DJ tours around the world. However, with the execution somewhat missing the mark and the production sounding rather dated, it may be that the album ages badly, especially in Drake’s own discography. Regardless, it will be interesting to see where Drake goes from here. Will he continue to explore other genres, or will he retreat to the ‘safe’ soundscape that he has entrusted his whole career in for the past decade? We shall have to wait and see.