Drake - Honestly, Nevermind Review
Was Honestly, Nevermind as good as classic Drake? No. Is it one of the best house albums out there? Certainly not. Is it a vibe? Certainly.
Like it or not, you cannot deny that Drake is a modern-day King Midas. Every track he touches turns to gold, and it must be a dream come true when artists, especially lesser-known artists, secure a Drake feature. The sheer star power his name alone brings is enough to bring in millions upon millions of streams and sales. And surprisingly, less than a year after his 2021 album Certified Lover Boy, Drake is back with quite a different album than the pop-rap and trap sound listeners have gotten used to for the past 5 years: Drake’s 2022 take on a full-on, unapologetic house album.
Being a house-inspired album executively produced by the South African house giant Black Coffee, Honestly, Nevermind is more about the instrumentals and Drake’s ability to croon his trademark melancholic deliveries over these beats. With this in mind, there doesn’t really present a need for Drake to put that much effort into any substantive lyrics or ear-catching flows. It’s more about creating an environment for people to dance to at a club, even though this hypothetical club is probably packed with people who are still not over their most recent heartbreak.
With the best parts of this album undeniably being the instrumentals, the moments that stand out occur when Drake himself can stand out. From his infectious voice over the bright keys on the dancefloor-ready “Massive”, to his focused and tight penmanship over the hypnotic drums of “Sticky”, there are quite a few highlights.
Drake’s wispy falsettos on “Falling Back” capture the party-for-one vibe this album seems to try to create for the listener. Or the hilarious “Currents”, where Drake plays the sensitive guy in the all-too-familiar situation revolving around a troubled relationship. His expressive voice smoothly flows over literal bed squeaks, a pretty wild sample choice. In all honesty, this moment feels like the album’s equivalent to CLB’s now infamous lesbian bar with just how over the top it is.
While Drake demonstrates that he is still able to make a hit, both disappointingly and unsurprisingly, a lot of this LP seems like he’s just going through the motions. While the genre of this record is a drastic change from what listeners have been given the past five or six years, at its core, it’s not much different than that same Drake. A sense of complacency and doing the bare minimum plagues Honestly, Nevermind, just as it has his past few releases.
Most of the album’s downfalls come from a lack of effort on Drake’s part to create something truly amazing. Countless songs had the right ingredients to hit but lacked the attention to detail that could have elevated them to that level. Take “Calling My Name”. What could have been one of the better songs on the album after a sensual intro builds into a great dance beat, is almost completely derailed by what can only be described as Drake’s chorus, as there lacks any real song structure. And when Drake finds his groove on “Flight’s Booked”, the awkward mixing makes it borderline unlistenable on anything besides headphones. Or on “Texts Go Green” it sounds as if Drake hasn’t slept for the past week, as his delivery is about as expressionless and one-dimensional as it gets.
What Honestly, Nevermind does improve on though, is its conciseness. At 14 tracks and just under an hour runtime, it’s much shorter than the bloated 20-25+ track albums Drake has been releasing. And when an album tries to be carried purely by vibes, once it hits the hour mark, it’s only downhill from there as the listener can start to feel disengaged with the project.
Honestly, Nevermind’s ending can leave listeners scratching their heads though, confused about what just happened. “Liability” starts off sounding like it could be an atmospheric slow song, but then we get almost four minutes of slowed Drake vocals that sound like they belong to an edit on TikTok. And then for the closer, we get “Jimmy Cooks”.
First, let’s give 21 Savage his flowers. Anytime he’s featured on a song, you can expect nothing but his A-game. “Jimmy Cooks” is no exception. Drake and 21’s chemistry is on full display, as the pair naturally flow into each others’ verses. On the front end, Drake is aided by luxurious horn samples, which transitions into a more menacing and darker beat, a perfect fit for 21. On paper, this is a great song aided by a great feature. However, why was this song included on Honestly, Nevermind?
For the past 48 minutes, Drake has been trying to create this breezy house vibe and then goes and tacks on a normal trap song at the very. Not to mention, the track list was featureless until 21’s appearance. “Jimmy Cooks” seems better suited for a Scary Hours release than needlessly added to appease hardcore trap-Drake fans.
Was Honestly, Nevermind as good as classic Drake? No. Is it one of the best house albums out there? Certainly not. Is it a vibe? Certainly. There are plenty of highlights for listeners to take away from the album. It’s also a refreshing change of pace from the generic trap Drake has stayed stagnant in since Views. However, given that Drake is currently one of the most successful music artists with all the resources in the world available, Drake’s lackluster can leave listeners with a sense of dissatisfaction, wishing for more from the superstar.