Final Rating : 8/10
The long awaited and hyped album “Views”, is finally here. The album was supposed to be released on April 29th however, he released it at 11:16pm the night prior. Ever since then, that’s all that everyone is talking about.
I think this is a pretty good album. I don’t think that this is Drake’s best album yet but, I do think the hype was worth it. I think I was expecting slightly a bit more but, it was still really good. I think that “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” had a bit more variation within its tracks, so I guess in a way I liked that album better. In no way am I bashing this album because don’t get me wrong, I still really did like it. I think it has a bit more of an RnB style to it than his other albums, so I like that he is experimenting a bit more with that style. I think I like his prior album better because I am personally more into Rap than RnB. I wouldn’t say that this is an overall RnB album, but it is more RnB based than his others.
I loved the introduction (Keep the Family Close), I thought it was perfect. I really enjoyed the subtle slow beat in the background. I think that if you don’t listen well enough you could miss it but if you do notice it, it really add’s the perfect touch to this track and completes it in a way. This also has some really personal lyrics such as “All of my “lets just be friends” are friends I don’t have anymore”.
I really like the flow of this album, each song flows in and out of each other so well. There are some really nice fade in’s and outs, it all just felt connected. I find with some albums each song is very different, maybe even too different but I felt with this that it all felt interconnected.
I really liked the song U With Me? It flowed very well, and it reminded me of something from Take Care, which was a nice throwback in a way. I think the style of his rapping and the way that the track sounded just really sounded like something off of that album. This song had a really interesting bridge, and I liked how he unexpectedly raised his pitch; it made the song have intensity. However, I think the ending was slightly overextended as we were just waiting for the next song in a complete silence. It had a good fadeout, but it was silenced for too long. I think he either could have extended the fadeout, or just ended it earlier.
Feel No Ways had a really personal touch to it, and I enjoyed how intimate the song was. This song was most definitely about a relationship, and I admired how honest it was with lyrics like “there’s more to life than sleeping in and getting high with you” and “now you’re trying to make me feel a way on purpose.”
Hype was an awesome track. It opened up with the sound of waves, which was previously featured within the track 9. I enjoyed the use of keys within the song, and I think this is definitely one of the better tracks within the album.
The opening of Faithful kind of reminded me of “I Ain’t The One” by NWA. I don’t think it sounded the same, but just with the subject matter they were speaking about, seemed quite similar. This isn’t a criticism, I thought it worked well. I found the lyrics kind of pretentious, for instance: “Wanna watch you work while I sit back”. This track didn’t really stand out to me, and it didn’t particularly stand out to me. With this being said, I did enjoy the vocals from Pimp C and dvsn, there was some beautiful harmonizing and vocals towards the end. I would have liked to hear these earlier in the song.
I loved Still Here. I think repetition is something that worked really well for instance, “Did it, did it, did it, by myself dawg” and “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah”. The repetition added intensity and I think was a large part in making the song what it is. I think this song has a really chill vibe to it, but also could be a pump up song in a way. I highly enjoyed the breakdown after his repetition of “Hallelujah”.
I have two favourite track’s off of the album, being One Dance (feat Wizkid & Kyla) and Grammys (feat. Future). I absolutely love One Dance. I think this track stands out so much, it has so much variation within sound and I really admire the lyrics. This song has a very almost nostalgic feel to it, but its fun at the same time. I think the piano, horns, and background vocals really put this song together. As for Grammys, I may be a bit biased as to why I liked this song so much. I absolutely loved the collaboration album with Drake and Future, I think they work so well together and create such a unique sound. There was some really nice overlapping within sound for this, and it has somewhat of an echoed sound within the music which also really adds to it. With all this being said, I also thought Pop Style was really awesome as well. Pop Style has a unique beat to it, and a nice build up within the track.
I thought Too Good (feat. Rihanna) was good, but not great. It didn’t stand out to me incredibly, but there was nice connection between the two. Fire and Desire felt like somewhat of a filler track, and I didn’t like how it was silence for the first 15 seconds.
I feel like Hotline Bling shouldn’t have been the last track on the album, it should’ve ended with Views. Hotline Bling is a fun track and all, but I think it should’ve been placed mid album. Views was such a good track, it was very intense. I felt a lot of intensity and passion within his voice, and I felt like the album should have ended that way. Hotline Bling is more of a fun track, not as serious. So I was left with this intensity and passion, and then when it went onto Hotline Bling I really wasn’t sure what to feel anymore, it felt kind of awkward. I just don’t think it was a nice flow between the two tracks.
Overall, this was a good album and I do enjoy it. I think fans will really like it, it’s pretty long and you can tell that work has been put into each track.
