Drake has delivered a lackluster performance on his eighth and latest album released on Oct. 6, 2023 and titled “For All the Dogs,” despite massive anticipation from fans.
The Canadian rapper and singer teased his newest album in June while advertising his poetry book, “Titles Ruin Everything.” In some of his promotional material for the book, Drake included a QR code which led to a website that stated “I made an album to go with the book. They say they miss the old Drake girl don’t tempt me. FOR ALL THE DOGS.”
A few months later in August, Drake posted the album’s cover artwork before announcing that it would come out on Sept. 22 in an Instagram post. A week before the album’s slated release, Drake dropped one of the album’s tracks: “Slime You Out” featuring SZA, which performed quite poorly. Considering that the song was the pair’s first collaboration, the negative reception did not bode well for the rest of the album.
To add insult to injury, when Sept. 22 finally rolled around, Drake announced that he was forced to delay its release by two weeks due to conflicts with shows that he had planned around the same time. He declared on his Instagram story: “For All the Dogs October 6th. It’s only right…”
After all of this, expectations were high and many were hoping to see some hits on the album, especially since Drake hadn’t released a highly-promoted album since “Certified Lover Boy” back in 2021. However, the album is unfortunately mediocre, and Drake consistently sounds like he isn’t fully invested in his performance.
Everything on the album, from the melodies in the backing tracks to the lyrics, lacks substance, resulting in a disappointing listen.
Everything on the album, from the melodies in the backing tracks to the lyrics, lacks substance, resulting in a disappointing listen. Furthermore, the repetition of the lyrics and instrumentals in almost all of the tracks creates a boring listening experience without any variety or creativity. Even worse, the album exemplifies quantity over quality totals 23 songs and spans an hour and 25 minutes of music, making it a chore to get through. Even though Drake’s albums are usually around the same length, “For All the Dogs” in particular suffers due to the lack of proper direction and its ridiculous mediocrity.
The album opens up fairly strongly with “Virginia Beach,” which has a clear sound, decent rhythm and solid vocals. However, the song is indicative of a major issue that plagues the rest of the album: the corny wordplay. This is most apparent when Drake compares a woman’s period to the grammatical period, rapping the line “You keep talkin’ ‘bout some ‘Period’ but where you ‘bout to end the sentence at,” a line that lacks any complexity or depth. This problem is also evident in the 17th song of the album, titled “8am in Charlotte,” in the line “I say ‘We gotta talk about us,’ I feel like Jordan Peele,” which is a completely unrelated reference that doesn’t add any value to the song.
Another pressing issue is Drake’s lack of energy and interest in his singing, displayed most clearly in “Drew a Picasso” — the album’s 13th track — when he explicitly notes that he “coulda written more” with the way he’s “feelin’ on this album.” To make matters worse, Drake raps the line “F-, I gotta say a little more,” clearly showing how little investment he had when singing. The majority of his vocals are auto-tuned and don’t have much emotion behind them, making them hollow and unappealing.
Many of the songs also suffer from awkward ad-libs and backing tracks that only serve to clutter the listening experience and pad the album’s runtime. The album’s very first ad libs include the phrases “or whatever,” “or somethin’” and “that’s crazy,” which have no meaning and add no value. Most egregious, though, is the completely unrelated inclusion of a voice message from a Mercedes-Benz dealership at the end of the album’s second song titled “Amen (feat. Teezo Touchdown).”
However, there is one redeeming aspect to the album: the collaboration songs, although that’s partly because of the inherent novelty in a collaboration.
However, there is one redeeming aspect to the album: the collaboration songs, although that’s partly because of the inherent novelty in a collaboration. Most of these songs also share many of the same problems as Drake’s solo songs, such as the messy backing track and basic lyrics, but they stand out due to the featured artists’ talents. This is especially true when it comes to the singer’s presence on the song, since Drake often sings less than the featured artist, despite the song being on his own album. For example, Yeat’s vocals on the seventh track “IDGAF (feat. Yeat)” are far more powerful than Drake’s, who sounds like he’s tagging along on Yeat’s song instead of the other way around.
All in all, “For All the Dogs” is a disappointing mess of an album that only further cements a downward trend in Drake’s music. Other than the featured artists, there’s no reason for you to hit “replay,” and if you’re looking for other music, a better album (that’s directly competing with Drake’s) would be Doja Cat’s “Scarlet.”
