The album may contain select successes, but overall lacks artistic direction.
After a few delays, pop and rap superstar Drake released his eighth solo studio album “For All The Dogs” on Oct. 6. The album features a long and diverse list of collaborators including 21 Savage, SZA, Chief Keef and Yeat. With 23 tracks clocking in at 84 minutes, the album is much longer than many of his contemporaries’ projects. But apart from a few standout tracks, the album fails to be an inspired or cohesive project, squandering the talent of its mega roster of producers and collaborators to become largely superfluous streaming bait.
Early in his career, Drake pioneered being a hip-hop/R&B fusion artist, and differentiated himself from other rappers by rapping sensitively on his songs, like “Marvins room.” However, with each album released, he seems to adopt a more cynical and detached attitude. Drake embodies the mythos of the rapper on his 2021 album “Certified Lover Boy,” as a wildly successful womanizer who is not afraid to flaunt his success and wealth. This trend comes to a head in “For All The Dogs.” He indulges in a hedonistic lifestyle, often reducing the women in his songs to mere materialistic tokens and their drug habits. Tracks like “Slime You Out (ft. SZA)” and “Members Only (ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR)” epitomize this, where Drake glorifies his inner circle while using his wealth to manipulate women. Although this isn’t entirely new for Drake, his increasing wealth, influence and eager fanbase have made him sound more cold-hearted than ever before. As the title suggests, “For All The Dogs” reads like a love letter to his fans who support him for the wildly successful player that he is.
As Spotify’s most streamed rapper, Drake has always managed to stay current with trends. With the rise of electronic music in the mainstream, his 2022 album “Honestly, Nevermind” was an interesting foray into minimal tech house soundscapes. But this album is much less sonically distinct from his contemporaries’, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, for example, and reverts to his tried and true R&B-trap fusion sound, with saccharine sing-songy flows on soulful beats. One of Drake’s strengths is his ability to straddle the line between rap and R&B, delivering scathing aggressive freestyles alongside romantic deep cuts. Taken one song at a time, Drake is able to deliver on either of these two personas, but the album altogether fails to convincingly rectify these two sides of Drake.
Drake has always been an artist that has excelled on features (think “Poetic Justice” on Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid m.A.A.d City” or “SICKO MODE” on Travis Scott’s “ASTROWORLD”), so it is rather ironic that now many of the hit songs on “For All the Dogs” are now being carried by their features. “IDGAF” featuring Yeat sounds more like a Drake feature on a Yeat song than the other way around. The reggaeton rhythms of “Gently” suit Bad Bunny far better than Drake. The Lil Yachty feature and production on the standout hit “Another Late Night” relegates Drake to a short bog-standard verse. And on the high-energy “First-Person Shooter,” J. Cole’s verbiage and flow outclasses Drake’s monotonous rhyme scheme.
The few vibe-worthy and catchy hits like “Another Late Night” are bogged down by a slogging tracklist interspersed with some uninteresting and disjointed interludes. “Screw The World — Interlude” is obnoxiously unmusical with its tepid lo-fi beat and distorted DJ Screw freestyle, which makes little sense between the soulful ballad “Tried Our Best” and subtly dark track “Drew a Picasso.”
There are a handful of tracks on “For All The Dogs” that show Drake is capable of reneging his lover boy persona and adopting a more interesting introspective approach. “Bahamas Promises” unfolds a poignant reflection of a troubled relationship unlike Drake’s outward persona. The sound effects of a dog barking are a fitting homage to the album’s title and Drake’s obsession with companionship and trust. “Drew a Picasso” is a similarly dark ballad that also encapsulates a sense of longing and regret. But the authenticity of Drake’s romantic persona seems disingenuous when paired with songs like “What Would Pluto Do,” an uptempo banger that glorifies rapper Future’s well-known misogynistic behavior.
Again, there is nothing explicitly flawed about this album, but it is disappointing that Drake does not use his superstar status in a more interesting or provocative way — it is hard to find anything in this record to come back to. “For All the Dogs” features a long list of difficult to clear samples including Frank Ocean, Florence and the Machine, The Pet Shop Boys and a whole slew of talented producers like 40, Lil Yachty and Boi1-da who succeed in creating that characteristic dark and soulful Drake atmosphere. But compared to other eminent rappers like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, who have made cohesive and provocative projects, Drake has not dared to treat the album as a cohesive narration. “For All of the Dogs” lacks a distinct identity compared to many of his past few projects. The few introspective lulls are drowned out by an ocean of repetitive Drake braggadocio and the tracklist lacks vision or conciseness.
Drake superfans will certainly find a few songs to latch on to — “Another Late Night” and “Away From Home” prove Drake is as capable as ever of producing catchy bangers. But for the average listener, there is little merit in coming back to this album, and the lack of any overarching narrative that goes beyond Drake’s braggadocio diminishes its artistic appeal. For all of the hype, “For All the Dogs” is just yet another Drake album revering his tried and true Drake persona without daring to do much more.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
