Drake Heads Into His Hiatus on a Perfunctory Note With Bloated ‘For All the Dogs’: Album Review
08.10.2023 - 15:07
/ variety.com
Alex Swhear “Workin’ on a album, now it’s finished,” Drake casually mentions on the album in question, “For All the Dogs.” An unnecessary update, to be sure, but one likely prompted by force of habit: Drake has never taken a meaningful break, perpetually prepping and releasing new music. Since 2006’s “Room For Improvement,” two years have never elapsed without a major Drake release.
Where many of hip-hop’s commercial heavyweights have stepped back — navigating personal struggles (Eminem), retreating inward (Kendrick Lamar), noisily retiring (Jay-Z), or enthusiastically shifting focus to new hobbies, like fashion and anti-Semitism (Kanye West) — Drake has endured as a consistent hitmaker for nearly 15 years, an unprecedented streak. As such, the news that Drake plans to take a hiatus from music following the release of “For All the Dogs” feels overdue and richly deserved.
So it’s a shame that the album itself is so perfunctory. “For All the Dogs” is less a triumphant victory lap than a deflated slog, a cogent argument for the necessity of a creative reset.
His previous solo album, last year’s “Honestly, Nevermind,” was a lean and vibrant foray into dance that scrambled Drake’s formula for the first time in recent memory. “Nevermind” proved to be sharply polarizing, though, and “For All the Dogs” registers as a concession to the sonically conservative wing of his fanbase that recoils at any deviations from his established template.
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