Views by Drake (4/5)

Must Hear Tracks: “Still Here” “Feel No Ways” “One Dance” (feat. Wizkid and Kyla) “Controlla”

. . . On April 29th, 2016, Drake said “let there be Views,” and there was Views. The world rejoiced. . .

Religious allusions aside, Drake is a larger-than-life pop culture figure. Some proof lies in the hype surrounding the release of his newest full-length album, Views. When Drake released the album art for Views on April 24th, the flood of memes parodying the image washed over the internet within hours. On the 29th, the Twittersphere eagerly live tweeted the midnight premiere of Views as if it was an incipient cultural event, akin to a Superbowl for music lovers.

Their enthusiasm was not wasted. Views is a sprawling album; clocking in at a whopping 82 minutes. Luckily, most of those minutes are relentlessly catchy. Starting the show is the cinematic orchestration of “Keep the Family Close.” The track is much less digital than most of Drake’s recent work, with a symphony orchestra rising and falling while Drake muses on the familiar theme of loyalty. The acoustic feel of the opening track comes off as experimental for Drake, but that initial stylistic deviation is mostly abandoned for the rest of the album.

Overall, Views sounds exactly like what listeners have come to expect from Drake at this point. The hits are abundant. “Feel No Ways” sounds like the 2016 reboot of “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” which means it’s automatically one of the strongest tracks on the album. The dance-pop theme comes up on “With You” (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR), “One Dance” (feat. Wizkid and Kyla), “Controlla,” and “Too Good” (feat. Rihanna) as well, but those tracks have a distinct Jamaican dancehall influence, similar to Rihanna and Drake’s massive hit “Work” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” All four tracks are ready for the dance floor and the radio in equal measure. Drake’s forays into Caribbean music are immensely successful on Views.

Then there are the bangers. If you’ve ever heard Drake and Future’s “Jumpman,” you know what I mean. That rap / trap / pop hybrid style is thoroughly represented on Views. “Hype,” “Still Here,” “Grammy’s” (feat. Future), and “Pop Style” practically beg listeners to fill up some styrofoam cups with nondescript purple liquid and rock the night away. The beats on these tracks are dark and heavy, with abundant bass, ominous synth loops, and repetitive rapping completing the style. They provide an excellent contrast to the upbeat vibes of “One Dance” and “With You.”

With so many radio and club friendly songs on Views, the “other” songs can easily be overlooked. Compared to the potential hits, they come off as boring. To ignore them is to miss out on some of the most endearing moments on Views, though. “Redemption” is a slow burner that displays Drake at his most sentimental. On “Child’s Play,” Drake narrates a petty argument between him and some unnamed woman in Cheesecake Factory over a perfectly mellow neo-R&B soundscape. If that doesn’t make for top-notch music in 2016, I don’t know what does.

When all is said and done on Views, Drake exposes how selfish he is. His tracks are always inwardly focused. Whether he’s talking about his own rise to fame or how the women in his life don’t behave the way he prefers, every road on Views leads right back to Drake himself. Call it narcissistic, call it indicative of the selfishness of today’s youth, call it whatever you want, but at the end of the day Drake has every right to be selfish. Views is a buffet of the hottest sounds in today’s music scene. From the Jamaican dancehall inspired “One Dance” and “Controlla” to the trap-pop of “Grammys” and “Still Here,” Drake further proves that he is the preeminent tastemaker of 2016. Coming off the popularity of recent collaborations with Rihanna (“Work”) and Future (“Jumpman”), and his own massive hit single (“Hotline Bling,”), Views feels like an expansion of exactly what made those songs so infectious. Instead of changing his style up, he refines what everybody already knew he could do. The result is an album that is immensely listenable. The production shines on Views; it is diverse yet instantly familiar. Drake’s singsong style of pseudo-rap fits the musical backdrop like a glove on most tracks. The highlights from Views are numerous enough to form their own album. I expect to hear Drake on heavy rotation on the radio and at parties for the next few months at the very least. Whether or not Views will survive longer than a year is an entirely different question. Because Views is so trendy and so stereotypically Drake, most of the tracks will likely fade into obscurity as soon as another, trendier album is released. For that reason, I consider Views a commodity. It is meant to be consumed, enjoyed and, eventually, discarded; like a bag of Doritos. Such is the cycle of pop music. Much like a bag of Doritos, though, Views is addictive and delicious.