On Oct. 6, Drake released his eighth studio album, “For All The Dogs.” As a veteran and superstar in the music industry, I expected more from him. With an approximate 85-minute run-time, Drake brings nothing to this album except his name.
Coming off of his 2022 collaborative album, “Her Loss,” with 21 Savage, I felt that Drake had reignited that spark that had made me a fan earlier in his career. However, after listening to “For All The Dogs,” this is not the case. The album is very forgettable, with only a few standout tracks; its best moments were the features.
This album is composed of 23 tracks and nearly half of them have features on them. Despite his lackluster performance, Drake had some very interesting features. Some are breakout artists in the past year, such as Teezo Touchdown, Yeat and Sexyy Red; other features are artists most people would be more familiar with like J Cole, Chief Keef and Bad Bunny.
Some of the more enjoyable songs on this album are “Amen,” “Calling for You” and “8AM in Charlotte.” These tracks were the only tracks where I was enjoying myself while listening. “8AM in Charlotte” especially stood out to me because it felt like Drake actually put effort into this track with his lyricism; it felt like a turning point in the album where I found myself actually being able to listen without getting bored at all.
In the past, an hour-and-a-half album from Drake would be exciting to me, but after listening, I was immensely disappointed in not only the album itself but also the album art (drawn by his son Adonis). After listening to the album, it solidified the thoughts I had when Drake originally announced the cover – I was not a fan. This album just felt lazy and a push for newer artists, since the features felt like they outperformed him on his own track. I couldn’t imagine myself listening to this again and would consider this a flop.