Canadian superstar Drake is back at it again with his annual release, with his most anticipated album within the past few years, “For All The Dogs.” Drake has big shoes to fill since his last album, “Her Loss,” was such a success sonically. This project is one of his longest, clocking in at an hour and 24 minutes.
The album starts with a sleepy track, “Virginia Beach.” The instrumental is soft and floaty, giving the listener a sample of a never-before-heard Frank Ocean song. The worst thing about this track is that it runs for over four minutes. While I like everything it offers, between Drake’s voice and the sound of it altogether, it gets boring after the third minute of listening.
“Amen” features Teezo Touchdown, who’s been on the rise since he was featured on Tyler, The Creator’s most recent album, “Call Me If You Get Lost.” Ever since then, he’s been featuring with all kinds of famous artists like Don Toliver, Lil Yachty, Travis Scott and now Drake. The soundscape of this song matches Drake and Teezo excellently. Teezo’s vocals are easily the best part of this track as he widens his range sonically.
“Calling For You” gives us one of the best 21 Savage verses I’ve heard in a long time. His vocals are soft but still deliver his lyrics in the best way possible. I truly wish he had a more significant part in this song, as he only takes up a quarter of the runtime. Now for the negatives of the track. Drake’s verse is so bland, and the instrumental choice of the first half of this track doesn’t help at all. Even after this failure of a verse, Drake decides to put a minute and a half worth of an interlude between his and 21’s verse. Throughout my relistens, I skip over Drake and the break to hear 21 Savage’s fantastic verse.
The next song, “Fear of Height,” blew me away on my first listen. At the beginning of the track, the beat is barely there, with Drake rapping, but the listener doesn’t know if he will transition to his usual R&B self yet. Then, a quarter of a way through the song, the beat gets louder and bassier. Drake is as vicious as ever with the tone of his voice. The track is very reminiscent of his collaboration album last year with 21 Savage, “Her Loss,” as the entire album was the duo rapping with no-nonsense attached. This right here is the Drake I was looking for on this project.
“Daylight” offers an average performance by Drake with his verses. The chorus here is decent as well. The song ends with a beat switch, which I like much more than the original beat on the record. However, the last verse here isn’t Drake, as it’s his five-year-old son, Adonis. I’m curious why he’s given a feature here, though, as the song’s content is Drake and his posse committing crimes in daylight. It could be an oversight from him, but it’s still odd.
The following track, “First Person Shooter,” features a verse from J. Cole. The beat and overall instrumental here are excellent; they sound great and show the producer’s capabilities with sampling. J. Cole, per usual, delivers a great verse. Usually, I dislike J. Cole as a featured artist, as he does better on his songs. But here, he exceeded my expectations. Around the halfway mark, the beat switches. Drake is back again with his vicious rhymes.
“IDGAF” has an incredible Yeat feature. I never thought I’d say that. The instrumental right off the bat is fantastic. BNYX showed why he’s one of the top producers this year all throughout this project. Both Drake and Yeat deliver their most intricate verses I’ve heard yet. I genuinely had goosebumps before the two started their verses. Drake surprisingly does excellent over this beat, which, before listening, I expected not to fit him whatsoever. Since the beat was curated for Yeat, I expected him to do great, and he did.
“7969 Santa” tones down the album a lot. While Drake is still rapping, his vocals are soft, and the instrumental is pillowy. Near the song’s end, there’s a surprise verse from Teezo Touchdown. He ties this whole track together with his angelic vocals. While it is a good breather song, I see myself returning to it only if it was for Teezo’s performance.
The lead single, “Slime You Out,” has a great SZA feature. The track as a whole is all R&B, which I’m generally indifferent to. But I love Drake’s and SZA’s performance here. Drake blew me away once again on this album with his vocals. SZA introduces herself after his verse. Nothing about her verse impressed me, but it’s still a great verse.
“Bahamas Promises” is another R&B cut. I love the beat here so much. Something about it speaks dearly to me. The piano here is a welcomed addition to the instrumental. However, it could flow better with the rest of the album. It’s odd to have the most harsh I’ve heard him right before a song where he’s singing. Besides that, I love everything this track has to offer.
“All the Parties” concerned me immediately, as it features Chief Keef, and the instrumental is incredibly soft. My concerns were justified. While Chief Keef only shows up for a chorus, it’s the worst part of the song. I’m not knocking it because it’s different, it just isn’t good. As a whole, the music is boring to listen to after a while.
I immediately skipped the next song, “Rich Baby Daddy.” I wish I could tell you more about it, but as soon as I heard Sexyy Red’s verse start, I skipped it. She might be my bottom rapper of all time. The song does include a SZA feature, though, so that may incline some to go through Sexyy Red’s dreadful vocals.
The record closes with “Polar Opposites.” This track keeps the trend of Drake having great album endings alive. It’s much like the album’s first track but improves upon all of my complaints. While the runtime is similar, the track doesn’t bore me. The beat is much more likable as well.
The album started strong with outstanding rap performances by Drake and his collaborators. The quality did however see a minor dip when it progressed to the R&B tracks. Besides some tracks, the last third of the record was not enjoyable. I only like two or three of the last eight tracks.
I did skip over many of the tracks presented here to save room for the more essential tracks, whether good or bad. The album gave listeners 23 different songs to listen to, clocking in at almost 90 minutes. Overall, the album is decent, even after all of the shortcomings.