“Honestly, Nevermind” is a Total Letdown

This past June the well-known rapper, Drake, surprise-released his seventh studio album, “Honestly, Nevermind, with a tracklist that deviates from his typical rap/R&B sound. “Honestly, Nevermindincludes thirteen tracks, most of which using the house style of music and electronic beats.

To be clear, I am not a Drake fan. While his older R&B era is undeniably nostalgic, much of his current music failed to impress me. Nevertheless, I was excited to hear the album and his addition to a newly recognized genre of music. I began listening to the album on its release date and after hearing the first few songs, decided that continuing was too big of a feat. Aside from hearing some of the songs through social media, I could not listen to the whole album until I committed myself to doing so for the sake of writing this article. 

The album begins with “Intro,” a 37 second song that solely consists of a saxophone; an irrelevant addition, in my opinion. The album progresses to the first song, “Falling Back,” which has an upbeat feel to it. This song, to me, is a weak and unmemorable way to begin the album. Drake’s voice on the song is unmelodic and his usually impressive bars were replaced with a lousy attempt at singing. Despite my optimism, the album did not improve and songs became worse and more repetitive as it went on. There were, however, a few decent songs on the album. Some of my favorites were “Texts Go Green” and “Jimmy Cooks,” which resembled Drake’s typical rap style. “Jimmy Cooks” was catchy; still, Drake’s talent was not showcased, and 21 Savage’s verse outshone his. 

Much of the public seems to share this belief, evidenced by the album’s low first-week sales. Having received 204,000 sales in its first week, “Honestly, Nevermindis Drake’s lowest selling album to date. The lower album sales should not be attributed to “Honestly, Nevermindbeing a surprise release either because Drake has spontaneously released albums in the past. Drake’s new endeavor into the house genre has no redeemable qualities and miserably failed.