So far in 2022 music fans have been treated to career highlights in the form of new records from the hip-hop behemoths Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar. And so, when Drake announced his next album was being released with less than 24 hours’ notice this week, along with pixelated, metallic text artwork, the assumption was that he was coming to contend with the year’s great rap releases. This was a dubious prospect: it has been a very long time since the Canadian artist has released a solid full body of work. This is not to belittle his catalogue from the past five years entirely; though his most recent full-lengths have been gluttonously long with little to say, Drake has always sailed by with at least one banger per era – a lithe hook to earworm its way through the clubs, radio, viral videos and streaming platforms.
Honestly, Nevermind is Drake’s seventh studio album, arriving just nine months after last year’s passable Certified Lover Boy, and sitting at a mere 14 tracks (a meagre sum for an artist whose last few releases have averaged around 20). The album is dedicated to Virgil Abloh, the fiercely influential fashion designer and Louis Vuitton artistic director who died last year, and who was also a DJ and producer, notable in dance music. And so, it makes sense that Honestly, Nevermind is not the rap record people were expecting: instead, it is perhaps best categorised as a sequel to Drake’s 2017 “playlist” More Life with its smooth, poolside dance tracks. But where More Life still had harder moments and textures cutting through, it feels like this latest record is trying to operate on pure vibes – to middling effect.
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