Author: Andrew Barker / Source: Variety
By the time ’s fifth studio album, “,” was finally released last Friday, its first two singles had already spent a cumulative 18 weeks at the top of the Billboard singles chart. Straight out of the gate, the mammoth double-album shattered single-day streaming records on Apple Music, Amazon, and Spotify, with the latter going the extra mile and changing the header image on its playlists — including ones that feature zero Drake songs — to various pictures of Drake. In other words, even if your music streaming regimen is restricted to Hungarian folk music and Klezmer, it was impossible to be unaware that Drake had a new album out.
So how does the 31-year-old feel about attaining a level of cultural ubiquity usually associated with strongman leaders of military dictatorships? Not great, apparently. “There’s times when I wish I was where I was back when I was wishing I was here,” he raps early on.
The phrase “I’m so tired” is spoken several times, in addition to “I’m upset,” “I’m sick of this s—,” “I’m jaded,” and “I’m exhausted and drained.” He mentions that upon the release of this very album, he will be out of his record contract, and sounds none too concerned about the prospect. On “Is There More,” he attempts to perform a self-audit on his own catalog of soul-sucking excesses, only to get distracted by a glimpse through the past month’s expense reports: “Is there more to life than taking trips to Dubai? / Yachts on the 4th of July, G5 soaring the skies? / Is there more to life than all these corporate ties and all of these fortunate times?”Existential dissatisfaction with his own success has been one of Drake’s driving themes for the better part of a decade now, but rarely has his sense of exhaustion felt so palpable, and so easy for the listener to sympathize with as “Scorpion” stretches out to 90 numbing minutes. Which is not to say that the album is a failure. Drake is one of modern pop’s few remaining too-big-to-fail artists: His ear for hooks is as sharp as they come; his gift for phrasing still allows him to imbue even the corniest punchlines with undeniable wit; and his production team (spearheaded, as always, by Noah “40” Shebib, with assists from No I.
D., DJ Premier, and Boi-1da) ensures that every sample, snare snap, and bass swell sounds exactly as expensive as it probably was. But listening to “Scorpion,” nonetheless, feels less like taking a journey than circling around and around on a cul-de-sac in a luxurious gated community, with Drake too enamored with the lushness of his landscaping to realize he’s reached a dead-end.Consisting of an unwieldy 25 tracks, “Scorpion” is split into two “sides,” with Side A featuring aggrieved, combative hip-hop, and Side B focusing on moody, bruised R&B. Both have their moments: Singles “God’s Plan” and “Nice for What” have lost none of their earwormy insidiousness; the Southern-fried flows on “Nonstop” and “Mob Ties” may raise eyebrows, but they also show off Drake’s versatility; “Summer Games” and “In My Feelings” cast Drake’s signature nocturnal musings over interesting new textures; and Jay-Z and Ty Dolla $ign both bring welcome energy to their…
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