Coming off of his collaboration album with 21 Savage, Drake released his highly anticipated album, “For All The Dogs.” In his announcement of the album, Drake revealed that he would be “bringing the old Drake back” in this album, to which he was met with high praise on the internet. Although this album has some amazing songs on it, I think that it was dragged down by its long track length.
The opening track “Virginia Beach” features a sample of Frank Ocean’s unreleased song, “Wiseman.” The sound on this song isn’t anything like we’ve heard before with Drake, and he delivers on it. When the tracklist was released right before the album came out, many people speculated that this song might have been a diss track on Pusha T, who he’s had a negative relationship with in the past. Although Drake didn’t diss Pusha T on this track, he did on a feature on Travis Scott’s album, “UTOPIA.”
A few songs later, a highly anticipated collaboration song between Drake and J. Cole debuted. Drake and J. Cole go back and forth on this track, with J. Cole teasing his future album, “The Fall Off” in the track, stating that there won’t be a “fall off for (him).” In the song, Drake and J. Cole reflect on the never ending debate, who is the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.)? In the end of the song, Drake says that he’s “one away from Michael (Jackson).” That line is a double entendre, stating that Drake’s one spot away from being the G.O.A.T. and that he’s one number one single away from tying Michael Jackson for the most number one hits on the Billboard Top 100.
Drake’s second single released for this album, “8am in Charlotte” comes towards the second half of the album. This song is part of a series of timestamp songs in Drake’s catalog, joining hit songs such as “4pm in Calabasas,” “Do Not Disturb (7am in Germany)” and the legendary “5am in Toronto.” Drake sneak disses many people in this song, including Pusha T and Kanye West. The sample flip and production on this song was amazing, along with some of Drake’s best lyrics throughout the album.
Some other highlights of the album include “Amen (featuring Teezo Touchdown),” “Fear of Heights,” “Daylight,” “7969 Santa (featuring Teezo Touchdown),” “Slime You Out (featuring SZA),” “Members only (featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR),” “What Would Pluto Do,” “Gently (featuring Bad Bunny)” and “Another Late Night (featuring Lil Yachty).” Teezo Touchdown, SZA, J. Cole and Lil Yachty give some of the best performances on the album, with SZA and Teezo Touchdown doing it on two songs.
Overall, “For All The Dogs” is for the most part another great Drake album. The features on this album were well done and most of them work with Drake’s sound well. However, there are many flaws on this album. The biggest blemish is the long tracklist of 23 songs. This album could’ve been much better if it was cut down to about 14 songs, but instead it feels bloated and more like a playlist than an actual album. Some songs were longer than they needed to be and some were shorter than they needed to be.
Although this album is too long, it has some amazing songs, which is why I give it an 8 out of 10.
