There are bursts of bravado, threats of force, but they feel less jarring than before, a more natural extension of the way he expresses himself. Here, Drake moves even further away from strict rap, utterly comfortable in his bedroom confessional singing style. There’s a distinct Caribbean flavor running through the entire set, bringing a raw hot-blacktop-in-the-summer vibe to the emotional seesaw track list. I listened just once at work, then again at home on my headphones, but it wasn’t until setting up my big bluetooth speaker and blasting Views in my yard that the album really clicked for me. At over 80 minutes, Views somehow manages to pack in both more greatness and more filler than the previous album. Despite loving a good chunk of last year’s If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late, the album was overlong and stumbled over some half baked sections. I held off on this one mostly because it was a Tidal exclusive at first, and while I can really enjoy Drake when he’s on his game, I wasn’t gonna risk a purchase of an artist who’s been hit-or-miss for me for years.

I’m just writing to say that despite the meandering bloat, this album is full of serious fun and hits some of the highest peaks of his career. This is a new Drake album and you’ve probably already got an opinion. A million people write on Drake’s every move so I’m not going to try to compete with all the lengthy reviews of Views.

Drake views from the 6 album leak