Former child actor Aubrey Graham's much-vaunted sensitivity and introspection is more hollow than ever on his second album. It's mostly condescending to women and consists of self-pitying whinges about expecting sympathy for liking strippers. In place of characterisation and detail, he repeats lines as though casting around for a prompt – often as an inadequate excuse for a hook, as on Cameras and Make Me Proud – and drops wretched clunkers such as "Shout out to the Asian girls, let the lights dim sum", and "She said, you're such a dog; I said, you're such a bone." Drake is insipid as a singer; the low point comes on Crew Love, when he and the Weeknd moan aimlessly about their first-world problems. As a rapper, he is inert to the point of catatonia and his foregrounded voice becomes swiftly intolerable. Drake's self-absorption is such that when he drones "Man, all of your flows bore me: paint drying," one assumes he's looking straight in the mirror. At heart, he doesn't seem to realise that introspection is only worth a damn if you're an interesting person.
Contributor
Alex Macpherson
Alex Macpherson is a freelance journalist who writes for The Guardian, New Statesman, Metro, Fact and Attitude. He distracts himself by checking tennis results, attending street dance classes and trawling for new music in the name of research
Alex Macpherson
The GuardianTramp
