Ever since Drake released Her Loss with collaborator 21 Savage in November of last year, fans speculated when he would release his next solo record. Several hints about the project dropped throughout the year including what many fans believed to be the lead single, “Search & Rescue.” When the summer came and went with no Drake release, many across the music industry wondered when Drake would drop something new. After several delays and false-starts, the album finally released on Oct. 6.

Throughout the summer, Drake kept peddling the message that he would return to his old sound that fans who listened to him when he first hit the scene, would appreciate. However, on For All the Dogs, he seemed to miss the memo. While remaining consistent in regards to his melodic flow and wordplay, the album misses the emotional vulnerability found on projects like Take Care. 

As always, Drake left nothing up to the imagination about his love and affiliation for Texas. He incorporated the Houston-based chopped and screwed style sound into the track “Screw the World (Interlude)” and makes multiple references to the city’s culture and geography on tracks like “7969 Santa” and “8am in Charlotte.” 

The internet loves to joke about Drake’s perceived sassiness, and on For All the Dogs, Drake doesn’t shy away from this. Fans speculate he made subtle disses at Haley Bieber and Rihanna on the tracks “Bahamas Promises” and “Fear of Heights.” His witty, yet sometimes cringy wordplay in relation to women can also be found in the line “Feel like I’m bi ‘cause you’re one of the guys, girl.” Additionally, after years of fan theories regarding their one-time relationship, Drake features SZA on the album twice, once on the chart-topping lead single “Slime Me Out” and again on the Sexyy Red-aided track “Rich Baby Daddy.” While fans anticipated a much more replayable collaboration between the two artists, the tracks are far from Drake’s worst.  

Standout tracks on the album include “First Person Shooter” featuring J.Cole,“What Would Pluto Do,” “8am in Charlotte” and “Away from Home.” All of these songs include a quality otherwise unseen on the album, and with subsequent listens, the album becomes more and more palatable — maybe not because it gets better with each play, but because audiences learn to accept a sort of mediocre, made-to-go-viral sound from one of music’s biggest stars.

2 ½ Dogs out of 5