For All the Dogs by Drake: An Album Review

By: Evan Sprung

November 13, 2023

Where to start with this album? With it being delayed for 2 weeks, there’s a lot to cover but overall, it’s not bad. Every album on first release nowadays is either hit or miss such as “honestly never mind” by Drake. You never know what you’re going get when a big artist drops. 

The first few songs were well, shaky. The first song of the album, “Virginia Beach”, was a song I really enjoyed, it reminded me of old Drake. For example, “Marvins Room” mixed with “Just Hold On” ”Were Going Home.” I enjoyed it not just because of the nostalgia, but just the way it flowed. It felt different in a good way.  With the album having 23 songs on it there’s a lot to cover, which brings me to the next song, “Fear of Heights.” Wow, this song exceeded my expectations. It was powerful and it reminded me of “Nonstop” but with a better beat. When I say Drake brought it on this song, I mean he brought it. Another single that was included that I loved before the album even came out was “Slime You Out” with SZA. It was a standout because of how the vocals of SZA mixed with the creative lyrics of Drake- it just flowed so well together. 

Now to the second part of the album. This is where the whole “Hit or Miss” part comes in. There was a little bit of everything here some good, some bad, and some very bad.  For example, “IDGAF” with Yeat had a great beat with great verses from Yeat. However, it’s a different story when it comes to Drake’s verse. And well it felt like he didn’t try on this song ruining Yeats verse with his little “money for fun” lyric it was a confusing song to follow. Two of my favorites on the album are back-to-back bangers and they’re “Members Only” with PARTYNEXTDOOR and “What Would Pluto Do.” Drake did not disappoint on these two. The melodic excellence of PARTYNEXTDOOR combined with the loose feel flow of Drake is such a powerful combination. The beat of “What Would Pluto Do” was just perfect with the creativity of Drake’s lyrics going hand and hand and completing this song fully. 

The final part of the album- what a rollercoaster! With features from all kinds of artists like Bad Bunny, Chief Keef, Sexxy Red, Lil Yachty and even another SZA song, how did this diverse starting five add to the album? Well, “All The Parties” with Chief Keef was interesting it didn’t have the feel of a chief keef song. The song was just forgettable and boring and didn’t sound like a Chief Keef song at all. But one song that was anything but boring was   “Rich Baby Daddy” with SZA and Sexxy Red. The beat and the flow is just special and Drake’s verse at the end was great but what would have made it better would have been if Sexxy Red wasn’t included her verse didn’t fit and was just not something that should be on such a clean song. It made me remember how much I love Drake’s flow and articulation of words. One song I was excited for was “Another Night” with Lil Yachty because I love yachty but Drakes lyrical melody mixed with Yachtys hard hitting verses I was hyped to say the least. It was good but it just wasn’t enough Yachty- his verse was good, but it wasn’t long enough, and the song felt rushed and incomplete. 

An honorable mention would be “BBL Love.” For an interlude this was good. After listening to “Screw the world”, I wasn’t expecting much out of his second interlude. But I was pleasantly surprised by the Tyler the Creator type beat with Drake’s vocals- it was just beautiful. It felt playful but sad, nostalgic but new and deep. It hit close to home, it was relatable, but it was also distinct and eye opening. 

But with every good there’s always some bad and this album wasn’t an exception. With songs like “Daylight”,” Gently”, and “8am in Charlotte”, there were some major let downs. “Daylight” had a hard beat and good verses but Adonis Drakes sons verse at the end with just random mumbling just made no sense and ruined the song. On another note, “Gently” with Bad Bunny was just so, out of nowhere I didn’t like it because the beat just didn’t fit in the album. It’s supposed to be experimental, and it is, but in a bad way. The song doesn’t fit into the album and set the album in a weird state. 

But all in all, it was a good album and I enjoyed it. Most of the features were good and it made me feel like old Drake was back and just the nostalgia that the album brought made me so happy. My favorite song by far was “What Would Pluto Do” because I just love the beat. It flows so well. Drake’s verses are good, and it all together is just a song I could leave on repeat. The album was good though some songs could have not been included but besides that it had like I said a mix of “hit or miss.”