Today is Drake day. If “Iceman“ it seemed to me like a record frozen inside its own character, “Maid of Honour“ at least it gets a little dirty.
It's not a return of creative urgency, but of something more physical: denser beats, sweatier nights, less sanitized production.
A record that moves, pulsates and Drake experiments. 45 minutes and 13 songs and an interlude. Everything more acceptable.
Hoe Phase opens in hedonistic chaos from after, while Road Trips with Ice Spice and Teezo Touchdown immediately finds the right tone: slowly consummated relationships, emotional detachment, melancholy without melodrama. Outside Tweaking he really risks something with an unstable and nervous synthetic dancehall, between oriental echoes and feverish tension. Cheetah Print with Sexyy Red rides the sample of Nanana Of Peggy Gou with enough chutzpah to function.
The heart of the album is Which One with Central Cee: cool chemistry, elegant paranoia, no need for huge choruses. Drake seduces, Central Cee cuts the piece with his UK rigidity and the result is a hit that seems random but isn't at all.
Later the album alternates velvety dancehall (Amazing Shape with Popcaan), toxic provocations (BBW), melancholies of luxury (New Beasts) and sentimental confessions always halfway between sincerity and manipulation. Stuck And Goose and The Juice I am the most emotionally ambiguous Drake: nostalgia, selfishness, self-absolution.
Then Princess closes everything with an unexpected vulnerable and adolescent pop-punk. Drake brings the character down and even seems human for a moment.
“Maid of Honor” doesn't reinvent Drake, but it makes him more alive than he was in “Iceman.”
Messier, more readable, less committed to looking perfect. And when he really stops controlling himself, he still remembers why he dominates global pop.
Now let's get ready to listen to the latest…
SCORE: 7.50
TO LISTEN NOW
Road Trips – Outside Tweaking” feat. Stunna Sandy – Which One” feat. Central Cee – New Bestie
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
I would say nothing for a first, second and third listen!!!
TRACKLIST
Hoe Phase
Road Trips
Outside Tweaking” feat. Stunna Sandy
Cheetah Print” feat. Sexyy Red
Which One” feat. Central Cee
Amazing Shape” feat. Popcaan
BBW
True Bestie” feat. Iconic Savvy
Where's Your Stuff (Interlude)
New Beasts
Q&A
Stuck
Goose and The Juice
Princess
