It’s been less than 24 hours since Drake surprise-released his new album Honestly, Nevermind. After a few spins, we shared our first impressions of the album, including our picks for the best and worst songs, which you can read here. But now it’s time to start digging a little deeper. What does this album tell us about Drake’s career? Where is his head at? What has he been listening to? What does this say about popular music in 2022?
As the album settles in, narratives are starting to develop and we’re learning new things about Drake (and the modern pop music landscape around him). For one, he’s been influenced by house music from various regions across the world, and it seems he’s starting to strategize his own career differently, warming up to the idea of making concise, sonically-focused albums instead of attempting to please all of his fans at once. Before diving into more in-depth reviews and collaborator interviews next week, we put together a list of 7 things we learned from Drake’s new album Honestly, Nevermind.