Drake has finally released his highly anticipated album “For All the Dogs,” and with this being his eighth studio album, fans like myself were curious to see what kind of sound he’d have this time around. So I decided to go through the album chronologically and rate each song (excluding interludes) on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 meaning the song is absolutely garbage, and 10 meaning the song is really good. I will then take the average of those scores to give the entire album a rating. So without further ado, here is my rating of “For All the Dogs.”
1. Virginia Beach – In my opinion, the introduction song is the most important song on the album, because it sets the tone for the rest of the work. Virginia Beach has a beautiful, ethereal sound to it that I think is a pretty good opening for the album. I also like the simile Drake uses, saying a girl is pretty but rough around the edges, like Virginia Beach. This song is pretty good, but also nothing special. 5/10.
2. Amen (feat. Teezo Touchdown) – My first thought when I saw this song on the album was, who the heck is Teezo Touchdown? But when his voice came in at the beginning, I was pleasantly surprised. He sounded pretty good, and Drake sounded like he always does. While I do like the churchy vibe of this song, I’d probably never listen to it again after this. 4/10.
3. Calling For You (feat. 21 Savage) – After their collaboration album “Her Loss” and the multiple other songs that they have together, it was no surprise to see that Drake had a song with 21 Savage on this album. I was really excited to hear it, because they don’t miss when they’re on a song together, but this one was kind of disappointing. There was about a minute in the middle of the song that was just a girl talking, and after that I didn’t even want to listen to the rest of it. I’m glad I did though, because 21 Savage’s verse was pretty good. If he wasn’t on this song I’d give it a 2/10, but since he’s on there, I’ll bump it up to a 3/10.
4. Fear of Heights – I liked the lowkey feeling that the beginning of this song has, but man did that beat switch hit hard. Drake switched his flow and energy to match, and I was definitely here for it. Savage mode Drake has always been one of my favorite vibes from him, and I definitely enjoyed it in this song. 7.5/10.
5. Daylight – In this song, Drake comes in with the hype energy immediately, and I like the sound of it. However, his pronunciation of the word “business” makes me cringe everytime I hear it. We get to hear savage mode Drake again on this song, which is always a good thing. At the end, Drake’s 6-year-old son Adonis can be heard freestyling, and for some reason I find this part pretty funny. I can’t listen to it with a straight face, but it’s still a cool addition. 7/10.
6. First Person Shooter (feat. J Cole) – Man, was this song good. J Cole doesn’t miss with his features, and he most certainly didn’t start with this one. With lyrics like “a lot of people debating my numeral, not the three, not the two, I’m the U-N-O,” this is a top ten J Cole feature for sure. He absolutely went off, and Drake did his thing as well, especially after the beat switch. Great song 10/10.
7. IDGAF (feat. Yeat) – This song should be renamed to “IDGAF by Yeat feat. Drake” because the beat was clearly made for Yeat. I don’t like Yeat at all, but he actually sounded pretty good this time around. Drake on the other hand, didn’t necessarily sound bad, but he was kind of awkward on this beat. But even with Drake being a feature on his own song, I still give it a 5/10.
8. 7969 Santa – The only part of this song that is even mildly interesting is the Chief Keef sample that comes in each time Drake says something he doesn’t like (if you know, you know). Other than that, the slow beat accompanied by Drake’s slow flow just about put me to sleep. 3/10.
9. Slime You Out (feat. SZA) – This song dropped in the middle of September as the lead single for the album, but I never listened to the entire thing until the album dropped because I couldn’t get past Drake’s singing in the beginning of it. A lot of people call Drake a crybaby for his singing, and this song definitely proves them right. However, SZA’s feature definitely saves this song from being complete and utter garbage, and Drake’s singing in the second part of this song sounds much better. 5/10.
10. Bahamas Promises – This song is pretty meh in my opinion. It’s literally just Drake crying about how a girl wasn’t faithful to him and it messed up his plans for a trip to the Bahamas. Like that sucks bro, but you’ll be alright. At least his singing sounds good though. 4.5/10
11. Tried Our Best – This song has similar subject matter to Bahamas Promises, but I like the sound and low key vibe of Tried Our Best much better. I am fully aware that there is nothing particularly special about this song, but something about it makes me like it anyways. 6/10.
12. Drew a Picasso – This song is so funny to me. When Drake is whining about how embarrassing it is to see the girl he wants with someone else, so much so that he “wants to die,” I can’t help but crack a smile at how dumb that lyric is. The song as a whole isn’t bad though, I like the low key vibe that it has. 5/10.
13. Members Only (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR) – After hearing them together on the song “Recognize,” I was pretty excited to see Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR collaborating again on this song and, unlike “Calling For You,” it didn’t disappoint. PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake both sound really smooth on this beat, and although the subject matter is nothing special, I really like the feeling that this song evokes. However, we cannot gloss over the fact that Drake really said “feel like I’m bi ‘cause you’re one of the guys, girl,” with his whole chest. There has been speculation over if Drake is coming out, or if he’s just queer baiting, and while I personally feel it’s the latter, that’s a topic for a different article. Good song though. 6.5/10
14. What Would Pluto Do – First off, I absolutely love the beat on this song. It’s mellow, yet upbeat at the same time and I am absolutely here for it. Despite the fact that Drake said “baby girl, Adonis need a sister,” in this song (I couldn’t have cringed any harder than I did when I heard this), I still think Drake rode this beat very well. In my opinion, this is a top five song on the album. 7.5/10
15. All The Parties (feat. Chief Keef) – Speaking of top five songs, this one is definitely up there. I love the jumpy beat, and I definitely didn’t expect Chief Keef to sound good on it, but his verse is actually my favorite part of the song. This is a song that I can sing along and bop my head to. 8.5/10
16. 8 am in Charlotte- This is another song in Drake’s “___AM/PM in ___” series. “5 AM in Toronto,” “4PM in Calabasas,” “7 AM On Bridle Path,” and now this. I think this song is good but not great. It’s a mellow sounding song that I would listen to at, well, 8 am. No song in this series can ever live up to how good “5 AM in Toronto” is though, so I won’t judge this one too harshly. 5/10
17. Gently (feat. Bad Bunny) – Drake’s history of cultural appropriation continues with this song. I’m only half joking. But in all seriousness, this song isn’t bad, it’s just weird hearing Drake use a Spanish accent. It doesn’t sound bad per say, it just sounds…not quite right. However, the beat of this song is super fun to listen to, and even though I couldn’t understand a word he was saying, Bad Bunny sounded really good. 5.8/10
18. Rich Baby Daddy (feat. Sexyy Red and SZA) – This song reminds of that episode of “The Office” where Toby comes back to the office and Michael Scott sees him and goes “NO GOD PLEASE NO,” because that is exactly what I was thinking while I was listening to it. This song is pretty terrible in my opinion, and it’s unfortunate that I had to waste minutes of my life listening to it. 1.5/10
19. Another Late Night (feat. Lil Yachty) – Drake called out the “weirdos in his comments talkin’ ‘bout some Millie Bobby” at the beginning of this song, like he wasn’t the weirdo for texting a 14-year-old girl as a 31-year-old. But I digress. I think he sounded pretty good, but then Lil Yachty started rapping and I wanted to turn the song off. I’ve never been a fan of Yachty, but this is one of the more underwhelming verses I’ve heard from him. If it was just Drake on the song I’d give it around a 5/10, but since Lil Boat is on here too, he takes it down to a 4/10.
20. Away From Home – I really like the subject matter of this song, as Drake reminisces about his former life trying to make it as a rapper, and how the big home he has just feels like expensive walls and floors; it doesn’t actually feel like home. It’s one of Drake’s more down-to-earth songs, and I’ve always liked hearing stuff like this from him. Good song, 6.5/10.
21. Polar Opposites – For some reason, Drake sounds slightly offbeat in this track, even though he’s not. This is another cry baby singing Drake song, and to me the outro song is almost as important as the intro song, so I was expecting more for this one. There is really nothing that stood out to me about Polar Opposites, except for a few instances where Drake used more autotune than normal, but I wouldn’t count that as a positive. 3.5/10
Now that each song has a rating, we can calculate the average of them to get an overall album score to see just how good (or bad) this album was in my opinion. Drum roll please… our final album rating is 5.4/10.
That score kind of surprised me because I initially thought the album was pretty good. But after breaking it down song by song, I realized that “For All the Dogs” is just an average album with a few above average songs mixed in. Moral of the story: old Drake is never coming back.