Honestly, Nevermind
| Drake
Honestly, Nevermind
Honestly, Nevermind is the seventh studio album by Canadian rapper and singer Drake, which was surprise-released on June 17, 2022, through OVO Sound and Republic Records. The album includes a sole guest feature from 21 Savage, and production from a variety of producers, including Gordo, Black Coffee, and 40. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
A breezy Drake dance album sounds great in concept, but the half-measure house beats and lackluster songwriting keep it from really popping off.
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Rolling Stone
With ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ Drake Reminds Us He Has the Power to Reconfigure Taste –And Elevate Hip-Hop.
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The Guardian
The Canadian superstar’s new album is surprisingly full of house music, but his passive-aggressive complaints get dull.
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Stereogum
If you’re going to make this music, then you need to be ready to soundtrack the biggest moment of someone’s week, the point where they’ve left earthly stresses behind and found a whole new life-changing physical communal euphoria. If you’re not even going to try that, then maybe stick to rapping.
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EW
Honestly, Nevermind is categorized as "dance" in Apple Music, but it's that in name only. Drake has been chilling in his comfort zone, nudging the dial up a notch or two, for a solid six years. This was a chance for him to call on Chicago and Baltimore giants, divas and divos alike, to craft an album of euphoric, swooning, dirty, unabashed house. But instead of taking a much-needed left turn and cranking it up to 11, he's settled for something safe — something too smooth, too worldly.
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Medium
At first listen, this feels like an older style of Drake, one more reminiscent of the Views days, or even Nothing Was The Same. I’m biased so I’ll never not enjoy a Drake release but perhaps this will satisfy those who were unimpressed by CLB. It may feel a little empty at first as a lot of the tracks are filled with strictly instrumentals. I’m unsure of the intention behind this early after its release, but I’m interested in the revelations that will come from it. Ignoring the Ed Hardy-esque album cover, this album is an intriguing listen given how Drake’s career has unfolded over the past two years alone.
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Hot New HipHop
"Honestly, Nevermind" feels like the freshest album Drake has released in awhile.
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Sputnik Music
Honestly, Nevermind is an album that is so bloated, boring, and bad that it works not only as a Spinal Tap-esque self-review, but also potentially as a mission statement on how we should feel about the biggest artist of the 2010's.
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Soul in Stereo
Honestly, Nevermind seems only to exist so that Forever 21 has a new playlist for shoppers to ignore as they pick out new earrings. What’s the point of making a supposed dance album that comes off like background elevator music? But that won’t deter Drake fans, who spent last night tying themselves in knots trying to justify the brilliance of the album, or floating new rumors of ANOTHER new album that’s set to drop later this year.
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NME
rapper’s house makeover provides long-overdue career boost.
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The Star
Drake's latest is a sleek dance music reset.
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Evening Standard
Summery background music and not much more.
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Highsnobiety
Still, Honestly Nevermind is classed a dance album and it's as vaguely moody/horny as Drake's usual oeuvre.
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Esquire
Drake Sounds Out of Place on Honestly, Nevermind.
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RapReviews
Drake breaks no new ground here, and retreads the same tales of love and regret so many times that the songs bleed together. If you just want background music for making love, this is your album. If you want to have your imagination captured by fantastic tales or be taken on an emotional roller coaster, don’t bother. There are no highs or lows here. We’re on medium the whole time. Never mind the bollocks. This is music to fire off a few pistol rounds in bed.
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The Line of Best Fit
It is good to see Drake engaging with form, but now that he has written an album, he must let it be judged as one. Love-burnt and ambitious, Drake has produced something better than its predecessors, but without the fallback of crowd-pleasers, it is hard to see it standing the test of time.
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Clash Magazine
A puzzle that will take a long time to fully unlock, ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ stands on these immediate listens as Drake’s most daring gesture, a devastating about-turn that will fascinate and frustrate in equal measure. For those who dare to read beyond the headline, Drake has offered us glimmers of the truth, and the whole truth.
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AllMusic
Honestly, Nevermind is a welcome development in the Drake saga, a left turn off what was starting to seem like an endless stretch of trap-heavy highway. The destination is still sad and self-involved, but at least the scenery is colorful and never boring.
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inews
The rapper’s unexpected offering feels less like a special gift than a glorified mixtape where thinly sketched ideas are bunged together.
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The Cornell Daily Sun
Honestly, Nevermind was such a strange lack of effort from a bestselling artist with infinite resources. I’m not exactly sure whom he made it for, with both commercial performance and critical acclaim lacking compared to his past offerings. I’m sure there’s a contingent of Drake fans, dance listeners and maybe some others who enjoy the majority of this album, but I’ve seen plenty of members within these groups completely dismiss this project as well. My best guess is that either Drake was just off his mark this time, or he decided to make an album for himself with a genre of music that resonated with him. If it’s the latter, although I’m not a fan of the product, I can at least respect him for taking his sound in a new direction.
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The Daily Californian
While Drake deserves praise for his willingness to experiment and change his musical direction, it appears he got lost on this new path. Moments of gleaming potential end up strangled by an absence of structure, resulting in an ultimate failure to create anything truly profound.
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The Star
this will ultimately be seen as the most polarizing effort of Drake’s career — fans will either love it or hate it. Maybe, given time, it will grow on some of the naysayers.
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HipHop DX
Honestly, Nevermind isn’t for everyone, but it will be everywhere. As Abloh says halfway through the album, “We weren’t supposed to come up with something this clean. Like, something happened.” He stopped making the Drake album we want him to make and made the Drake album Drake wanted to make. Locked in with producers he trusts and letting his guard down, he sounds more focused and balanced than he has in years. And when it comes to fans who were hoping for Certified Lover Boy 2? Honestly, nevermind.
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The National News
Despite the well-trodden subject matter, Honestly, Nevermind is Drake's best effort since 2016’s Views. It’s a welcome reminder that Drake still has a few tricks up his sleeve.
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Consequence
Honestly, Nevermind isn’t a bad album, but it is disappointing. Honestly, that might be worse.
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Ratings Game Music
Honestly, Nevermind is an experimental effort that got cleared by Drake, that is being marketed by Drake, and is probably getting tons of burn at Drake’s crib. You don’t have to like the music on the album, but you at least have to respect the fact that Drake, someone who just yesterday won a basketball championship in a league that he created, flexed his popularity muscles by releasing a dance/edm-inspired album that everyone is going to hate. What a time to be rich and famous!
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Peanut Butter Pope
I still wish Honestly, Nevermind didn’t make me wince so often, but I suppose that comes with the territory, the Drake territory.
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Exclaim!
If it took enough critical uproar for Drake to start taking risks, even small ones like Honestly, Nevermind, then it should be enough for him to set himself up to break even more creative ground without endangering his bottom line.
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This is Hype
Overall, while it is not the best album from Drake, we’d give Honestly, Nevermind a 7 on our hypemeter. No matter how confused you are with Drake’s surprise drop, Honestly, Nevermind is a fitting summer album with dance-able beats and lyrics that reflect those flings we have during the season.
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Beat
At first listen, this feels like an older style of Drake, one more reminiscent of the Views days, or even Nothing Was The Same. I’m biased so I’ll never not enjoy a Drake release but perhaps this will satisfy those who were unimpressed by CLB. It may feel a little empty at first as a lot of the tracks are filled with strictly instrumentals. I’m unsure of the intention behind this early after its release, but I’m interested in the revelations that will come from it. Ignoring the Ed Hardy-esque album cover, this album is an intriguing listen given how Drake’s career has unfolded over the past two years alone. I’ll be giving this a few more listens, but as of right now, this album fits comfortably in the low eights, maybe scrapping high sevens.
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Legends Will Never Die
I’ve noticed the reception for this has been very polarizing but for it to be a homage to the late Off-White founder Virgil Abloh, I’m honestly on the fence with it. I respect that Drake put his signature pop rap sound in the back-burner in comparison to Certified Lover Boy not elevating it any further so he can mix house & alternative R&B with afrobeats, but the results are extremely hit or miss.
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Still Listening Magazine
Was Honestly, Nevermind as good as classic Drake? No. Is it one of the best house albums out there? Certainly not. Is it a vibe? Certainly. There are plenty of highlights for listeners to take away from the album. It’s also a refreshing change of pace from the generic trap Drake has stayed stagnant in since Views. However, given that Drake is currently one of the most successful music artists with all the resources in the world available, Drake’s lackluster can leave listeners with a sense of dissatisfaction, wishing for more from the superstar.
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Los Angeles Times
Drake dares one such foe, spitting out the words instead of cooing them as he’s been doing. It’s a reminder that he knows we’re listening — and that he’s always formulating a response.
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The Weekly Coos
It’s vibrant, oozing moods ranging from the loungey to more dance-vibey while retaining a sense of identity. It makes it an album that’s better than it should have been, especially after Drake’s myriad of mediocrity between Scorpion and Certified Lover Boy. And for that alone, it’s given us something that feels slightly groovier through a different lens, making it a more replayable Drake album.
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The New Statesman
On Honestly, Nevermind he is more of an extra, playing background music. There are enjoyable moments here and it’s certainly not a terrible album, but it’s probably more pertinent to think of it as, say, a Black Coffee record that happens to feature a relatively tepid Drake.
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Uproxx
Drake’s Unexpected ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ Is An Earnest Reclamation Of A Black Artform.
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