Month: September 2021

Week 37: Drake- Certified Lover Boy

~ honestopinions19 ~ Leave a comment

Well, last week, as you know, I reviewed Kanye West’s “Donda”, and as you know, I wasn’t all that impressed. I have no idea how long this review will be because I wasn’t impressed with Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” either. Once again, Drake can’t help himself when utilising autotune. God, I despise that software. Like I have stressed on many occasions, if you can’t sing, don’t try to cheat with that software because you sound worse using it. Drake’s latest album had plenty of potential until some collaborators ruined it with autotune. Drake can go deep with his lyrics as he did on ‘Champagne Poetry’, ‘7am on Bridle Path’ and ‘the Remorse’. Those are the only tracks I liked with Drake on them and no pathetic autotune in sight. My favourite was ‘Yebba’s Heartbreak’ featuring, funnily enough, Yebba on vocals over a soft piano. I first saw Yebba Smith on Later…with Jools Holland in the autumn of 2019 on a Mark Ronson track. Mark has sung her praises for quite a while, and it was great to hear her on this record. It was my favourite because of her strong vocals, and Drake left her to it. It’s unusual for an artist/band’s album to only feature on some of their tracks. I can’t continue the review because the record bored me.

Song recommendations: ‘Yebba’s Heartbreak’, ‘Champagne Poetry’, ‘the Remorse’

3/10

Week 36: Kanye West- Donda

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In 2004, I bought an RnB compilation album called “Ice”, which also happened to have an artist I was yet to discover called Kanye West, and songs called ‘All Falls Down’ and ‘Jesus Walks’ complete with about three remixes of those said tracks. Back then, I liked his music and was interested in discovering more. Many feel it is offensive to rip off ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ by Daft Punk off their iconic “Discovery” album. I didn’t mind Kanye’s sampling of it for his track ‘Stronger’, and I also enjoyed the track featured as the title track for the Saint’s Row the Third console game. The latter was in 2008; that was the last time I was interested in listening to his songs. 

In the previous decade, Hyde Park was beyond embarrassing. His music has been nothing short of cringeworthy since then. His woe-is-me act while wearing a diamond-studded Prada (I think) mask at the British Summer Time Festival was disgraceful. Yes, he came from a low-income family, but you don’t rant about that wearing such a mask. His hijacking of Beck’s award at the Grammys was also a joke. He wanted to protest about Taylor Swift winning an honour and stole what should have been an excellent moment for Beck Hansen. Luckily for him, Beck, although visibly stunned, found it funny and praised Kanye for his work.

So…”Donda” is an album everyone has been raving about and comparing it to Drake’s “CLB” (I forget what it stands for right at this moment.). I wouldn’t say I like Drake’s rapping anyway. He wants to use autotune; that winds me up big time. Now, “Donda” lasts for almost two hours over twenty-seven tracks. I was willing to listen, but there were only three tracks worth listening to. The rest is just autotuned bullshit. It’s a shame because he does have some pretty hard-hitting stories to tell, but all ruined by that shitty software, ‘Donda Chant’ is just not worth putting on a record. It lasted 52 seconds, with a female repeatedly saying “Donda”. The three tracks I did like were ‘Jail’, which is rock-inspired, ‘Heaven and Hell’ and ‘Keep My Spirit Alive’, which took me back to something that 2pac and Tha Outlawz Immortalz might have done during their peak in the 1990s. Apart from that, an album shrouded in hyperbole. Utter shit.

Song recommendations: ‘Keep My Spirit Alive’, ‘Heaven and Hell’, ‘Jail’

3/10