Popular rap artist Drake released his highly anticipated album “For All The Dogs” on October 6. My expectations going into the album weren’t too high, as I was not a fan of Drake’s last two albums, “Honestly, Nevermind” and “Certified Lover Boy.” I did, however, enjoy his collaboration with 21 Savage, “Her Loss,” that came out last November. I still find myself listening to that album often.

My impression of “For All The Dogs” preceded the album’s release when I heard the lead single, “Slime You Out.” The track features SZA, a favorite artist of mine. While I really enjoyed SZA’s parts, I thought the song overall was mediocre at best. I don’t think it’s a bad track, I am just not a big fan of the instrumentation or Drake’s singing.

I later saw the tracklist and got very skeptical when I saw the ambitious number of 24 tracks. Drake would have to do something really special for that many songs to cohesively work in one project. Even after listening to the lead single, which I thought was just ok, I still hoped that Drake would drop one of his best solo works yet.

The first track, “Virginia Beach,” serves as a great opener. I love the Frank Ocean sample—it is amazing to hear his voice on a new song, especially given his absence from the music industry as of late. Teezo Touchdown continues his amazing feature run on the next track, “Amen,” which I found to be one of the best songs on the album.

The next track, “Calling For You,” featuring 21 Savage, did not go as I expected. After “Her Loss,” I expected a fun, energetic, and replayable track from these two, but that’s not what I got. It was painful listening to some woman complain for nearly two minutes in the middle of the song, but it was almost equally painful to listen to one of 21 Savage’s worst feature verses ever. From someone who almost never misses, he surprised me with this performance. His bars on this verse were genuinely embarrassing.

The next two tracks were not bad, but not great, either. Drake actually brought some energy on “Fear of Heights,” and Adonis had an interesting feature on “Daylight.” But Drake’s collaboration with J. Cole on “First Person Shooter” was an excellent surprise.

The chemistry between Drake and J. Cole on this track was truly fascinating. Both of them came out with so much energy and some incredible bars, especially from J. Cole. Somehow, Cole gets even better with age. The beat on this song is also one of the best on the album. I didn’t really think there was a need for a beat switch, though. This song was definitely my favorite on the album.

Next, we get “IDGAF” with Yeat, a very niche collaboration between two artists with very different styles. However, this song was made for Yeat, and Yeat only. Drake sounds awful on this beat. The only thing this track has going for it is the intro, which I found to be pretty cool.

The next track, “7969 Santa,” was absolutely saved by Teezo Touchdown. And this wasn’t the first time Teezo brought a song on this album to life.

Drake then goes back into his R&B bag with the next three tracks, “Slime You Out,” “Bahamas Promises,” and “Tried Our Best.” None of these songs are actually bad, but they produce a whole lot of mediocrity. “Tried Our Best” is my favorite of the three, and it is easily one of the better songs on the album. Drake’s vocals sound better on this track than they have on many tracks he’s been on recently.

After a messy first half, I wasn’t too excited about the rest of the project. And honestly, the second half is even worse than the first. Almost every song in the second half is either boring, forgettable, or just offensively bad, the only exception being “8am in Charlotte,” produced by Conductor Williams. Williams was an unexpected producer for Drake to collaborate with, yet he provided one of the best beats on the album, and Drake gave some of his best bars, too, such as, “Not sayin’ I’m the best at what I do / I’m just sayin’ that it’s me versus whoever wanna lose.”

Besides “8am in Charlotte,” there was a decent collaboration with Lil Yachty, and a great SZA verse on “Rich Baby Daddy.” Otherwise, the second half was extremely lackluster. “Gently” with Bad Bunny could possibly be Drake’s worst track ever. Sexyy Red’s hook on “Rich Baby Daddy” was terrible, and Drake’s verse on that song was not great, either. The last two tracks provide no flavor or significance whatsoever, and they sent me off with no sense of closure. And I was not the only person who felt this way.

Sophomore Drew Lufrano said, “‘For All The Dogs’ is a bottom five Drake album of all time.”

Similarly, Odin Gill, sophomore, said, “I only liked two songs from the album.”

After listening to the album multiple times, discussing with my peers, and comparing it to old albums, I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter what Drake says before dropping an album, the “Old Drake” is not coming back. This is nowhere near Drake’s best project, “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,” and there is very little resemblance of “Old Drake.” I was let down by this album, and I’d give it a disappointing 4/10.