Drake has been a master at combining vulnerability with pure spirit for years. He puts out music that is both unmistakably personal to himself and completely universal to anyone’s life at the same time. His new studio album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, “Some Sexy Songs 4 U” is no different as it dives headfirst into the emotional highs and lows of love and relationships. The album feels reminiscent of the passion, drama and lessons of high school romance.
From energetic highs to devastating sadness, the album is a rollercoaster of feelings, like love always is, where every text message, sleepless night and breakup feels like the end of the world or the start of a new one. By dissecting key tracks like “CN Tower,” “Crying in Chanel” and “Gimme a Hug,” we can see how Drake’s commentary on love, feuds and self-management can help us get through our relationships.
In “CN Tower,” Drake writes a song that is the perfect anthem for those fleeting but passionate high school romances. The song soars on nostalgia. With graceful melodies through the subtleness of the vocals and lyrics that reminisce over moments of pure bliss and closeness. As Drake notes, “I don’t have your contact anymore. You blocked me, I lost you, it’s a back and forth. Think I even hit your email as a last resort,” he reminisces on a past loving relationship throughout the first verse of the song. High school romances tend to be like this, as we spend our time in constant late-night conversations, see how fast times can change and feel as if nothing else in the world matters.
But those highs are accompanied by unavoidable lows. “Crying in Chanel” is a break-up song that tells the tale of the devastation of ill-placed love. The eerie production has a beat that sounds more experimental than traditional in the second half of the song, where a tone shift takes place with a beat switch accompanying it. “We both lie ’cause we’re scared. If I didn’t care, I’d hold back a whole lot more from you,” said the artist. The introspective lyrics of the song resonate with the emotional feeling of seeing an ex-lover move on and wondering why the relationship failed. It’s the listening experience of scrolling through old messages, still nostalgic but knowing things will never be the same again.
High school isn’t all about romance, it’s also about how to get over drama and fights. Drake’s song “Gimme a Hug” does this directly, reflecting on his very public feud with Kendrick Lamar and learning to move past old fights or arguments. In his own words, he says to forget “a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit.” In a sense, it sums up the fights and breakups that happen between friends or ex-lovers in high school. It shows, no matter how bad a situation is, it is always possible to move past it and be stronger than ever.
As Drake gets to leave the past behind, we too have times when we must decide: do we allow past fights to define us or do we learn from them? From moving on from an old conflict to breaking up a friendship that soured, the song is a reminder that our lives are in our hands.
Whether you’re falling in love, dealing with a breakup or letting go of a grudge, Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s album addresses all of these experiences of life throughout each of the 21 songs and 73 minutes of pure transparency. This ability to put our own lives into melodies and anthems is a key reason why 2024 marked Drake’s 10th consecutive year as the best-selling rapper, even before this album was released. Even despite his career-threatening blows, he’s on track to continue his momentous streak for the rest of the decade.
So, while the hallways run rampant with rumors, the messages older and fewer and the breakups bluer, this album stands to give meaning to the chaos of it all. The album is a great soundtrack to the life of the average high school student, which earns it an 8/10 in my books. Points are docked, however, from some of the songs that sound rather repetitive by not introducing a new genre or sound for Drake to a large extent, with exceptions of course.
