So I went back to listen to VIEWS with CLB being out 2021 and all. So far I'm at "Weston Road Flows."

I know 'Feel No Ways' gets lots of love on this site. I wanted to just discuss how fire the first four songs all together are. The first five songs on 'More Life' are the only other time I can think of in Drake's discography where he has such a long stretch of songs that just excellently flow together. 'Nothing Was The Same' had a few sections like that but I feel like the master planning from 40 and Drake in the first 1/5 of Views is really something else.

'Keep the Family Close' is honestly dope. Drake's vocal melody is super memorable and solid, and the instrumentation (minus the sort of cheap sounding drums and horn stabs) is amazing. The integration of the sampled vocals and slightly digitized vocals with the organic instrumentation is fantastic.

'9' may be a bit simplistic as far as Drake's flow and so on, but it really is fantastic too. You might have had to have been in Toronto at night to understand. It's just so loaded with that authentic sense of place and time that so many of the best OVO records contain. The beat is so god damn advanced. You can tell 40 has spent time listening to s*** like Kid A, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Burial, etc. Then that insane outro with the "I am very much alive in the 6 now" song snippet. That type of s*** is what makes for classic albums - those little interludes and snippets. The confidence they had to present that little snippet as was, without turning it into a song, shows that 40 and Drake are serious A-game musicians (if it was in any doubt).

Then maybe the best of the lot, the double whammy of "U With Me?" and "Feel No Ways." I guess my one caveat with U With Me? is that the drums are a little overly punchy in the mix. Compared to a song with a similar drum beat like Future's "I Won" I think they could have been improved. But the strings, vocal samples, and most of all the insane third verse, are just incredible. I just wish they hadn't cut off the outro. In general I think the album deserved an edition that gave the good songs like these more time to breathe while cutting out the pander-y basic songs like "Still Here." Basically, the original "Views From the 6" album concept from like 2014. But I digress...

"Feel No Ways" is epic, the total validation of Drake's whole OVO Sound notion and maybe Jordan Ullman's finest moment ever. It's this particular type of advanced sonic adventurousness that was so, so, sorely missing on Scorpion. Drake is at his best when he's comfortable and he just gets this Toronto sound so nicely. The song sounds so original and ahead of its time yet retro, like a Phil Collins song from 2055 or something. The intricacy of Drake's vocal melody over the crazy choppy beat is something that only real musicians, really locking in, could really achieve. Outstanding stuff, especially the string outro.

Basically I think this opening section is amazing, arguably as good as anything from NWTS/IYRTITL, and better than a lot of Take Care as well. For this alone I think Views (the album) deserves some serious credit, even if much of the album was pretty basic and undercooked in comparison.

Agree. But the best one is still Legend - No Tellin'

cutting all the junk from views into a retracklisted version turns it into drakes best album

Op swear he me. 🙄🙄

9 really needed a third verse with a flow switch up/beat switch then it would have been peeerrrrrfuct. I like the 9 song but I can definitely see why people call it a little boring. But I guess that's the overall story of Views. It would have been perfect if Drake switched up a couple of things.

imagine thinking it’s better than iyrtitl first 5

the first stretches are always his best

These 4
OMDB thru Crew Love
First 5 on IYRT
and my personal favorite, the first 5 on NWTS

we know from tracklist pics too that Connect was originally supposed to come after own it which would have been the absolute perfect 6 song stretch ever imo. And thats no slight to Wrost (one of my fav drake songs ever), I just think if the tracklist had Connect and Worst flipped it'd be perfect. The juxtopsisiotn of going from HOWGH into Worst woulda been awesome and then followed by Language/305.

edit: first 3 song stretch on TML bangs too

honestly all the way thru to Star67