This is the main mode of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which has hardly any songs that could accurately be described as “sexy” (or “$exy”). The majority of these tracks drag, and not because they’re slow jams. Many consist of just percussion, a hazy layer of synths, and a vocal moved to the top of the mix. It’s probably an attempt to cash in on the ascendant sexy drill subgenre, but it has the effect of a man who’s had one too many talking a little too closely into your ear in a crowded club. “Celibacy,” perhaps the project’s nadir, sees Drake literally begging for sex, counting the minutes since he was last intimate with the subject of his lyrics (“It’s been four months and two weeks and thirty-six hours and eight minutes since you’ve been pleased”) before asking, five times in a row, “Is this what you want?” This does not suggest lover boy; this sounds like the lights are about to come up and Drake’s terrified to go home alone.
For what it’s worth, Drake does steer into the scumbag element, somewhat aware of how he’s coming across. On the perplexingly titled “Moth Balls,” he cops to drinking too much and taking Adderall every day before flipping into something like a toxically masculine version of Taylor Swift’s “Delicate”: “I got the worst reputation in our town / I been seen with all the baddest hoes around.” He’s talking about his status as a womanizer, but there’s an obvious read here that he’s in his “Reputation Era.” Swift and Drake do navigate pop stardom and success surprisingly similarly, and her Reputation album found her reevaluating her closest relationships in between grievances. But one gets the sense here that Drake is uninterested in changing anything at all.
The project isn’t a total wash—Drake didn’t reach superstar status by accident, and he knows how to make a hit. Most of the album’s best moments are in the middle stretch, bookended by a depressive opening and a downer ending. The gospel-affected beat of “Gimme A Hug” compliments 2011’s “Lord Knows.” The flamenco-tinged “Meet Your Padre” actually manages to gesture toward sexiness courtesy of old-school cornball Drake. Despite the ambiguous title, the chorus is about Drake wanting to meet a woman’s parents. Compared to what’s come before, it’s downright heroic. It doesn’t even mention a cell phone once. It’s followed by “Nokia,” a lightly funky standout and the best reminder of why everyone was rooting for the guy for a good portion of the 2010s.
Because while cheese isn’t a good weapon to bring to a gunfight, people still like cheese. It’s delicious. And for a long time, Drake didn’t really fight against his status as the cheese whiz. He was a former teen actor who rapped about how women are prettier without makeup, actually, and a lot of people really enjoyed that. Drake, by his own admission, is a pop star, and was the biggest one in the world for a minute. Listening to $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, you get the impression that he’s found himself in a situation that he doesn’t know how to navigate. He sounds utterly isolated; even on a joint album, he navigates several songs alone. Perhaps no one (except, maybe, Taylor Swift) knows what it’s like to experience a reputation tattered on this scale, this quickly. There’s no way he’s not lonely. $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, as a title, is an invitation for companionship. But as a body of work, it’s like he forgot how to ask.
