Scorpion

Drake - Scorpion
Critic Score
Based on 34 reviews
2018 Ratings: #823 / 890
User Score
2018 Rank: #788
Liked by 106 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
Exclaim!

With a weighty rollout including endearing videos for "God's Plan" and "Nice For What" and the less-favoured single "I'm Upset," Drake aims to come out stronger, more focused and more righteous than ever.

80
The Observer

Although this album lacks a world-conquering pop hit like One Dance or Hotline Bling, and your interest wanes on side two, Scorpion is the album of the summer.

80
The Telegraph
The most entertaining 90 minutes you could ever spend with a miserable rapper.
80
NOW Magazine
Just in time for summer, Drake’s latest release is a 90-minute double album that masterfully tackles various facets of his persona.
80
XXL
The album is a hulking catalog of Drake in his comfort zone, a space in which his ability to create memorable music that sits perfectly in the cradle of the cultural zeitgeist is unmatched.
80
PopMatters

In the long run, a few duds in 90 minutes of material doesn't seem too high a sin, especially considering the same concession could easily be made for a release like the Beatles' White Album. Thus, with Scorpion, Drake makes a cohesive argument for broadening our attention spans and enjoying life's music, regardless of runtime.

76
GIGsoup

Now that we’ve got a distinction between Rapper and Singer, it’s safe to say R&B Drake remains undefeated while Rapper Drake is still nursing battle wounds.

76
HipHopDX

Scorpion solidifies his universal relatability while yet again supplying fans with an overload of tracks to willingly keep or ditch.

70
Northern Transmissions
By bloating out the record much like Migos‘ new record, Drake takes what could be a tight and strong record, and instead makes it a mixed bag.
70
Clash

Absorbing ‘Scorpion’s 90-minute run time in one sitting is a big ask, but the ratio of good to bad here is impressively in Drake’s favour.

70
Rolling Stone

There isn’t an incompetent song to be found here – it’s more consistent than the genre-hopping More Life – and every last one has its moments. This is a masterclass in pop-focused execution and an exercise in inoffensive ambition swirling into itself.

70
Gigwise

It’s a satisfying listen, if you're in the car or whatever, and assuming you can hear past Drake's wounded pride and unseemly self-obsession.

69
Pitchfork
Drake’s fifth proper studio album is richly produced, studded with gems, and grapples with his fatherhood in a way that casts his arrested development into sharp relief.
67
A.V. Club
It’s a drag, but a compulsively listenable one, with velvety production and Drake’s typically elegant taste in guest voices.
60
Spectrum Culture

This is a record in limbo, a behemoth crippled by a well-timed shot to the leg.

60
The Guardian

Veering from swaggering soul to eerie electronica, this new mega-album is bloated, rambling – yet frequently gorgeous and funny.

60
FLOOD Magazine
After years as one of music’s most upstanding role models, Drake now seems lost, afraid, and emotionless.
60
The 405
It’s not that Scorpion is bad music - it’s exactly what you’d expect, and too much of it.
60
Highsnobiety

Despite its extensive length, nothing on Scorpion feels particularly adventurous.

60
The Independent

For all the hype and drama that led up to Scorpion's release and for want of a better cliche: it really doesn’t have much of a sting in its tail.

60
NME
Drake’s fatal flaw on ‘Scorpion’ ... is self-indulgence.
60
Albumism

Scorpion feels like Drake is banking on the lack of editorial process being lauded as ambition. There are still tight rhymes, bombs being hurled at the haters. Drake is consistent as always, but needs to push himself harder and reach a little deeper if he wants to hold your attention for nearly 90 minutes.

60
Evening Standard
If it sounds like he’s barely trying at times, it shows an understanding of playlist culture. He gives you everything and leaves you to keep your own favourites.
58
Entertainment Weekly

More Life featured a coterie of rising stars and rap heavyweights to create a largely jovial and party-like atmosphere, but Scorpion — Drake’s loneliest-sounding album since 2013’s ruminative Nothing Was the Same — is pure and uncut ego, cranking his hardest-to-like personality traits up to 11.

50
Pretty Much Amazing
Ultimately, this is another entry in the long list of double albums that could have been singles.
50
Consequence of Sound

Unsurprisingly, his charm has worn thin. What’s left without it is a body of work that is self-indulgent, largely evasive, and frankly boring when the beat is not quite strong enough to steady the ship.

50
The Young Folks

Scorpion might be the most frustrating Drake album to date, because it seems like Drake taking two steps back when he had a chance to lunge forward ... But given another chance to make himself as outstanding an artist he claims to be, Drake seems perfectly content to stay in his carefully-crafted comfort zone.

50
musicOMH

There are good tracks here, about 35 minutes’ worth, and the plus side of streaming is it’s easier to isolate the songs you like. But between the sprawl of Scorpion and the concision of Daytona, it’s clear Pusha T’s won the battle and the war.

50
The Sydney Morning Herald

Scorpion is little more than a monotonous response to his detractors, offering none of the wit, energy or emotion that make Drake the superstar we love.

40
The Needle Drop

Scorpion continues Drake's streak of projects that have been padded out to oblivion.

40
Sputnikmusic
It's not the worst rap album of the year, or even the biggest letdown. Hidden under layers of filler and braggadocio is a half-decent concept album about the trials of fame and a sad lesson learned about refocus on family, but it's just not there the way he set it up. I don't think it's worth a listen, even for Drake fans.
40
AllMusic

Scorpion doesn't even come close to being one of his best; instead, it's a one-trick record stretched out into 25 endless tracks by an artist who's so deep into the self-obsessed, self-pitying rut he created for himself that he can't see daylight anymore.

40
The Irish Times
There’s nothing more powerful than the illusion of power – it keeps dictators from being toppled. Strip that away from Drake and all that’s left is rap music that’s no fun at all.
30
Tiny Mix Tapes

Scorpion is not the product of a man undergoing any meaningful personal change; it is the standard, biannual output of the cultural entity that is Drake, with two or three tracks tacked on to give it a sense of time and place, one that necessarily but reluctantly includes its creator’s catastrophic return to Earth.

oh
NR

A Side:

1. filler
2. filler
3. filler
4. filler
5. God's Plan
6. filler
7. filler
8. Mob Ties
9. filler
10. filler
11. filler
12. filler

B Side:

1. filler
2. filler
3. filler
4. Nice for What
5. filler
6. filler
7. filler
8. filler
9. filler
10. filler
11. filler
12. filler
13. filler

favourite tracks: filler, filler, filler
least favourite track: filler

holyfishpaste
45

If You’re Reading This It’s Terrible

Listening to Scorpion is like overheating in a desert, walking from one sparkling song oasis to another, eventually dehydrating, dying from lack of quality, engagement & importance.

Not to say there aren’t some really great songs on here, but overall, even VIEWS is more memorable. I sometimes want to retreat to literally any other album of his. It sounds like God’s Plan blew up, and Drake said welp, gotta make 24 more songs real ... read more

CallingIconicAl
10

Not fan draak, his music is very quick sore face and skull brain. Make me sick. Sorry maybe he nice man but maybe not for me

70

Overhated. Is just mid.

64

First things first, this album is overhated.
It may have some skips, and it shouldn't be a movie long album, but the highs on this album are high.

FAV TRACKS: AFTER DARK, IN MY FEELINGS, DONT MATTER TO ME, GODS PLAN, NICE FOR WHAT, JADED, EMOTIONLESS, ELEVATE, SURVIVAL, NONSTOP, MOB TIES, SANDRAS ROSE

WORST TRACK: I'M UPSET

CaptainAle
15

The fact that there's over 100 writers on this monster should tell you all you need to know.

Bloated and boring as fuck.

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Track List

Disc 1
1Survival
2:16
62
2Nonstop
3:58
65
3Elevate
3:04
59
4Emotionless
5:02
66
5God's Plan
3:18
75
6I'm Upset
3:34
44
78 Out Of 10
3:15
65
8Mob Ties
3:25
67
9Can't Take a Joke
2:43
61
10Sandra's Rose
3:36
68
11Talk Up
3:43
feat. JAY-Z
61
12Is There More
3:46
50
Disc 2
1Peak
3:26
44
2Summer Games
4:07
52
3Jaded
4:22
52
4Nice For What
3:30
83
5Finesse
3:02
48
6Ratchet Happy Birthday
3:27
32
7That's How You Feel
2:37
49
8Blue Tint
2:42
59
9In My Feelings
3:37
62
10Don't Matter To Me
4:05
53
11After Dark
4:49
54
12Final Fantasy
3:39
46
13March 14
5:09
52
Total Length: 1 hour, 30 minutes
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Added on: April 16, 2018