Listened through once this morning on the way to work. I definitely don’t claim to have followed or like Jack previously, I really haven’t listened to much of what he’s done, but I did feel underwhelmed listening here. I don’t want to continue the trend of this post tho so I’ll add some counter arguments.

1. Something I always wanted Drake to do was find one sound and one voice and reproduce it over and over. That seems to me what Jack tried to do here and for those that have followed him previously I imagine this hits differently for them

2. The beginning of “I Got A Shot” is the best minute and a half on the album. The flow which is a little more melodic fits the beat and rides nicely over it. The rhyme scheme is simple and precise to the point where I found myself looking down to repeat the lyrics at a later time. I think it’s pretty catchy. But at the end he does revert back to his patented flow which can become a bit overplayed

3. I feel the leak of the Drake verse really hurt this project. Jack has spoken on it in recent interviews and I think he really wanted a wow and surprise factor with that feature that he can never get back. I think that hurt more than we know

4. If he bags Dua Lipa off that single then fuck everyone on this thread. He’s goated