OVO No: Here's the Reason Drake's "Scorpion" Is His Longest Album Yet

If you were dreaming of a short and sweet release from the 6 God, keep dreaming.

It's OVO season and that means new music from the boy, Drake.

While it's only been just over a year since his last major release (the 22-track mixtape that gave us "Passionfruit", More Life), Drake is a recording machine and will now grace us with his fifth studio album, Scorpion.

On Instagram, the 6 God released Scorpion's tracklisting and one thing was extremely noticeable: We're in for a long haul. 

No, we mean this literally. It's 25 tracks long. If you were of the mind that Views was way too long, this album has five more tracks.

So, what's up with Drake releasing super long albums and mixtapes?

His debut album, Thank Me Later, contained 14 tracks; his sophomore, Take Care, had 18; Nothing Was the Same had a manageable 13. Since then, Drake has consistently increased the amount of songs on his releases with Views having 20, More Life having 22 and now, 25 with Scorpion.

But, why? 

Well, it's actually a very smart move. While the fans who are actually listening to the album might skip over a few of the filler tracks, overall, streaming numbers will be higher than those for an album with your standard 12 or 13 tracks.

As Pitchfork pointed out, "more tracks means more streams means more royalties."

Drake just released the tracklist for his new album and it’s 25 songs long. Scorpion is definitely gonna break streaming records. #Scorpion

— NUFFSAID NY (@nuffsaidNY) June 28, 2018

The reason albums only had around 10 to 13 tracks on average is because, in the pre-digital landscape (basically, the Dark Ages), that's how many songs (or minutes, to be specific) could be compressed onto vinyl and later CDs. Because of this convenience, it became the standard.

Still, just because we live in a (mostly) digital music future doesn't mean we should throw the rulebook out. We, as the listeners, prefer to have a smaller number of tracks to get our head around so it's easier to look at the body of work as a consistent whole. While Drake's Scorpion may break more streaming records due to its size, it may not win him any favours, much like the underwhelming snorefests Views and More Life.

Whatever happened to quality over quantity? Someone should call Drake up.

Scorpion comes out later today.

Photo: YouTube (Drake)