Send "Drake " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 I probably have sat myself down around half a dozen times in an attempt to write something up for the latest Drake album, but there's something about Take Care that's making that impossible to do so. What is it? The fuck if I know, per se, but it keeps on growing with every spin that I give the album. It's something about Drake's over-emotional sob story. The irony and the audacity to call out “soap opera” rappers when what he's given us with Take Care is exactly that. The overinflated characterizations, the embellished emotional swings, the sex – they're all here, but where day time TV fails and Drake succeeds is in the humanity of it all. Drake still revels in the same kind of drama-laden story telling, but instead of the overacting and plastic jawlines he is the understanding thread of the common soul that lies within. I guess you could blame it all on Kanye West's rambling mad streak of wearing his wrecked and engorged heart on his sleeve and eventually making one of the few true break up albums for the teeth grinding E-tard club generation. Following it up with a statement that matched his batshit insane grandiose persona probably helped too. For the sake of argument “probably” means “of-fucking-course it did”. Take Care is Drake throwing off all his fake Weezy swag and hoisting the Yeezy flag high (By the way, can we get rid of the whole shortened nickname thing please? You're fucking rappers, not Teletubbies...), getting rid of the worst of his Thank Me Later cheesy party-isms and embracing his inner sensitive, drowning in pussy, emotional philosopher. Musically he plays the part with his in house songwriting/producer collaborator Noah “40” Shebib providing a moody and contemplative background to whatever Drake want's to put out be it singing, rapping, talking or stuttering – all of which he does a lot of. I'm not going to lie, it works. It works ridiculously well. Take Care is equal parts dick-waving egoism, emotional wreckage, and mature understanding. Does he talk about himself like he's the second coming of Christ? Of course, this is a modern pop-hop album and that kind of machismo is not only expected, it's required. Does he dwell on lost love and quick flings like somewhere deep in his memories lies the cure to cancer and the only way to reach it is to regurgitate everything to everyone? Well, duh, it's a break up album. Does he always take the high road and revel in the positivity of it all and place his former flames high on a pedestal, placing the blame on his own failings and creating one of the most genuinely human rap albums in recent memory? Absolutely, and that's something....full text |
| Cnn |
| The Canadian singer-rapper introduced his melancholy-player persona on 2010's platinum "Thank Me Later," spooling out alarmingly mellow confessional brags over synth-streaked tracks that suggested someone had spiked his Cristal with NyQuil and truth serum. "Famous like a drug that I've taken too much of," he rapped, and somehow made you sympathetic to all his stardom-is-hard meditations. So, how's he feeling these days? The cover of "Take Care" says it all: Drake sits forlornly in the depths of a mansion he could've bought from 1970s Jimmy Page, slung over a golden goblet of $50-a-glass painkiller. Dude probably had sex two minutes ago, but he looks like his dog just got run over by a garbage truck. The music is grandiose, full of big names and weighty references -- from the drunk-dial epic "Marvin's Room" to the N'awlins hip-hop tribute "Practice" to cameos from André 3000, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and Stevie Wonder. Where "Thank Me Later" was airy and spare, "Take Care" truly goes for it with luxe, expansive production: On "Cameras," beatmaking prodigy Lex Luger provides diamond-bright high-hat clicks, low-end vroom and soulful background vocals as Drake struggles to convince his girl he's not cheating on her after she sees him in a magazine with another woman; on "Lord Knows," Just Blaze laces a shake-the-sky mix of gospel choir, gauzy R&B sample and stomping beat, and Rick Ross swoops in for a hilarious freestyle: "Villa on the water with the wonderful views/Only fat ni**a in the sauna with Jews." There's even a funky thank-you letter to Drake's mom. Drake's 'Take Care': A Track-by-Track Breakdown Mostly, Drake stretches out over languid, austerely plush tracks that blur hip-hop, R&B and downtempo dance music. "Over My Dead Body" opens the album with a dreamweave of cascading pianos and plaintive backing vocals from Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk: "I was drinking at the Palms last night/And ended up losing everything that I came with," he raps in his finest just-woke-up voice. It's what Drake does best, collapsing many moods -- arrogance, sadness, tenderness and self-pity -- into one vast, squish-souled emotion. On the elegant title track, Jamie Smith of U.K. band the xx lays down house-music pianos, ice sheets of guitar and a sample from recently deceased R&B radical Gil Scott-Heron as Drake and Rihanna do their laid-back, realist appraisal of the love game: "When you're ready, just say you're ready," he reassures. Is it going to work out? Maybe. But like most hopeless romantics, Drake favors the illusion of infinite promise over the reality anyway....full text |
| Xxlmag |
| Call Drake emotional. Say he sings too much. Characterize him as cocky. None of that has halted his ascent to the top of the charts. In fact, his ability to disarm any slights against him and internalize them has resulted in the 25-year-old’s becoming a leading voice across mainstream music. Now, with his sophomore effort, Take Care, a little more than a year removed from grappling with newfound fame on Thank Me Later, Drake has fully embraced his current position, insistent that he deserves it and confident that he won’t let it go. Drizzy lays out that perspective on the album’s first two lines, via the piano-driven “Over My Dead Body,” where he raps, “I think I killed everybody in the game last year, man/Fuck it, I was on, though/And I thought I found the girl of my dreams at a strip club/Fuck it, I was wrong, though.” The uncompromising lyricism continues on “Underground Kings,” “HYFR (Hell Ya Fuckin Right),” “Headlines” and the Just Blaze–produced “Lord Knows.” The last number includes Rick Ross, one of the six rap features on the album—Lil Wayne (twice), Andre 3000, Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar—each fittingly placed and complementary in their appeal. (Rihanna, The Weeknd and Stevie Wonder’s harmonica also appear.) Some of Drake’s vulnerabilities also seem to have withered away, and the unfiltered honesty that connected with many is more sporadic than in the past, although “Look What You’ve Done” tugs on the heartstrings, as Drake delves deep into his relationships with his mother and his uncle, both of whom raised him. Not surprisingly, females are the topic du jour on Take Care, with tales about past lovers (“Marvin’s Room”) and potential lovers (“The Real Her”), about honoring women (“Make Me Proud”) and commodifying them (“We’ll Be Fine”). The Toronto native expertly juggles his singing and rapping, confirming his growing songwriting abilities. Still, things become too R&B-centric toward the end, when Drake’s crooning carries three straight cuts, without a single bar spit. The album’s strongest suit is its sonic cohesion. Led by T.dot all-stars 40 and T-Minus, who, combined, produced 12 of the 17 tracks, Take Care is somber and mellow, cold but not unwelcoming. Its ethereal chords, delicate strings and subtle percussion provide a steady mood and tone that is both dense and structured. Coupled with Drake’s voice, cadence and multiple flows, the sound bed creates a captivating and enveloping listening experience....full text |
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