Average Rating: 5.5/10
Overall Rating: 6/10
1. Over My Dead Body (8/10)
2. Shot For Me (6/10)
3. Headlines (8/10)
4. Crew Love Ft. The Weekend (2/10)
5. Take Care Ft. Rihanna (6/10)
6. Marvin’s Room/ Buried Alive Ft. Kendrick Lamar (7/10)
7. Underground Kings (8.5/10)
8. We’ll Be Fine (7.5/10)
9. Make me Proud Ft. Nikki Minaj (3.5/10)
10. Lord Knows Ft. Rick Ross (7/10)
11. Cameras/ Good Ones Go (4/10)
12. Doing It Wrong Ft. Stevie Wonder (5/10)
13. The Real Her Ft. Lil Wayne & Andre 3000 (5/10)
14. Hell Ye Fuckin’ Right Ft. Lil Wayne (3/10)
15. Look What You’ve Done (6/10)
16. Practice (5/10)
17. The Ride (4/10)
18. The Motto Ft. Lil Wayne (2/10)
19. Free Spirit Ft. Rick Ross (5/10)
20. Club Paradise (6/10)
Drake debuted last year with a poor album called “Thank Me Later” which did well commercially and critically, but I personally didn’t like it, mainly because of its repetitive music, repetitive singing, repetitive production, repetitive concepts and off-beat rapping. This review Is about his sophomore album “Take Care” but at some point you gotta wonder, why did I give Drake a second chance if I hated his debut? Well, because I see a lot of potential I see in him, he had a debut, which was experimental, which didn’t go wrong, it can be looked past, only if this second album, improves an Drake’s debut.
Take Care mainly dealt with one major concept, which was the time period between Drake’s debut, and the process of recording Take Care. The album mainly dealt with Drake’s mentality in that period, what he saw, what he did, and how did he feel about that. The album’s concept went around my ears as something that was somewhat original built from something unoriginal, so let’s see if the music can work out for the concept or more importantly if it is good music in the first place.
The music in Take Care was a lot more structured and had much more styles, it was far more flexible and it was well-made than Thank Me Later, why? Well, because Drake had a longer time working on the album, “Thank me Later” only took six days, instead of six days Drake took his time and had six months working on the album, so based on the time period there was more reviewing and more effort put into the album, and it really showed with the music.
The whole album’s concept can be summarized into one song, which was “Headlines”, where Drake talked about everything about his fame, from celebrating, to groupies, to people hating on him, people thinking money changed him, and his entre feedback on his lifestyle change. Headlines was a fitting track to be the first single of the album because it opened the whole album to the listener and it was the best track on the album thanks to its decent production and strong subject matter.
Drake talked about so many things about what he has gone through between his first album and this album. He talked about how friends turned on him and how they didn’t like his change in songs like “Over My Dead Body” which was basically about how Drake won’t stop rapping no matter how many people turn on him, it had a slow beat, and lyrics that felt on-par with the beat. “Club Paradise” talked about how people don’t think of him as the same person he was because of becoming famous, it was a lot like Over My Dead Body, however Drake did get a bit off-beat in this track, and “Shot For Me” talked about how even when he made it, people kept saying that he changed and how they don’t even give him a chance to explain his real self, it featured more singing than rapping, but the singing wasn’t very repetitive, so it wasn’t bad track.
Aside from people talking about how he changed, he also talked about how he thinks he changed in contrast to he was before he was famous. “Underground King” talked about how he was before fame, it was a good track, and probably the first time I heard Drake rapping for an entire song. “Take Care” was in a way a track about a fictional girl who loved him before he was famous, and how he still loves her, but there are too much distractions affecting their love, it was fair track, it has a club-type flow and some great vocals by Drake and Rihanna. “We’ll Be Fine” talked about Drake changing his lifestyle, it was a good track, lyrically it was decent and the production was excellent. “Doing it Wrong” talked about how Drake loves a girl, but because of Drake’s fame, they can’t be together, it had its ups, mainly it’s production, but it was a little repetitive, and “Look What You’ve Done” talked about a girl Drake loved, and how that because of the money he has, he can help her with what she needs.
Drake also did talk about what girls thought of him in some tracks on the album. “The Real Her” talked about how girls like him just because he’s a rapper and that he’s famous, it was a slow track that was too long, but Andre 3000 had the best moment of the song, he had the one good verse in the song and possibly the best moment in the whole album, and “Marvin’s Room/ Buried Alive” talked about how a girl he loved left him because he was famous, and how she won’t have anyone like him, it was a repetitive, but it was a good track though, especially when Kendrick Lamar’s verse came in.
Drake still did have his occasional issues of being repetitive on some tracks when he sings, and the occasional being off beat sometimes when he raps, but they were both a lot less consistent this time, which was a good thing. Drake grew and knew what was wrong on Thank Me Later, then improved on Take Care, which was a great thing, even though this album had it’s issues, it was still a improvement.
Take Care was definitely a much better than Thank Me Later. It was a long album with some good tracks, it had its ups and it had its downs, it stuck to its concept and its music was flexible. While Take Care was just a fair album, it was still a full package, it stuck to its concept and it’s music was a big and notable improvement comparing to the past, and while this album wasn’t enough to make Thank Me Later forgettable and something of the past, it actually showed Drake has potential to be as good of an artist that his hype is up to.
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