Album Review: Take Care by Drake

Back in 2008 Kanye West made a splash with his album 808s & Heartbreak. That album has turned out to be as influential as people thought at the time, and that influence, both good and bad, can be seen on Take Care from Drake.

What was it that was so special about 808s & Heartbreak.   There were two critical shifts on that album.  The first was Kanye's very raw lyrics.  Both good and bad about himself, his love life, his family, his friends, everything.  It allowed us what appeared to be an unobstructed view into his psyche, at least in terms of how it related to the big events of his love life and personal life that he had gone through that year.  Other artists have done things like this, but not someone sitting at the top of the hip-hop scene.  Second was the musical approach he took.  Very stripped down, very quiet and moody, very different from hip-hop norms.

You can see both of these influences on Take Care.  Musically the album is very good.  I love the stripped down, late night street sound we get.  It creates a very interesting atmosphere and is very well done.  Where the album completely falls flat is the raw, self confessional stuff.  No matter what you think of Kanye West his lyrics on 808s & Heartbreak are interesting.  They show a very mature level of self understanding and reflection and give interesting insights into the person.  Drake on the other hand comes across as completely immature, unimaginative, and shallow.  Eighteen songs of shallow rantings gets old way before the eighteenth song, I don't care how good the music backdrop is.

There are decent moments here and there that you could pick out for a mix tape, but that's as far as it goes.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.