I'm generally fine with smooth and "romantic" music, but Drake's problem is that he's not a likeable person. He's irritating, kinda gross (yes I'm a 12 year old girl) and not very competent at his craft - thus it's a bit hard to listen to him complain about his inane problems for 80 minutes straight. Taking that into account, it's strange how listenable this record really is. Of course that's mainly due to its lovely production quirks: the GSH via Jamie XX via 40 beat of "Take Care" is brilliant, and turning "Back That Azz Up" into some kind of minimalistic fucking waltz in "Practice" is a similarly clever idea. I also enjoyed hearing Rick Ross say "anime". What I didn't enjoy was the parts where Drake took over, "Marvin's Room" in particular is an abomination, it's eight minutes of absolutely fucking nothing, until Kendrick Lamar came around and dropped a few bars about pussy for some reason.
Those comparing this to Kanye's twisted fantasy are reaching badly, this has none of the singular vision or glamorous bombast that Kanye drops at will; I'd much rather compare it to Erykah Badu or any other "ambitious" contemporary r&b singer, except that Drake has no charisma or any other redeeming qualities really. Which makes this a rather singular record, I guess.
By: Stoned Wallaby