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CRITIC REVIEWS
91
His follow-up album is plenty downbeat, but it’s also gorgeous, an immersive headphone masterwork that’s tender and intimate like little else in contemporary rap and R&B.
91
Take Care is a farewell to the up-and-coming mixtape Drizzy and the beginning of a 25-year-old veteran having full command of his verbal arsenal.
90
Drake, 40 and his rotating roster of guests try their damnedest to create a pop rap album that can compete with Kanye West’s monstrous My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
90
It constantly toes the line between cool and cornball, between magnificent and mawkish, between sensational and schmaltzy, but it’s all pulled together by Drake’s inimitable personality and the genius of his producer.
90
Drake has grown tremendously in the year since he recorded his debut, reemerging as a more versatile performer and a more heartfelt songwriter.
89
It is the ultimate Drake album, the epitome of his form. It is the Drakest record in existence.
86
Drake's worked on his own technical abilities, too, and both his rapping and singing are better than ever here
82
He is not the best singer in the world, and certainly not the best rapper—but his desire to be upfront in his lyrics and distinguished in his music has made him an iconoclastic star.
80
With Take Care, Drake has his accelerated Kanye West moment — when a little too much ambition and all the asshole feelings he's got inside coalesce into an insular, indulgent, sad-sack hip-hop epic.
80
Take Care shines bright, utilizing the same concepts and notions as its predecessor but with far more lethal and appealing results.
80
He trumps his hitmaking mixtapes and fully commits through first proper foray into the album format with significant improvement
80
Take Care has the feel of a late-night R&B album, full of slow tempos, muted textures, impassioned crooning, and an introspective tone that is only rarely punctured by aggressive tracks, boasts, and/or come-ons.
80
'Take Care' is an affecting masterpiece easily on par with his debut.
80
Take Care is intriguing, filled with top-tier production and emotional lyrics.
80
Take Care is equal parts dick-waving egoism, emotional wreckage, and mature understanding.
80
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.
80
Mostly, Drake stretches out over languid, austerely plush tracks that blur hip-hop, R&B and downtempo dance music.
80
It's an idiosyncratic, aggressively self-conscious and occasionally sentimental album, one that falls somewhere between languid, finger-snapping R&B and hip-hop braggadocio.
75
There is greatness in it, no doubt, but it seems to be a case of quantity over quality.
70
Like so many rap albums Take Care would greatly benefit from a cull of four or five songs.
70
Since Take Care is so similar to Thank Me Later in terms of texture and tone, Drake’s well-defined identity will read as repetition for some.
69
I like opening tracks like “Over My Dead Body” and “Take Care” a lot, but some six or seven songs in, when Take Care starts to sound like a dismal echo of the preceding thirty minutes, my interest wanes.
68
Take Care is a record unsure of itself, certainly more focused and interesting than its predecessor, but still far from the classic Drake had hinted at.
58
Take Care presents itself as one overlong woozy monologue, with Drake constantly holding his hungover head and wondering where his life went.
20
Drake is insipid as a singer ... As a rapper, he is inert to the point of catatonia and his foregrounded voice becomes swiftly intolerable.
This album makes me wanna get back with my ex and then treat her like shit so that we break up again and then get back with her again but then treat her good but then she treats me like shit and then I just cry every night after that but then I tell all my boys about how I just used her for a shag but in reality on the inside I miss her so much it makes me miserable.
Headlines goes hard and Marvin's Room might be shit but I can't tell because I'm to busy overthinking so it sounds great to ... read more
Headlines goes hard and Marvin's Room might be shit but I can't tell because I'm to busy overthinking so it sounds great to ... read more
Am I missing something?
The lyrics are super cringe, the beats aren't very engaging for the most part, some of Drake's vocals are simply annoying. Buried Alive Interlude is the best song on this and it's basically a Kendrick song.
This is the album some of you call his best and a classic? Damn.
I get why this was popular back then because it was a breath of fresh air but that doesn't make it good in 2020. Is it nostalgia?
The lyrics are super cringe, the beats aren't very engaging for the most part, some of Drake's vocals are simply annoying. Buried Alive Interlude is the best song on this and it's basically a Kendrick song.
This is the album some of you call his best and a classic? Damn.
I get why this was popular back then because it was a breath of fresh air but that doesn't make it good in 2020. Is it nostalgia?
[76.11] Take Care begins what JPEG will never stop mentioning, the "Drake Era of rap". From what I see, 808s & Heartbreak changed up the idea of being raw and MUCH more soulful over more atmospheric beats, and Drake ran with this and on this album generates that first mainstream record that will forever cement Graham as THEE sad rap boi. It's upsetting to see that the tape isn't as good as I remember it, when I went into it in middle school years ago, a lot of filler and just ... read more
pitchfork.com
Drake Shares 3 New Songs on Scary Hours 2 EP 
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Year End Lists
| #2 | / | Stereogum |
| #3 | / | Bigger Than The Sound |
| #3 | / | Complex |
| #5 | / | Billboard |
| #7 | / | FACT Magazine |
| #8 | / | Pazz and Jop |
| #8 | / | Pitchfork |
| #10 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #10 | / | Prefix |
| #13 | / | A.V. Club |
More Lists
Track List
- Over My Dead Body
- Shot for Me
- Headlines
- Crew Love [ft. the Weeknd]
- Take Care [ft. Rihanna]
- Marvin's Room
- Under Ground Kings
- We’ll Be fine
- Make Me Proud [ft. Nicki Minaj]
- Lord Knows [ft. Rick Ross]
- Cameras
- Doing It Wrong
- The Real Her [ft. Andre 3000 and Lil Wayne]
- Look What You’ve Done
- HYFR [ft. Lil Wayne]
- Practice
- The Ride
- Hate Sleeping Alone (Bonus)
- Untitled [ft. Lil Wayne] (Bonus)
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Added on: September 24, 2011