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.
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.
Drake's worked on his own technical abilities, too, and both his rapping and singing are better than ever here
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.
As a whole, Take Care is a great collection of individual records. The track listing arrangement leaves a lot to be desired, and there are some hiccups ... However, this is all a part of witnessing the growth of an artist who has a lot to offer.
'Take Care' is an affecting masterpiece easily on par with his debut.
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.
Take Care is intriguing, filled with top-tier production and emotional lyrics.
He trumps his hitmaking mixtapes and fully commits through first proper foray into the album format with significant improvement
Take Care is equal parts dick-waving egoism, emotional wreckage, and mature understanding.
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.
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.
Take Care shines bright, utilizing the same concepts and notions as its predecessor but with far more lethal and appealing results.
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.
Like so many rap albums Take Care would greatly benefit from a cull of four or five songs.
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.
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.
Take Care presents itself as one overlong woozy monologue, with Drake constantly holding his hungover head and wondering where his life went.
The lyrics are unfocused, the flows uninspired and the discrepancy between the production’s epic electronic orchestrations and Drake’s refusal to engage in anything other than self-pity makes Take Care a blueprint of how not to make a sophomore album.
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
I’d take care of anyone who needs it.
I’m keeping this real short since I don’t have much to say about this. Everybody knows Drake. You know, the lesbian from DeGrassi. And apparently, back in 2011 he made really good music.
This is where he grew from his mixtape era all the way to his peak. This is also where he got really good the pop rap style he established in the late 2000s. This was where he knew how to make great hooks, outstanding verses, and memorable performances. ... read more
This album is when you make the pop-rap style actually great. Some awesome hooks, great and memorable verses and great performances from the features. Great production as well, and this tracklist is fairly consistent. The rapping and singing is just great and makes a lot of stand out tracks. Solid Drake album.
1 | Over My Dead Body 4:32 | 81 |
2 | Shot for Me 3:44 | 77 |
3 | Headlines 3:55 | 88 |
4 | Crew Love 3:28 feat. The Weeknd | 85 |
5 | Take Care 4:37 feat. Rihanna | 82 |
6 | Marvins Room 5:47 | 87 |
7 | Buried Alive Interlude 2:30 feat. Kendrick Lamar | 83 |
8 | Under Ground Kings 3:32 | 81 |
9 | We'll Be Fine 4:07 feat. Birdman | 74 |
10 | Make Me Proud 3:39 feat. Nicki Minaj | 70 |
11 | Lord Knows 5:07 feat. Rick Ross | 86 |
12 | Cameras / Good Ones Go Interlude 7:14 | 73 |
13 | Doing It Wrong 4:25 | 77 |
14 | The Real Her 5:21 feat. Lil Wayne, André 3000 | 77 |
15 | Look What You've Done 5:01 | 76 |
16 | HYFR (Hell Ya Fucking Right) 3:26 feat. Lil Wayne | 74 |
17 | Practice 3:57 | 70 |
18 | The Ride 5:51 | 75 |
#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 |