Take Care

Drake - Take Care
Critic Score
Based on 33 reviews
2011 Ratings: #186 / 1022
Year End Rank: #17
User Score
2011 Ratings: #147
Liked by 251 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
Pretty Much Amazing

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.

91
A.V. Club
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.
90
Slant Magazine
Drake has grown tremendously in the year since he recorded his debut, reemerging as a more versatile performer and a more heartfelt songwriter.
90
PopMatters

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
FACT Magazine
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.
89
Coke Machine Glow
It is the ultimate Drake album, the epitome of his form. It is the Drakest record in existence.
86
Pitchfork

Drake's worked on his own technical abilities, too, and both his rapping and singing are better than ever here

82
Paste
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
The Independent
Ultimately there are a few too many solipsistic reflections on his position in "the game", and his wheedling autotune croon, engaging at first, becomes wearisome after a while.
80
AllMusic

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
Gigwise

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.

80
NME

'Take Care' is an affecting masterpiece easily on par with his debut.

80
NOW Magazine

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.

80
The Irish Times
Drake's second album is a bit of a masterclass in melancholic lyrical soul-searching, about lost love and spurned lovers.
80
AllHipHop

Take Care is intriguing, filled with top-tier production and emotional lyrics.

80
No Ripcord

He trumps his hitmaking mixtapes and fully commits through first proper foray into the album format with significant improvement

80
Sputnikmusic

Take Care is equal parts dick-waving egoism, emotional wreckage, and mature understanding.

80
Spin

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
XXL

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
Rolling Stone
Mostly, Drake stretches out over languid, austerely plush tracks that blur hip-hop, R&B and downtempo dance music.
80
Consequence of Sound

Take Care shines bright, utilizing the same concepts and notions as its predecessor but with far more lethal and appealing results.

75
The 405
There is greatness in it, no doubt, but it seems to be a case of quantity over quality.
70
HipHopDX

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.

70
Drowned in Sound

Like so many rap albums Take Care would greatly benefit from a cull of four or five songs.

69
Coke Machine Glow

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
Beats Per Minute

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.

60
The Needle Drop
On Drake's latest album, the Canadian rapper and singer embraces what makes him unique, and sounds great doing it. There is a noticeable hunk of filler on this LP, though.
58
Entertainment Weekly

Take Care presents itself as one overlong woozy monologue, with Drake constantly holding his hungover head and wondering where his life went.

40
Spectrum Culture

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.

20
The Guardian

Drake is insipid as a singer ... As a rapper, he is inert to the point of catatonia and his foregrounded voice becomes swiftly intolerable.

YungG
0

Drake's worst album but not as bad as Radiohead. Also I really hate Gorillaz

ChildishBambino
80

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

ImpalaLT
85

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

100

Drake doesn’t make an album of the year but makes a solid 100

BaldsDeepNer
62

Take Care of... your bird statue?

Kareemwastaken
79

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.

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Added on: September 24, 2011