Drake

Nothing Was the Same

There’s also less fat in general: throughout the album’s lean, cohesive set of 13 tracks, Drake packs multiple emotions into individual songs instead of adding on extra items.

Nothing Was the Same is filled with beats that are a joy to listen to and Drake often has worthwhile things to contribute. But, more and more, his confidence is getting the best of him. Sure, he sounds like a star. But I’d rather he sound a like a person. 

Drake's pop music con job is just too well executed despite all its obvious flaws to not be enjoyed.

A steely affair that finds Drake and longtime producer Noah "40" Shebib pulling their sound and worldview further inward to increasingly murky results.

Nothing Was The Same is a challenging, uncompromised major label rap album with a handful of impeccable songs, weighed down slightly by the rapper's increasingly solipsistic viewpoint.

While Nothing Was The Same won’t do anything to win over Drake’s detractors, doing pretty much nothing new for the rapper except bringing in more drill-style hi-hats and scaling back the obsession with 808s, dude is nothing if not reliable.

Nothing Was The Same is a moody record, like a bottomless pit of violent and vocal hormones during puberty. A little confusing, a little stand-offish in parts, but when an equilibrium is reached, virtually perfect.

Nothing Was the Same doesn't show large amounts of growth, but the small changes to the sound and the slightly wider net his lyrics cast make it worthwhile.

Drizzy’s candid lyrics about battered egos and insecure relationships were refreshing early on in his career, but the persona is wearing thin as he recalls how rich his melancholy has made him.

Here, Drake continues with his lyrical obsession with the tattered relationships of his past, which is fine, but he hops on a gauntlet of nutty trap beats on this LP that are less than flattering to his clean-cut persona.

A few spins in, listening to Nothing Was the Same is akin to putting up with Big Sean in order to get to Kendrick:  Drake is just tolerable, and it’s tempting to skip through him to get to the good parts, which are instrumental passages and guest spots.