Drake

Nothing Was The Same

Nothing Was the Same wrestles Drake’s successes with his ever-lingering insecurities, and like some of the best music, we can see ourselves in these songs. It’s an exhilarating change of pace for the genre.

In the end, what really matters is that the superior Nothing Was The Same brings back the excitement of So Far Gone.

As Drake albums go, this is the Drakiest: Except for Jay Z, who shows up at the end of the album, Nothing Was the Same is an entirely solo affair, and all of Drake's tendencies are dialed up.

Nothing Was the Same is a tougher, more grown up album than he’s made before and, if it never quite reaches the emotional depth of Take Care’s ‘Marvin’s Room’ or ‘Take Care’, it surpasses the previous album in consistency and unity of vision.

The change in soundscape is drastic and helps complete Drake’s transformation from consummate professional to broody enigma. Even on the party songs, he is suspicious of everyone and painfully susceptible to the corruptive nature of his adult playground.

On his follow-up, Nothing Was The Same, Drake eases up on that machismo and distances himself even further from genre tropes to further mine the late-night vibe of Take Care’s softest stretches.

‘Nothing Was The Same’ offers the listener a lot of what they’ve come to love (or loathe, indeed) about its maker, with the occasional flash of something a little more daring than might’ve been anticipated.

It’s hard to overstate how much Nothing Was the Same benefits from a cohesive production style, just as it benefits from the smaller amount of guests, since more time with the half-charming, half-monstrous Drake means an even clearer rendering of his foibles and flaws.

A more accurate title for this album might have been Everything Was Pretty Much the Same: It’s a brilliant summation of all the things you already love about Drake – unless you find him totally annoying, in which case it probably won’t change your mind.

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 the work of someone who is not happy to sit on his laurels and determined to build, which is admirable in this day and age of get rich quick artists who quickly fade when they have to build upon and repeat their original success.