Drake - Nothing Was the Same

3 albums in and I'm probably one of the last ten people on Earth that hasn't got whipped into a frenzy over the work of Drake. As such, I'm a little taken aback when the man - commonly mocked by online communities for being too soft and emotional to be in the game he's in - makes claims such as that at the start of 2011's Take Care: "I think I killed everybody in the game last year, man". Really? Because when I think of 2010 I think of a lot of things (oh, just that little thing called My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, for example) other than Drake. 

I listened to Take Care back then but forgot to review it - I wasn't that blown away, but I enjoyed it. I did feel that the samples - or indeed covers, in the case of the title track, relied a little too heavily on the source material and as such didn't quite make an impression on me as something new; hopefully Nothing Was the Same is a mantra this album adheres to.

Indeed, the vocal warblings of Whitney Houston's I Who Have Nothing are reduced to a tinny background shriek on 'Tuscan Leather', a track reportedly cut down drastically to fit the album which I'm not too fussed about; here, it flows perfectly, dragging up sounds of applause and sombre piano tones by the often-masterful 40 to build and build. By verse 3 it's knocked out of the park, and he gets major props for rhyming "Memento" with "my kinfolk". Elsewhere, the productions are a little less sublime: 'Furthest Thing' is split in two and the second half is far stronger. "This the shit I wanna go out to". Well, fair enough. We move onto 'Started from the Bottom', the first cut from the album, and by God I was tempted to just give the whole thing a mess. The single's a convoluted, repetitive mess that just shows a complete lack of imagination. It was, most likely, designed to get people talking (about the idea of Drake's "bottom" not being quite so bad), rather than to be appreciated. Just yuck. Its use of haunting piano samples is less distracted on 'Forever Wu-Tang', and here he references his own bottom: "I find peace knowin' that it's harder in the streets, I know/ Luckily I didn't have to grow there/ I would only go there cause niggas that I know there".

The transition of Drake between rapper and singer is difficult for me, as I'm probably one of those in the minority (that isn't female, anyway...) that prefers his singing. On 'Own It', he continues Forever Wu-Tang's "It's Yours" reference for an extended cut of romancing, Drake-style ("Next time we fuck, I don't wanna fuck. I wanna make love") with a pretty nice softness. Sometimes bringing in guests helps encourage his more soulful side out of him, such as on the Jhené Aiko-featuring 'From Time', and if the track's anything to go by (a slow, tender vocal over a chilled piano melody) she's got a strong future ahead of her. Stronger still, though, is the single 'Hold On, We're Going Home' - without a doubt one of the greatest of the year. Drake is on top form, with a confident but understated vocal and a beautiful, aching melody.

At times, though, the album is calling out for a bit of a shake-up. 40 does well most of the time, but the same "subtle piano" shtick wears off after a while. Hudson Mohawke tries to get a bit of a rave going on 'Connect' but is put to minimal use. The final 4 tracks are all left to different masters, though: Detail concocts an awkward mix of autotune and cog-turning minimalism on '305 to my City' that passes by uneventfully, whilst 'Pound Cake/ Paris Morton Music 2' - like most Jay Z features nowadays - could do with being toned down altogether if needed at all. Not to worry, though, at least one of the closers works: 'Too Much' displays a striking vocal performance from London-born Sampha that sets Drake on fire into an engaging account of his breakthrough and its effect on his family ("All my family from the M-Town that I've been 'round, started treating me like I'm "him" now/ Like we don't know each other, we ain't grow together, we just friends now/ Shit got me feeling pinned down, pick the pen up or put the pen down").

The album's pretty decent to listen to, but there're still problems with Drake for me. The self-deprecation I can handle, but the way it's peddled between humble bragging isn't really consistent, let alone the best way to strike a rapport with the listener. And then there's his voice. I have a cold at the moment and if I were to start trying to go to the doctor's and say "aaah" it might just pass for a verse here, yet at the same time there's a great singing voice there. I guess this is a sad side effect of working with Lil Wayne's record label, and I don't care how many people are going to try to persuade me that Weezy's a talented visionary, because I know, deep down, he isn't. Drake, on the other hand, is capable of more. I get that he's come a long way. But people who usually do that have something to say, and aside from 'Too Much', I can't really see a lot of that.

Rating: 6.5/10
Highlights: Hold On, We're Going Home; From Time; Too Much; Tuscan Leather; Own It
Avoid: Started from the Bottom; 305 to my City; The Language

Artwork Watch: That Windows XP mockup pretty much killed it. 
Up next: Miley Cyrus  

wow, I didn't make an Amanda Bynes reference