95- "Take Care" by Drake

 Ugh, Drake.

Drake is one of those artists whose mass cultural appeal is completely mystifying to me. I find his voice grating, his rhymes cringeworthy, and his beats boring. It's also pretty surprising to see a Drake album considered among the 100 best albums of all time. I get that he's really popular, and has had some influence in a particular cringeworthy style of rap, but come on. The Marshall Mathers LP is #145. I get that it's popular to hate on Eminem, particularly with how lackluster his last decade or so has been, but that album changed the game. Even more egregiously, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City is #115. In Kendrick's case, he does have an album at #19, so I can understand not wanting two of his albums in the top 100, but GKMC is a modern classic. In contrast, we have Take Care. Come on, bro.

Take Care is an hour and a half (!) of mostly mopey, whiney, and all-around insufferable pablum. There's something about Drake's obnoxious way of being both braggadocios and ridiculously self-pitying, just lines apart from one another, that hits me like nails on a chalkboard. Even one minute into the album-opener, "Over My Dead Body," I knew I was in for a rough listen. It's annoying, also boring, and filled with groaning dad-jokes for punchlines ("Don't make me break your Kevin Hart, boy," "Shout out to Asian girls, let the lights dim some"... what kind of person finds this funny or interesting?). I don't really care for any of the big singles; the title track is meh, and "Headlines" is listenable, but barely. I will say, I did enjoy the "Buried Alive Interlude," because Drake wasn't on it and it's not every day I hear a 2011 Kendrick Lamar verse for the first time. I will say, "Under Ground Kings" and "We'll Be Fine" aren't too bad either; I doubt I'll be revisiting them any time soon, but they were more listenable then most of the junk on this album. Also, for what it's worth, it was cool to hear Drake name drop the late Mac Dre on multiple tracks ("The Motto" and "Over My Dead Body"). The rest of this was real bad, though. 

Would not recommend. Listen to Mac Dre instead.