Drake- 'More Life' Album Review

Drake- ‘More Life’

Describing a new release as a ‘playlist’ seems strange and rather overtly pretentious to me. However, after listening to Canadian rapper/trendsetter/white-girl idol Drake’s new release ‘More Life’, it kinda makes sense. Although, the release is heavy with his rap, it also involves a  vast number of special guest slots that makes ‘More Life’ feel like a celebration of Drake’s favourite artists and influences with the majority of the features taking centre stage with their appearances.

‘More Life’ incorporates a wide variety of genres, from reggae infused dancehall (Passionfruit) and straight up dirty UK grime (KMT) to electro soul (Sampha’s track 4422) and trap influenced rap (Portland). This playlist really does display the eclectic taste the Toronto based rapper obtains. After signing for Skepta’s record label BBK at the beginning of last year, it was no surprise that ‘More Life’ ended up being fairly grime heavy. Tracks like the aforementioned ‘KMT’ and ‘No Long Talk’, both featuring grime landlord Giggs, are hard in sound. They incorporate deep base instrumentals paired with intense bars which give an edgy aspect to this playlist  that is scarcely found in US rap. And yes, many people have argued that Drake is becoming too roadman of late and have slated him for it, however I feel that as long as he is able to produce strong tracks with grime aspects that sound good then go for it.

Drake, however, also effectively shows his softer side on ‘More Life’. ‘Get It Together’, ‘Madiba Riddim’ & ‘Blem’ are paired together on this release and their lush, summer inspired vibe help this effort to flow effortlessly through the listeners eardrums. Their fun, catchy sound will prove popular in the club and it demonstrates that Drake knows what he’s doing when creating bangers. Another summer inspired track is ‘Passionfruit’. This track is one of the standout efforts from this playlist, and its catchy hook combined with an infectious beat reminds the listener of Lionel Ritchie’s ‘All Night Long’ which is in no way a bad thing.

‘More Life’ is not completely faultless though, no way in fact. For one, it’s far too long, 1 hour 22 minutes to be precise. In this bloggers opinion, any album that is as long as some movies is slightly too ambitious. Also, out of the 22 tracks on ‘More Life’, a few miss the mark. The rather embarrassingly titled ‘Gyalchester’ is particularly lazy in both its sound and lyrics, potentially proving that Drake has attempted to cram too much into this project. ‘Teenage Fever’ is another track that, to me, is poor, it’s rather boring and doesn’t seem to go anywhere. You almost end up begging to your phone for this track to release its potential and become epic, however, this does not occur. Drake has also seemed to use ‘More Life’ as an outlet to diss a number of front runners in his genre. Trey Songz, Meek Mill & Jay-Z all receive insults from the Canadian rapper, and this is no way a rare thing in rap however it feels somewhat petty from Drake, especially with the extent as to which he goes to in order to abuse these peers. Keep it civil mate.

A constructive aspect to ‘More Life’ is Drake’s use of features. Drake knows that he is probably the biggest artist in the world right now and he has used his power on ‘More Life’ to give exposure to certain UK artists that do not have a strong following across the pond. Artists like Giggs, Jorga Smith, Sampha & Skepta are all given their own platform on ‘More Life’ to display their talents without distraction and this will no doubt improve their fanbase in America and across the world.

In conclusion, ‘More Life’ is an interesting and brave project from Drake. It’s a generally strong effort, however it has its faults. Despite this, Drake must be applauded for his courageousness on ‘More Life’ and for his using of his power to give the spotlight to artists other than himself, something that is rarely seen in modern music. This playlist is, in my opinion, Drake’s strongest effort to date and if he can build on this then he will have the world in the palm of his hand.

Overall Rating- 7/10

Fave Tracks- ‘Passionfruit’, ‘4422’, ‘Skepta Interlude’, ‘Portland’, ‘KMT’, ‘Can’t Have Everything’

Least Fave Songs- ‘Free Smoke’, ‘Sacrifices’, ‘Teenage Fever’, ‘Gyalchester’, ‘Glow’

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