Views - Drake [Audio CD]

2016 album from Canadian rapper/producer. Includes 'Too Good' featuring Rihanna & 'Grammys' featuring Future. Review "Drake is a virtuoso stylist. On So Far Gone, his 2009 breakthrough, he helped re-direct both the form and content of hip-hop, pairing moody, skeletal beats with an intriguingly mournful brand of arrogance: a Kanye-indebted affect that Drake elaborated upon and made de rigueur, and which reached its apotheosis on his best albums, 2011's Take Care and 2013's Nothing Was The Same. Views is longer than those – at 20 tracks, it edges into bloat – and takes longer to ingratiate itself, although time spent in its company (ideally in a car, after dusk) reveals moments of careful craftsmanship and ingenuity. "Controlla" is an airy dancehall confection; "Still Here" is a remarkable amalgam of aggression and softness, all raging low-end, simple singsong and retro synthesizers: a little Chief Keef, a little Vangelis. Other adrenalized tracks, like "Hype" and "Grammys," approach the lacerating intensity that made 2015's If You're Reading This It's Too Late and What a Time to Be Alive so potent. Elsewhere, on the sumptuous slow-burners "Redemption" and "Fire & Desire," the production – overseen as usual by the indispensable Noah "40" Shebib – puts spectral R&B samples into play with chilly chords and clipped electronic drums. Designed to recede, these tracks gently suggest a mood, then leave the emotional heavy-lifting to Drake." - Jonah Weiner, Rolling Stone