Album Review: Drake - More Life

With his latest collection Drake commandeers two prevailing trends in popular music. 

More Life is both a surprise release in the tradition of Beyoncé’s Lemonade and a capricious amble through a musician’s subconscious in the fashion of Kanye’s Life Of Pablo.

Indeed as with Yeezy’s 2016 blockbuster, this 22-track foray arguably takes flight in those moments when the main attraction is off stage. Drake has roped in an ever-changing parade of guests whose contributions bring coherence to what might have otherwise been a sprawling and unfocused affair.

Some of the juxtapositions soar when logically they should fall apart. Skepta, Mercury-winning grime artist of the hour, brings menace and charm to ‘Skepta Interlude’, while South African MC Black Coffee hooks up with vocalist Jorja Smith on the fluttering ‘Get It Together’.

And if Drake isn’t quite missing in action at his own party, he chooses his big moments carefully. He duets with London rhymer Giggs on on ‘No Long Talk’ and hooks up with soul singer Sampha on the goth-flavoured ‘4422’. There are echoes, too, of the smooth crooning persona of his 2013 hit ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ on the gleaming and propulsive ‘Passionfruit’.

Drake stumbled with last year’s dour and self-involved Views — an 81-minute whinge that quickly wore out its welcome. Playing Dublin last month, even he seemed to fed up with the record’s tedious naval gazing. The project stood as a warning of the dangers of an artist looking endlessly inward. In the end you shut out the light.

With More Life Drake shows he’s at his best embracing spontaneity. The mix tape format has had a liberating effect. Without the requirement to tie the album together with a unifying theme, Drake instead celebrates his love of urban music in its many forms with scattershot abandon and barely-contained glee.