Take Care (Deluxe)

First off, Drake’s most recognizable songs came from this one album. "Headlines," "Crew Love," "Take Care," "Marvins Room," "HYFR," and "The Motto" are all here. Most albums stick to one main mood, but Take Care has different moods and vibes in every song.. If you’re trying to get hyped, there’s "The Motto" and "HYFR." If you’re driving at night sad as f**k, you got "Marvins Room," "Doing It Wrong," and "The Ride." If you want something more personal, there’s "Look What You’ve Done." That variety is probably the best thing about the album. Drake switches between flexing, relationship problems, fame, family, and being depressed over a girl without the album feeling completely random. Some of it is corny, especially when he leans too hard into the emotional stuff, but that’s also kind of what people listen to Drake for. The production carries a lot of the album too. Most of it has this dark, slow, late-night sound that fits the lyrics. "Crew Love" is probably the clearest example, especially with The Weeknd on it. At the same time, the production can start blending together after a while. There are definitely parts of the album where it feels like you’ve been listening to the same cloudy beat for 20 minutes. Drake also gets more personal than he does on a lot of his more commercial songs. "Look What You’ve Done" is one of the better tracks because it feels less like he’s trying to make something catchy and more like he’s just talking about his family and how his life changed. "The Ride" and headlines does something similar with fame and success. Those songs make the album feel more complete instead of just being a collection of hits. The deluxe version has "The Motto," which is funny because it ended up becoming one of the biggest songs from the entire project. It doesn’t really match the darker tone of the album, but it’s still one of the most replayable songs on it. My biggest issue with Take Care is that it’s long. There are 20 tracks on the deluxe version, and they are definitely not all on the same level. Some songs feel like they could have been cut without losing much, and the slower tracks can drag if you’re listening to the album front to back. Despite this, the quality of the songs is what highlights the entire album, so many tracks are just beautifully produced and rapped, whether Drake has a ghost writer or not.