Whatever's in me, it's takin' over

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

22/05/20 : Dark Lane Demo Tapes - Drake


Seriously? I have to listen to some demo tapes?  By Drake?  What I have done to deserve this?!?

Actually, this doesn't really sound like Drake at all - or my mental version of Drake anyway.  It's not hateful, but I don't hear anything to make it stand out from the crowd.  And three rap albums in a row has just done for me, I'm afraid.  

We're at #4 in the charts this week, with it being in its third week of a 15 (FIFTEEN!) week run - and yes, it obviously debuted at #1.  The top three were Lewis, Dua and Harry - which is the best top three we've had for some time, I'd suggest.  The new entries in the top ten were Future (#5), Polo G (#6) and Sleaford Mods (#10) and I can't say I'm gutted at not having had to listen to any of them (but that doesn't mean I liked Drake any more though).

Wikipedia is going to have loads on this, aren't they?  189 milliPeppers - I guess it could have been worse.  It also agrees with me that it's not "normal Drake" - or as they put it, he was "moving away from his "hitmaking formula" to more experimentation".  Whatever.  The critics were somewhat mixed, often in the same review with Alex Petridis declaring it was "occasionally fantastic, occasionally hugely irritating".  Obviously the public didn't care though, although it "only" got to #2 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" Future, Travis Scott and Lil Baby - not my areas of expertise, certainly.  And the same is true of Drake and, whilst this is different from most of his other stuff I've heard, I'm perfectly happy to keep things that way.

15/05/20 - A very enjoyable change from the rap
29/05/20 - I can almost understand the appeal

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