No fanfare preceded the release of Drake’s new album (or mixtape, as he’s calling it), but it still broke the Spotify first-week streaming record earlier this month. The real surprise is how subdued the whole enterprise feels. It’s a protracted moan, over muted production, about the miseries of stardom, social media and our compulsion to make lists. Not that griping is out of character for Drake, but what’s notable, and impressive given his popularity, is how unrelenting it is. It’s saying something that the album stays compelling over 70 minutes. At its best – Know Yourself is a standout – Drake turns grumpiness into an art.
