Thankfully, Drake's jokey lyrics ('My side girl got a 5S with the screen cracked, still hit me back right away') and welcome appearances from Travis Scott and QuavoВ keep Portland from sounding too self-serious. The track'sВ flute-heavy production probably hoped to copy the ominous-sounding wind instruments on Future's hit Mask Off,В but ends up sounding more like theВ goofy recorder on D.R.A.M.'s Broccoli.

Portland featuringВ Travis Scott and Quavo HeВ hands over the whole woozy track to the singer'sВ extremely capable falsetto, which lends 4422 an emotional heft rarely felt on the rest of More Life. But sung over one of More Life's most colorful samples, listening to the rapper mull over his trust issues finally sounds fun again.Дrake doesn't just let SamphaВ - the British artist he collaborated with on Nothing Was the SameВ highlight Too MuchВ - take center stage here. Here, Drake returnsВ to complaining about theВ famous-people problems he spentВ much of ViewsВ questioning. It's hard to imagine how the track could be any better with Lopez's addition, as SmithВ and Drake trade verses overВ aВ gentle house beat that's one of More Life's best. Lo's vocals are replaced byВ theВ risingВ U.K. But on their supposed collaboration Get It Together, J. Get It Together featuring Black Coffee, Jorja SmithДrake's rumored paramour Jennifer Lopez immediately establishes a presence on the album, thanks to his allusion to drunk-texting her seconds into More Life's first track.

When seen as a collage of inspiration, More Life and itsВ peaks and valleys, including a killer run of summertime-ready dance tracks that precedes the album's less-impressive second half, don'tВ seem as distracting as they would onВ a Drake studio album, which have the heightened responsibility of meeting the standards set by his previous critically acclaimed projects Take Care and Nothing Was the Same.Д«ut the bar shouldn't be set any lower for More LifeВ because it's aВ mixtape,В and thankfully for Drake fans, it's better than Views, injecting some life into the mid-tempo beats that dominate both releases.В HoweverВ listeners want to categorize More Life, its proof of quality isn't in its concept, it's in its songs, and these were the tracks that stood out.ДЄfter two opening songs that see Drake returning to the shots-fired paranoia that helped sink Views, Passionfruit bursts with color, a track that nods to the '80s-referencing earnestness ofВ his hit Hold On, We're Going Home,В and the first in a stringВ of Caribbean-inspired tracks that show the rapper isn't finished with his successful formula from past hits One Dance and Controlla. AndВ why wouldn't it, if hisВ mixtape is surveying hisВ musical headspace of the moment? More Life leapfrogs from dancehall andВ grime to moody R&B and beatsВ built from elementary school recorders. But perhapsВ the difference between the poorly reviewed Views and More Life, which Twitter welcomed as a return to form for the rapper, has as much to do with its framing as with its songs.Дrake deliberately labeled his latest project a 'playlist,'В and while the difference may be in name only, More LifeВ makes way more sense as the artist's sonic Pinterest board as it does a proper album.В Of course a Drake mixtape would includeВ hisВ frequent collaborators and favorite influencers, with his verses often taking a back seat to contributions byВ Kanye West, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Quavo, 2 Chainz, Skepta and PARTYNEXTDOOR. Drake's new project More Life, which premiered Saturday night on his OVO Sound Radio on Apple Music, boasts the exact sameВ runtime - 1 hour and 22 minutes - as Views, his sprawlingВ studio album from last April.Д¬onsistency is a lot to ask for a 22-track collection, and like Views, More Life is too packed with ideas to make for a unified aesthetic.

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