Critical reception
What is the name of the album being reviewed?
Take Care (album)
"Take Care" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 34 reviews. John McDonnell of "NME" dubbed it "an affecting masterpiece" and commended its "delicate, mellifluous sound and unashamedly candid, emotive lyrics." Pitchfork Media's Ryan Dombal found Drake's "technical abilities" to be improved and stated, "Just as his thematic concerns have become richer, so has the music backing them up." Andy Hutchins of "The Village Voice" called it "a carefully crafted bundle of contradictory sentiments from a conflicted rapper who explores his own neuroses in as compelling a manner as anyone not named Kanye West." "Chicago Tribune" writer Greg Kot complimented the depth of Drake's "moral psychodramas" and stated, "the best of it affirms that Drake is shaping a pop persona with staying power. "Nitsuh Abebe of "New York" wrote that the album "is full of gorgeous tones ... And the lyrics surrounding them can be rich with meaning". Evan Rytlewski of "The A.V. Club" found it "plenty downbeat, but gorgeous, an immersive headphone masterwork that's tender and intimate like little else in contemporary rap and R&B." Ann Powers of NPR felt that "the artfulness of this music allows me an in to that experience. I can make that leap and identify with Drake, or at least be intrigued by multiple characters in the little dramas he designs." Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" called it "an album of eccentric black pop that takes" hip hop and R&B "as starting points, asks what they can do but haven’t been doing, then attempts those things. In the future an album like this will be commonplace; today, it’s radical." With "Take Care", he named Drake "hip-hop's current center of gravity". In a mixed review, Kyle Anderson of "Entertainment Weekly" panned its content as "one overlong woozy monologue" and called the album a "total downer", adding that "Drake half-bakes his woozy rap-croon and glazes it with sluggish keyboard hums, ­stalling the album’s momentum". Alex Macpherson of "The Guardian" found his singing "insipid", his rapping "inert", and his lyrics "hollow", writing that "he doesn't seem to realise that introspection is only worth a damn if you're an interesting person." "The Globe and Mail"s Robert Everett-Green criticized Drake's lyrics as "drawling patter" and found the songs to "noodle around [...] aimlessly".