Drake | October's Very Own

Thank Me Later

…Thank Me Later presents its star as a bottle-serviced hip-hop headcase tirelessly searching for love and good times while caught up in his own thoughts. “While all my closest friends out partyin’/ I’m just here makin’ the music that they party to,” he shrugs on “Light Up”. Which all seems very Boy Who Cried Penthouse Suite except that Drake manages to make his plight tugging and relatable thanks to a potent mix of empathy, candidness, and grandeur. This is mood music inspired by rap and R&B in equal measure– sensible for a guy who can match bars with Lil Wayne one second and then sing an effortlessly aching hook next to The-Dream the next. And, largely thanks to sonic co-conspirators Noah “40″ Shebib and Boi-1da, Thank Me Later is held together by misty keyboards and dank drums that recall everyone from Sade to Boards of Canada to Massive Attack to the xx (who are thanked in the record’s liner notes). And, much like those artists’ music, it’s understated-yet-undeniable emotion that drives this album more than anything else. The theme is mo’ money, mo’ heartbreak, and it’s everywhere…

— Ryan Dombal, (Pitchfork) June 15, 2010