‘More Life’ should keep Drake in plenty of peoples’ playlists while he takes a break. Already, the artists featured here have seen big boosts in their own streaming counts thanks to Drake listeners becoming intrigued by what they hear on More Life. Observers know there’s nothing new about Drake’s self-referentiality or him swiping from music scenes less familiar to wide North American audiences-but here, the playlist conceit makes it so that the sharing of eclectic influences feels like the point. In some tracks, Drake barely appears at all. “Jorja Interlude” samples a song he released six years ago “Get It Together” mostly just refurbishes a 2010 tune from the South African producer Black Coffee with new vocals. The ostensibly humbler ambitions of More Life allow Drake to pull some moves that might draw flack on another album. He’s so aware of what everybody else is doing musically that he likes to introduce new music and new artists to the rest of the world.” The producer Nineteen85 explained to Billboard that Drake has “so many good ideas that he just wants to put out without making it a big ordeal” and that he calls More Life a playlist “because he has a bunch of people in a space, hanging out…. The focus here is on Drake as curator and kingpin, bringing together a diverse set of sounds from around the globe in tracks structured to deliver all-enveloping vibes rather than the suspense and release of pop hits. And rather than presenting itself as a comprehensive reckoning with Drake’s place in life and in his career, it’s framed as a sign of generosity, a bonus, another helping-“ more chune for your head tops” Drake says in a sample that recurs throughout these songs like a radio-station bumper tag.

Its release date was announced only a day in advance it dropped on a Saturday night rather than the industry-standard music-delivery time of Friday morning there aren’t physical copies. More Life is a stealthier, less-weighted project. The album had been hyped since 2014, looming as Drake’s great forthcoming opus even while he enjoyed success from his mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, his Future team-up What a Time to Be Alive, and the one-off hit “Hotline Bling.” When Views finally arrived, its cover had Drake sitting at the top of Toronto’s CN Tower, an image fitting the sense of culmination that surrounded it.

More Life follows 2016’s Views, a hugely popular album that earned an Album of the Year Grammy nomination after breaking chart records and producing Drake’s first No.

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