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Jul 13, 2018In the long run, a few duds in 90 minutes of material doesn't seem too high a sin, especially considering the same concession could easily be made for a release like the Beatles' White Album. Thus, with Scorpion, Drake makes a cohesive argument for broadening our attention spans and enjoying life's music, regardless of runtime.
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Jul 5, 2018This is a revealing, thrilling album by an artist who took a very particular experience and used it to create a beautiful project.
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Jul 3, 2018The album is a hulking catalog of Drake in his comfort zone, a space in which his ability to create memorable music that sits perfectly in the cradle of the cultural zeitgeist is unmatched. Still, the excessive 25-song tracklist is a misstep.
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Jul 2, 2018Yet for all its tiresome megalomania, Scorpion is so beautifully rendered--from vocals to samples to features to beats--that Drake ends up pulling you over to his side, much like Kanye West did on his similarly vexing “Ye.”
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Jun 29, 2018Side A is mostly introspective threats, neurotic boasting and paranoia about enemies. Side B is the same but with a focus on women and his love life. As with most of his releases, it works perfectly--but for 25 tracks to work is undeniably impressive.
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Jun 29, 2018Drake aims to come out stronger, more focused and more righteous than ever. ... He goes hard at addressing his industry ops on Side A, and it's full of the effortlessly cut-throat Drake we've come to love. ... Drake gets all the way into his feelings on the second half of Scorpion.
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Jun 29, 2018The 12 track Volume 1 of Scorpion is a sharply focused hip-hop album, with Drake delivering eloquent zingers over stripped back beats and spine-tinglingly atmospheric hooks. ... Meanwhile, the 13 track Volume 2 showcases Drake’s flip side, sensitive R'n'B loverman whose simple two-note melodies offer nights of pleasure on dance floors and in bedrooms yet somehow always end with broken hearts (usually his).
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Jul 2, 2018Scorpion solidifies his universal relatability while yet again supplying fans with an overload of tracks to willingly keep or ditch.
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Jul 12, 2018Scorpion might not be Drake’s most innovative work, but it does help to cement 40’s status as one of the best, and most consistent, producers of our generation, and sees Drake breaking ground commercially if not creatively.
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Jul 3, 2018Either Side A or Side B would function better as an album than Scorpion in its current form. Taken separately, each is a fully-functioning statement, concise and muscular, executing clear, differing visions: Side A the sharp-tongued, South-indebted rap album, while Side B is the narcotized bed for the first Drake project in years to prize singing over rapping.
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Jul 3, 2018It's not his greatest work but it's easily one of his most ambitious, which still makes it an album worth celebrating and listening to, though perhaps in smaller doses than an hour and a half at a time.
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Jul 2, 2018Scorpion is something safer and less ambitious, largely a reprocessing of old Drake ideas and moods. It is the first Drake album that’s not a definitive stylistic breakthrough, not a world-tour victory lap, not an embrace of new grievances. It is, largely, a reminder of Drakes past, and perhaps also an attempt at maintaining stability in the face of profound emotional disruption.
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Jul 2, 2018It’s remarkable how many of Scorpion’s 90 minutes are musically engaging. But the kind of juvenile navel-gazing that leads someone to write a line like, “She say do you love me, I tell her only partly/I only love my bed and my mama, I’m sorry” is less compelling when it’s coming from a 31-year-old father than a would-be college kid trying to make a name for himself.
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Jul 2, 2018It’s a drag, but a compulsively listenable one, with velvety production and Drake’s typically elegant taste in guest voices.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 158 out of 646
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Mixed: 173 out of 646
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Negative: 315 out of 646
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Jun 30, 2018
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Jun 29, 2018
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Jun 30, 2018