Rating: 7/10

On August 1st, Drake announced a new project on his social medias, stating that it would be, “some of our most important moments together available in one place.”

The seventeen track album doesn’t contain any new songs, instead ‘Care Package’ is a compilation of non-album tracks recorded between 2010 and 2016 that had previously been unavailable for streaming or purchase. Most of these tracks were singles or tracks that leaked online and ended up on Soundcloud or Youtube over the years, but to finally have all these songs in one place is a win for Drake and fans alike.

‘Care Package‘ contains some of Drake’s best songs, many of which I’d actually forgotten. Tracks like ‘Club Paradise‘ and ‘Trust Issues‘ are classic R&B Drake tracks from the ‘Take Care‘ era in the early noughties. Drake doesn’t make music like this any more. The days of rapping about the toll his early success is taking on his relationships and family are far behind us, it’s just a shame that his more recent releases have lacked the emotional depth of his early tapes.

There are then some gems from that didn’t make the cut for Drake’s 2013 album ‘Nothing Was The Same‘ such as the Sampha collaboration ‘The Motion‘ and my personal all-time favourite Drake song, ‘Girls Love Beyoncé‘ which cleverly interpolates Destiny’s Child. This track is now over six years old, but I already know it will be charting high as a new generation discover it.

Obviously, there are a few forgettable tracks on the album, such as ‘My Side‘ and the Rick Ross collaboration ‘Free Spirit‘, but it’s such a relief to listen to a Drake album in 2019 which has more hits than skippable tracks, (looking at you ‘Scorpion‘.)

If it wasn’t already clear, I might be a tad bias in my review of this album. When I listened to the project I was struck with this sense of nostalgia, as I remembered all the songs I’d first found over five years ago. This nostalgia sadly also reminded me of how great Drake used to be; back before he became as cocky and formulaic as he is now – when you could really sense the hunger for success that was apparent in all his raps.

Drake understands the nature of streaming services in 2019. There are so many tracks on this project that will find a new lease of life for listeners who didn’t know him or his music back when most of these songs first made their way onto the internet. I hope that the commercial success he’ll find from this ‘album’ will lead to more old-school Drake material coming from the artist soon, but we’ll have to just wait and see.