There’s plenty of that same me-against-the-world talk on More Life. Views was a Citizen Kane move: One of our most successful artists spitefully lashing out at a world that, he felt, did not give him his due respect. He ended up with the bloated, toxic, self-serious Views, a bleak album that ran the charts during a bleak year.

We heard what happened the last time Drake strove for importance. More Life is the best thing Drake has done in years. For most artists, a move like More Life would be an irredeemably craven money-grab move. Some of the songs literally don’t even feature Drake both Sampha and Skepta get tracks all to their own. More Life comes in at a comically overstuffed 22 tracks. As plenty have pointed out, with the way Billboard tabulates streams, albums with more tracks tend to do better. And he’ll still reap the rewards of having a vastly successful new album, since More Life is built to dominate all charts for the foreseeable future. In labeling his new album More Life something other than an album - something other than a mixtape, even - Drake has freed himself from import, from the pressure of making a cohesive full-length statement.

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