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Drake: More Life review – high-quality filler

Drake in concert in Paris, March 2017.
Drake in concert in Paris, March 2017. Photograph: Edmond Sadara/Rex/Shutterstock

Billed as “A Playlist by October Firm”, these 22 tracks of new music from Drake and guests reflect the desire of a big hitter – who “keeps the lights on in the building” (Can’t Have Everything) – to put out an album without industry song and dance. Cohesion is not vital, so grime MCs such as Skepta (Skepta Interlude), UK “road rap” proponents like Giggs (duetting on No Long Talk, grandstanding on KMT) and a South African producer called Black Coffee on the excellent Get It Together (feat Jorja Smith) sit alongside sweeter-sounding tropical pop cuts. Quite what Nelson Mandela has to do with Madiba Riddim, an archetypal Drake rhyme about not trusting anyone, is a moot point though. By definition, More Life has sprawl in-built, so judicious use of the skip function is required, but this is high-quality filler.