On April 5th, 2018, Saba released his second studio album, Care For Me. The backstory behind Care For Me is that Saba wrote this album as a therapeutic way to deal with the death of his cousin. As Saba says in an interview, “A lot of it (Care For Me) had to do with losing my best friend and older cousin, John Walt, which is throughout the album.” The genre of Care for me is Hip hop and jazz rap. Care for me includes 10 tracks, equaling to 41 minutes and 42 seconds. Features include theMIND, Kaina, and Chance the Rapper.
Busy / Sirens as an intro track is amazing. Both Busy and Sirens are very monotone feeling songs, which really reflects Saba’s depression from his loss.The way Saba leaves all his emotions on the table while having crazy lyricism is so good. And the beat switch from Busy to Sirens is incredibly smooth. Both choruses of this song are super catchy too. The feature of theMIND also enhances Sirens really well.
Broken Girls talks about his attraction to broken girls. He says how they could help him since he’s broken himself. The song overall is good but only if your taste in music is more of sad songs.
Life is more of an upbeat song, and more of a typical hip hop song. Saba talks about his life and his difficulties through life. I really like the unique beat with what sounds like sirens in the background.
Calligraphy is one of my favorite songs on this album. Him talking about how he started to write away because it’s a form of expressing himself and coping really fits well with the feels of Care for Me. And the song overall is just good too.
Fighter is a great song for this album. Saba just talks about him fighting with people and not wanting to fight no more. Fighter is also another monotone song, but without being sad. The chorus featuring Kaina is very good.
Smile is another one of my favorite songs of Care for Me. Saba talks about his experiences in Chicago and how important family is to him. Smile being very upbeat is amazing and refreshing for the tone of this album. The chorus is probably the best part of this song. The chorus is very catchy and just very good overall.
Logout as the name says, reflects how social media has affected society. The song is yet another monotone song, which also fits with the album. The song is just good, nothing more nothing less.
Grey talks about what Saba has faced in the music industry. The song is a great song with the instruments and chorus mixing extremely well together. The trumpets and beat make it sound very jazzy, and that’s what I love about it.
Prom / King is a perfect song overall. The song is more of Saba talking over a beat. And I really like that since if you actually listen to the lyrics, it’ll paint a picture in your mind. And everything correlating to make a real story is honestly pretty nice. In Prom, Saba talks about him and John being seniors getting ready for prom and everything after it. While King is more of Walt and Saba doing whatever together.
Heaven all around me talks about the struggles of life and even with all of those struggles, there always is hope in a world of struggle. And for an outro, it definitely keeps up with the rest of the tracks and delivers. And the chorus is one of the catchiest in Care for Me.
Care for Me is a great album while being heavily overlooked. From how Saba can talk about a typical day with Walt to fighting with the neighbors while having all of that rhyme is crazy. In my opinion, Care for Me is an amazing album with a deep backstory.
