One of the first things I realized when I started working in streaming music a decade ago is that everything is—or should be—a playlist. The thing we call an "album" (or "record" or "CD" or whatever your go-to term is) is a playlist featuring (usually) new songs by (usually) a single artist, sequenced by (usually) the artist. A "single" is the same thing with fewer songs and maybe some remixes. A "feature story" in that setting is a playlist put together by writer or curator and fleshed out with lots of text and maybe some pictures, too. A "radio station" is a playlist featuring songs by (usually) lots of artists, played in random order by either a programmer or an algorithm instead of by the user. Etc. I don't feel vindicated by DRAKE's decision to call his (generally great) new project, MORE LIFE, a "playlist" so much as I'm kind of "well, duh." And I'm genuinely loving the active discussion about what it means that, at a time when many of us no longer understand the difference between a mixtape and an album, Drake appears to be reframing and redefining the former (or perhaps both?) as something that is fundamentally no different than RAP CAVIAR or SONGS TO SING IN THE SHOWER. JON CARAMANICA says the word playlist "suggests an aesthetic shift from the album ... to a collection of moods, impressions, influences and references," and allows the artist to relax a little bit. PAUL THOMPSON suggests this is Drake adapting to the world as it is today, self-consciously playing with sonic ideas while freeing himself from the "narrative baggage that comes with the fight to craft a Great Album." Or is he, on the other hand, just playing with semantics while inventing something that's already been invented four or five times over? Or have we all given in to APPLE's marketing? Either way, if this is what it takes for the world's reigning pop king to loosen up and widen his palette even further in the service of a consistently catchy, sonically expansive and somewhat rambling pop album, then more playlists please. Of every type... Also, on the subject of redefining, he released the thing on a Saturday. No one but no one does that... The price of a two-week exclusive on a CHANCE THE RAPPER, um, mixtape for your subscription service: $500,000... ESQUIRE'S CHARLES P. PIERCE on the similarities between CHUCK BERRY and JIMMY BRESLIN... Let's watch PRINCE shred "JOHNNY B. GOODE" at his SUPER BOWL presser... Was SHERMAN HEMSLEY the world's biggest GONG fan?... Pieces of BERGHAIN and FABRIC for sale... CALVIN HARRIS' process.