Future is the king of autotune rap. All of his vocals are studio magic’d up, and he focuses on creating highly nuanced mood music. His lyrics are rarely impressive on the page, but that’s not usually the point.
- My Collection — A womanizer’s anthem: “Even if I hit you once, you part of my collection”. The low-key, matter-of-fact vibe smooths this out and adds to the disrespect.
- Comin Out Strong — The Weeknd features here. He and Future complement each other really well. They ask “do you know who I am?” and warn not to take their “kindness for weakness”. Still more smooth than threatening though.
- Lookin Exotic — The energy kicks up a notch here as Future indulges in the finer things, including spoiling his girl. He kicks off his first verse with a LeBron James, 3-time champion reference. Top-shelf stuff only.
- Damage — Featured artist Detail sings a part of Guy’s “Piece Of My Love” from 1988. That’s the best part of this song. Future’s flow is a little too hyper over these slow drums for my taste.
- Use Me — Future laments about getting used. This is not great. Future (and autotune) delivers the vocal but the instrumentation is pretty bad here, especially on the extended outro.
- Incredible — The production gets back on track with a bouncy little guitar lick laying the foundation. Future does his thing too. This is the best song so far, along with the Weeknd one.
- Testify — This is Future’s version of a pop love song. It works well!
- Fresh Air — One love song is enough, Future needs some space now! Still pretty poppy, with a structure that’s all over the place. Is it possible for a sound to get played out in just 2 songs? This isn’t as good as “Testify”.
- Neva Missa Lost — Future is losing his girl and trying to guard himself from feeling the pain of her loss. The “whatever you need” lifted from Jodeci keeps this from getting too boring.
- Keep Quiet — A creepin anthem. Future ironically shouts “Keep Quiet!!” on the hook while going with a more hushed flow on the verses.
- Hallucinating — Some drugged-out shit. Extremely laid-back beat. “Don’t menace over these Vicodins, you musta seen Satan”. Ooookaay then. I have not done nearly enough drugs to like this song.
- I Thank U — Future thanks an unspecified female for “making me awesome” on a short track. I like the guitar here. Future should use more guitars. “Fly Shit Only” off of EVOL is one of my favorite Future songs and it’s guitar-based too.
- New Illuminati — Is it cool to be the illuminati now? I don’t like this.
- Turn on Me — This is a waste of some cool horns. Get over Ciara, Future.
- Selfish — Rihanna features here. She’s awesome. This is easily the best song on this album mostly off her performance. Future does his thing too.
- Solo — Hypnotic beat. Future just has to nestle in the pockets of this beat to make this work. He does more than that. This is the best Rihanna-less song on the album.
- Sorry — Future apologizes to Ciara. They have a kid together and she is now with Seahawks’ QB Russell Wilson. This is not a very convincing apology, or a very good song.
Some really high highs, but mostly just OK music here. Here’s hoping Future gets over Ciara soon. Dwelling on her does not bring out the best in him.
3/5
