Released May 15, 2020
4 / 10
Favorites
Trapped In The Sun, Accepting My Flaws, Life Is Good (feat. Drake)
Least favorites
HiTek Tek, Touch The Sky, Too Comfortable, Outer Space Bih
Trap super-villain Future worked overtime during the witching hour to keep his prolific streak of high-profile releases going with 2020's "High Off Life" (his eighth studio album and Xth project in a decade where X is somewhere between 15 and 35 depending on what qualifies as a project ). The rapper had announced a significant new turn for his career to come with this new record: the result is anything but. The bloated tracklist features everything you'd come to expect from Future, couple with tweaks of the formula he's developed in the past five years that never strays too far from the recipe pinned on his chromium fridge. Originally planned to be titled "Life Is Good", Future made the decision to re-brand it for a better chance at success during corona lockdown - accompanying the title with comments like "and you want to enjoy life, as long as you have it... soak it all up and be appreciative for every moment" (XXL, May 2020) to soften the hypothetical blow. Future's take on sounding appreciative finds him counting his riches and threatening massive retaliation tactics on his detractors. And strikingly enough, for such an established trap kingpin, he seems to work best when he has outside energy to feed from, animated by a will to show off and rise to the occasion - whereas many of his solo tracks reveal an alarming tendency to rest on his laurels. At first glance (listen) "High Off Life" is full of the usual lyrical motifs of the brand of trap music Future has helped popularize and flood the pop mainstream with. The record is largely a victory lap on familiar territory, preferring the comfort of known shores to the exhilarating exploration of uncharted lands. Touch The Sky is an example of the audible importance of wealth and status in Future's day-to-day. The song's antics rely on an ominous undertone to carry Future's villainous portrayal home - first drafted by his lyrics but not pushed very far by his lackluster delivery. There is clearly something hypnotizing in the dollar sign for Nayvadius Wilburn (as is the case for most of us, let's be honest). Travis Scott knows the name of the game, keeping his contribution to Solitaires within the confine of "High Off Life"'s primary preoccupations (women, money, addiction). Some questionable lyrics in there, but probably some that will appeal to many listeners at the same time, the like of "Been humpin' wifey for so long, she got a limp when she walk". Those kind of provocateur shenanigans take away from some judicious rapping choices. Yet it is clear that Future needs get better production touches to keep up with Travis - despite Future's best effort to change up cadence and sound more energized than on preceding tracks. One Of My keeps the ball rolling, offering a narrow perspective of what success looks like in a soporific litany on money, drugs and danger. The 808s' marked departure from a more standard pattern is an interesting touch though. At this point in Future's life, everything sounds disposable - the money, the drugs, the fame and even the women. "High Off Life" is, in its own way, a very consumerist enterprise. In Too Comfortable, Future sees a lot of looming threats to his lifestyle that pierce through questionable morals. He admits dubious decisions ("it's hard to stay faithful when you winnin'") without fully taking responsibility for them. He probably can get away with saying stuff like that and having his music played all over the place because his delivery style and re-worked vocals don't really come across as devilish or even harsh in the slightest. The instrumentals on Too Comfortable are tinged with glitch and the guitar strums pique interest at first. However the track loses its flair as it progresses, digging its heels in the ground, weighted down by a piercing beat, too aggressive on the ear. Beyond those less-than-surprising thematic choices, Future does the work of putting in the time to reflect on the triggers for his toxic attitude and actions. It would've have been a great occasion to complete the villain sketch with more intricacy and depth but he sounds so comfortable at marketing his woes that most traces of sincerity are quickly eroded, as are formulated attempts at doing better. Posted With Demons is the first track where crumbs of retrospection are scattered for the listener to pick up. Some of it is chilling ("I can't never forget when I was starvin', that shit make me sick"), as is the musical ambiance; other parts hint at terrible things he's done and is not really sorry for. Predictably, he finds refuge in hedonism, provider of brief solace from trauma as well as a tent to hide from the burning rays of responsibility. His flow varies across the track - a stand-out feat on "High Off Life" - sometimes staccato, sometimes more fluid, but never sounding 100% earnest. A particularly rare moment of vulnerability is buried within Trillionaire, in between exchanged lines on fame and having to deal with people hating on your success with YoungBoy. Future talks of his sister's medical condition ("Wish I had a cure on sickle cell, hate to see my sister suffer"), taking us by surprise when doing so. YoungBoy sounds so much like a combination of Ozuna and Ne-Yo when he sings on the track's chorus it's hard for me to think of anything else - I'll add that the chorus music itself is also not unlike something you'd hear Ozuna on. On Up the River, Future acknowledges a "need to get my conscience back". There's something unsettling about his delivery choice: by trying to perhaps sound sincere, he runs into walls, sounding almost out of breath at times and catching up with the beat at others. Accepting My Flaws is THE track where he opens up most. The bulk of the song sees him detailing his demons and dedicating the confession-worthy track to an ex-girlfriend (Lori Harvey), thanking her for accepting him as he is, flaws and all. Backed by a ghostly choir sample, moments of clarity abound, bursting from a mix of melancholy, frustration and surrender. His flow is as strong as it's ever been, newly energized (maybe the subject matter require that out of him). There are plenty of occasions where Future's stamina goes stale across the long span of the record. Any breaks in the monotony of the music becomes interesting; any idiosyncrasy in the musical fabric becomes an event. Trapped In The Sun is a misleader in this respect. The bustling instrumentals feel like bells announcing the start of something epic to come. It's infectious, bouncy and sufficiently somber to suggest danger. The atmosphere is so dense you could cut it with a knife, just like a hot summer day's air. Unfortunately, there are seldom any other moments like this on "High Off Life". Ridin Strikers is the first track that makes you think that a rapper of his stature should really have more creative arrangements at his disposal, instead of the bells and whistles he decorates his tracks with to make up for their generic underpinning sound. The beat change feels gratuitous and the subsequent dissonance then sound like a desperate attempt to make things minimally compelling. He sounds unprepared at times, like on 100 Shooters where Meek Mill completely overshadows everything else on the track. Future's chorus is particularly frustrating. He sounds like he stubbornly tries to pack his lines into it without any concern for musicality (the line "Spent so much cash in Chanel, they wanna see ID" comes off especially awkward sonically - and lyrically). Doe Boy makes a completely forgettable appearance on the track as well. Whoever okay'ed the flute on this track was out of their mind too. Most tellingly, the remix of Life Is Good raises serious concerns of Future's ability to translate charisma into music. Drake makes a better case for himself in his minute and a half on the original version of the track than Future does for himself in his new verses across two minutes and a half on the remix. Make of that what you will.
Favorite lyrics
"Give me glory, give me Lori, that's victory"
Accepting My Flaws
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