On the appropriately titled track “Blood, Sweat, Tears,” auto-tuned Atlanta crooner Future sings, “I gave my blood, sweat, and tears / You couldn’t have known what I did for this.” It is a surprisingly apt way of describing Future’s tone of voice on his second major label release, “Honest.” His auto-tuned croak has become famous in the record industry as a voice that can pour some syrupy emotion into any track.
On “Honest,” Future gives his listeners exactly what they have come to expect out of him: intoxicating love ballads, anecdotes about his drug-dealing days and plenty of bragging about sexual conquests. The biggest difference that makes this album an even better and more cohesive work than 2012’s “Pluto” is how much larger and more grandiose everything sounds. The boasts are bigger, the bass booms even deeper and the track list features hip-hop royalty such as Kanye West, Pusha T, Drake and Andre 3000. But does this add up to greater success for Future?
It turns out Future is not yet out of surprises. His opening track, “Look Ahead,” samples singer/songwriter Santigold’s feature off of “Dougou Badai,” a song popularized by the Malian duo “Amaduo & Mariam.” It is the perfect way to capture the weirdness that Future exudes in his music. After 30 seconds of rising action with Santigold’s sampled hook and a smattering of hi-hats and shuddering 808s, Future jumps into screeching vocals in breathless 6/8 fashion. When he yells “Take a penitentiary chance / That’s a change, eat steak, caviar / Bloodline is a lion,” the listener will feel like he or she is in the middle of an adrenaline rush during the crime spree of a lifetime. The ease with which Future controls his yell in accordance with the top-notch production is perhaps the biggest strength of the album.
Lyrically, the album leaves much to be desired. Future does not attempt to grow much in this area, instead using his emotion to tell a story. It may disappoint some that he cannot match his emotion with lyrics, a skill other similar artists such as Drake and The Weeknd seem to have mastered.
If you compare a track like “I Be U” from “Honest” with one of The Weeknd’s stand-out tracks such as “Echoes of Silence,” you can really see where Future fails in his experimentation. Both artists are exceptional at their kind of hazy, drugged-up R&B/hip-hop hybrid, but there are a few differences that keep their ideas totally separate. Future’s track is a codeine-soaked ballad about being so in love that you disentegrate into one another. While it is a noble attempt that is matched by absolutely phenomenal production, it fails to match the dramatic storytelling of “Echoes of Silence.” Future makes you desire being together, but The Weeknd makes you need to be one whole. Until Future can distill this difference and find that urgency, his deeper and more emotional tracks will continue to falter in their objectives.
The best songs on “Honest” are triumphant revelations. On “Covered N Money,” when he shouts, “I’m covered in money / I’m covered in money” it recalls shades of “Bugatti”, Ace Hood’s mega-hit from last year that Future featured on. Future gained international attention for his work shouting the ridiculous hook that was in constant radio rotation last summer. It wouldn’t be surprising to see this track receive similar airtime. On the first single off the album “Move That Dope,” Future trades tales of his drug-dealing past with fellow rappers Pusha T, Pharrell and Casino. Each rapper holds their own on the star-studded track, and Pharrell’s verse in particular packs a memorable punch.
Overall on his album “Honest,” Future sticks to his guns and delivers his strongest, most cohesive work yet. The album is full of trap bangers like most of his fans wanted, but does not show much else. He appears to have an understanding for how his music works, but this is frustrating because one would hope this self-awareness would contain more growth and maturation in his lyrics. This is one of the better hip-hop albums of the year so far and will undoubtedly receive a decent amount of radio time. Future knows how to create good music, but hopefully he can enhance the areas of his music that need work so he does not disappear into the dark recesses of radio purgatory.
