[ALBUM REVIEW] - FUTURE - 'Presents THE WIZRD'

[2019 ALBUM JUDGMENT]

Artist – Album: FUTURE – ‘Presents THE WIZRD’

Record Labels:  Freebandz/Sony/Epic

Release Date:    01/18/19

Singles (thus far): “Crushed Up” & “Jumping On A Jet”

Trappy, bizarre, trippy, tip-toes the line of drug abuse vs. love-struck;

But a bloatedly-long listen that’s unevenly uninspired, snoozy, formulaic, & very autopilot… 

Things begin great on “Never Stop” with a lighter, thoughtful, violin-backed beat allowing Future to speak reflective & personal.   “Krazy But True” is enjoyably off-kilter & moody, showing some of his current opinions & relationship insecurities.  “Call The Coroner” while implying he wants to be a drug-lord; flexes one of the better, harder, bangers on the album.  “Promise U That” is catchy, has lots of thump, a ghostly girl-sample, & slower, clearer vocals – probably the best single-appeal for me.  It’s good to see Future try different deliveries on the atmospheric, beat-switching “Baptiize”.  Some catchy slower-tempo beats & less-repetitive hooks, fit his autotune acrobatics well and are good distractions from his less-than-stellar verses, like “Tricks On Me” & the Travis Scott-featured “First Off”.

Problem is, 1^st single “Crushed Up” should’ve been an early indication that Future’s still focused on watches, diamonds, drugs, models, foreign cars, & threatening cops over boring generic trap beats.  “Stick to the Models” is endless corny trap-triplet flows, and ignorantly/angrily sounds mad at females; while “Overdose” over-uses adlibs & is occasionally off-beat is more a train-wreck.  Stepping away from bridges & numerous hooks, “F&N” presented a chance to impress me with 32 straight bars – but his delivery bores, and there’s only so much lean, choppers, bitches in his bed, & foreign trucks I can stand.  The cocky “Talk Shit Like A Preacher” is probably his worst lyrics (and most negative influence) I’ve heard of his career.  20 tracks of this same gear, starts to feel mind-numbing & heavily drags.

Conclusively, I only liked 7 songs of 20, so I’m grading ‘Presents THE WIZRD’ as below-average.  Too streamlined, too similar, too comfortable, too drug-glorifying, & too lazy.  His hazy, melodic, spacey-trap at times can be catchy – so I don’t doubt Future’s impact can still be there; especially when he experiments, finds good guest features, & candidly opens up about the consequences of his drug abuse.  Yet with the world of rap & pop changing, Future’s unadventurous, unprogressive tunes continue a trend of music that’s getting more repetitive with each listen… and doesn’t feel too *futuristic*.  Nonetheless, the good tracks I recommend are: “Promise U That”, “Never Stop”, “Krazy But True”, Baptiize”, & “Call The Coroner”.

MY FINAL VERDICT:

2 STARS (out of 6)