High On Life - Future: Review
is an Atlanta trap rapper who really needs no introduction at this point. He has been around for almost a decade now and has frequently released commercially successful projects that have heavily influenced the popular psychedelic trap sound. High On Life is technically Future's 8th album but with a dense catalog of mixtapes and EPs we have had no shortage of music from the man and at 70 minutes long this record is no different.
Review By Lavender:
For somebody that has been popular and influential for nearly a decade now it can be kind of difficult to narrow down Future's music to just the good stuff. While there is certainly enough Future tracks for a greatest hits album or two that is just a drop in the ocean of content he has released and with the exception of DS2 those tracks rarely align into a cohesively great record. Just last year Future wowed me with a handful of tracks on his The WZRD album and even more on his Save Me EP yet I consider the latter to be one of the more average EPs I heard that year, and the former one of the most bloated alums I heard in all music last year. Given that this record in 21 tracks and 70 minutes I was ready for more of the same and Future delivered, but the weak points on this record are generally more tolerable than some of the last few Future projects.
Now I have read in a few places that this record is only the 16 tracks and that the final 5 are bonus tracks which I don't usually cover. But given that these are just the records singles and I can't find any version of this album that is without them or even has them labelled as bonus tracks I decided to keep them in my assessment of the album because I think they honestly make it more tolerable. The worst of the bunch is Last Name an incredibly average and forgettable song with kind of weak performances from both Future and Lil Keed. Life Is Good appears on here twice and I'm still a little bit confused by the song and its huge commercial success. The track is basically a decent Drake song and a decent Future song smashed together with no real care to make them work. Neither song is bad but hearing them like this is still just a little bit strange. It somehow gets both better and worse with the remix version of the song which features both DaBaby and Lil Baby both on the Future side of things so then I have to ask, why include the Drake half of the song at all? I can't imagine somebody wanting to listen to this twice not that far away from each other at this point on the record even though the remix features some decent performances from both featured artists I still can't rationalize this.
There were two singles I actually quite enjoyed, I had completely forgotten about 100 Shooters since it came out almost a full year ago. The track has an upbeat instrumental and energetic performances all around, as well as a pretty solid hook I enjoy. The last single Tycoon came out last month and does a lot of the same things well. When this record is at its most exciting and uptempo and this is one of the most intoxicating examples of that.
The record gets off to a pretty decent start with a few solid tracks. Trapped In The Sun is a pretty tight and catchy opening track that sees Future spitting bars about his son among other things. The beat is simple but still effective even though the song isn't anything new from Future is works. HiTek Tek is a pretty slick track despite an underwritten but honestly kind of charming hook. The verses range from sleepier vibe focused moments to some actual bars that I enjoy a lot. Touch The Sky has a Southside beat and while it initially finds Future doing a kind of annoying thing with his voice it gets much better as he picks up with some slick bars here and there and the hook comes back to be better the second time around.
Hard To Chose One has a catchy flow and even though Future doesn't change it up at all throughout the track it is slick and effective and has a pretty sparkling key phrase that I love. Trillionaire is a great track where Future and NBA Youngboy trade off bars in a pretty satisfying manor. Even Future's auto-tune soaked singing on the track is pretty good and also contains some of the sweeter lyrical moments the record has to offer. All Bad is a pretty great track with an up-beat feature from Lil Uzi that lights a fire under Future's ass and gets one of the best and most exciting performances on the entire record as a result.
Some of the most unique and interesting songs on the record are when Future gets introspective. Up The River is a trap ballad that sees Future looking back on what made him who he is and wheat got him to this point and even with some of the simpler lyrics it is interesting and instrumentally sweet. Pray For A Key is another decent track that features some singing and some introspective bars over a super nondescript trap beat which isn't quite a highlight but is certainly worthwhile. Accepting My Flaws is the last track before the rest of those singles and it sees Future genuinely looking introspectively in a meaningful way. He talks about some character flaws he has had difficult overcoming and while these lyrics are also mixed in with some typical Futurisms the song still stands out as a highlight.
There aren't a ton of terrible tracks on the record but a lot of the weaker tracks are just too generic to stand out. Solitaires is a track with Wheezy and Mike Dean on production yet it still comes out pretty average. Travis Scott is vocally more interesting than Future on the track but neither of them are really at their best in a kind of forgettable way. Ridin Strikers isn't outwardly terrible but it is so boring, nothing about the song stands out enough to be interesting or unique except maybe a key phrase which is honestly more annoying than good. Posted With Demons is a track that gets a little bit better but the hook still really sucks and the track never really gets any deeper than the generic refrain. Finally Outer Space Bin is another track that just gets caught up in generic trapism that covers similar territory but isn't totally redundant and is decent when it's on.
Despite the fact that there aren't a ton of trash songs on this record, there are still a few. One Of My absolutely sucks as Future beats this generic refrain absolutely beyond death as the song goes on and makes for a mega skip. Harlem Shake is the biggest disappointment because I love seeing Future and Thugger on a song together but this song is a total mess. It sounds like neither of them are even trying and may be one of my least favorite collaborations I've ever heard from the two. Too Comfortable is the last difficult track because the hook is a mess and every time Future says the phrase "Too Comfortable" I think to myself this has to be the last time he's going to say it because he knows how terrible it sounds, yet he continues to say it again and again and again.
High On Life is a long-winded effort from Future but it doesn't quite dip into the monotony that many of his records have. He is writing better songs and a better variety of songs across this record and despite the fact that is isn't perfect it is an improvement. While a decade into his career I know Future isn't going to turn around and drop a masterpiece, for the first time in a few years I think he could be capable of dropping a good record sometime soon if he can just learn to strip his tracklist down to its best moments. 5.5/10
Album Cover Review by Tyler Judson:
A very simple cover. The bottom heavy composition doesn't work on this one for me. It'd be a good Instagram post but it doesn't have the right star power that a cover needs. The headroom is space I think could have been utilized by text of even the advisory but it being so bottom heavy just makes it look like empty wasted opportunity.
For more trap music check out my review of Drake's Dark Lane Demo Tapes here
