REVIEWS
Samanth Adebayo sheds light on the rapper ’ s third album
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EVOL Future A1 Recordings , Freebandz & Epic Records ?
Fun , disturbed and supported by recreational use of pharmaceuticals , EVOL delivers everything expected of Future .
And he wraps his style around the signature track Low Life which was released as the album ’ s first single , and video-premiered on MTV . The song was later revealed to be included on EVOL in March 2016 .
Evol is the fourth studio album by the American rapper , and was released in February this year . It debuted one Friday night during DJ Khaled ’ s Beats 1 show on Apple Radio ( via Epic Records ). Since then club DJs have rearranged their turntables to deliver the massive rap anthems to take over 2016 .
After much underground street success in Atlanta , Future blew up a storm to mainstream success with his album DS2 . He was transformed from the occasional party song rapper to a rap superstar . His album What a Time To Be Alive with Drake showed his ability to mix sounds and reach more fans .
His personal life has been making more news recently due to legal battles with his ex-fiancé and pop princess Ciara . But this hasn ’ t seemed to faze Future too much , and he ’ s been consistently on track with recent albums and mixtapes .
Like this album which has everything for a rap fan and anyone who likes feel-good music . The songs are simple , catchy and full of fearless lyrics which ref his extensive drug use such as in : I just took some molly , what else ?’ ( Molly is the purest form of ecstasy ).
The fact Future only has one feature on this album suggests his utter self-confidence . It ’ s a self-belief he has shown since earlier projects such as Monster and DS1 . However , the choice of artist and song shows the smart moves he ’ s making to so mainstream .
The Weekend is probably one of the most popular artists right now , and
Future ’ s decision to feature him on a song like Low-Life shows he wants a sound that ’ s easily accessible , something you can listen to anywhere , and not just hanging out in an Atlanta strip club .
It ’ s a pity the album is so repetitive and defensive . Future covers up his real emotions with the facade of a rockstar lifestyle , even down to his nickname Future Hendrix . Eventually , fans will tire of monotonous lyric imagery which seems obsessed with clothes , jewellery , drugs and sex .
Future has got so many projects on the go , that his star is in danger of early burnout . This album felt rushed and thrown out there . That ’ s the way street rappers do it , and we hoped Future had progressed beyond that . It ’ s called evolution and that ’ s where his projects should be at right now . This isn ’ t a ground-breaking new album , though it does have an attractive rawness . But it never strays beyond its tried and tested comfort zone . Evol is a Future album . Nothing more , nothing less .
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latest continues the search for mainstream acclaim , and Sia admits this album is “ more pop ” than previous material .
Lead single Alive encapsulates Sia ’ s move into the safe zone . Co-written by pop-ballad
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queen Adele , the track ’ s tale of reprisal , a chart music cliché , fails to inspire visions of a phoenix rising from the ashes . Save for Sia ’ s majestic vocals , which is the record ’ s saving grace .
The light-hearted dance hit Move Your Body is a welcome break , though it still shares many of the fault lines of earlier tracks . Here , Sia is performing Lady Gaga on a song she wrote for Shakira , while again trying to assert her own personality .
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It proves a herculean task too far . We are then slipped back into the slow stream on track five with Unstoppable . It ’ s all in the same vein as Bird Set Free , One Million Bullets and Alive . It spreads the same uniform message of indestructability very thin across the album .
Once over the hill on track six , the album takes a turn for the better and embodies the more attractive , frivolous nature of pop music , with songs such as Cheap Thrills , Reaper , and personal highlight Sweet Design .
This last offers a tongue-incheek imitation of Beyonce , as
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Sia sings “ My junk , hypnotise the whole room ” and “ Word travels fast , when you ’ ve got an ass like mine ”. This is a skinsuit that 40-year-old Sia inherits with a sense of silliness and a self-awareness not shown on more sincere cuts of the album . Sia ’ s concept is interesting , and on repeated listens , I glimpse her at her most fun and extrovert . However , for the most part , the irony was lost on me . It felt less like play-acting than an attempt to shoehorn herself into the demographic of artists she was impersonating in the search for record sales . |
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