Back Future

"Future" (stylized as FUTURE) is the fifth studio album by American rapper Future. The album features production by Metro Boomin, Zaytoven, DJ Khaled, The Beat Bully, Southside, Avery Morae, alongside the production from other members of 808 Mafia, among others.

There are bands that come and go, and then there are those that carve their own unique path, leaving an indelible mark on the heart of listeners. Future Islands are unquestionably of the latter. They are a band that has defied convention, embraced vulnerability, and crafted a distinctive sound that resonates deeply with audiences around the globe. Now on their seventh release, People Who Aren’t There Anymore heralds a new chapter for Future Islands. For Future Islands, albums aren’t a static reflection of a moment in time, they are a fluid chapter in their lives that can change and mutate. People change and pull away. The band is no different, coming up against their future while staring at their past. They’re not the same people they were when Future Islands began nearly two decades ago. They are now spread about, some settled down and some still moving. “We’re like waves, we’re all changing,” says William. People Who Aren’t There Anymore reflects the transience of a band’s existence; the rare privilege of travelling all over the world contrasting with the sadness of fleeting moments in and out people’s lives. Being everywhere but also nowhere. Remembering the lives lost and the living they’ll never see again, cherishing the present and being grateful for the past.

I NEVER LIKED YOU, the first Future project since his and Lil Uzi Vert’s Pluto x Baby Pluto and his first solo outing since 2020’s High Off Life, was likely titled to cause a stir. Future has been a poster boy for the kind of toxic romantic engagements that turn well-intentioned social media users into self-certified relationship experts since about the time of his split with one-time fiancée Ciara. But rather than defend his lifestyle choices in earnest or make a case for himself as misunderstood, he drops an album whose title posits him as either a vindictive lover or a victim of a betrayal. But Future is nobody’s victim.

After the staggering slaughter of back-to-back world wars, the West embraced the ideal of the "open society." The promise: By liberating ourselves from the old attachments to nation, clan, and religion that had fueled centuries of violence, we could build a prosperous world without borders, freed from dogmas and managed by experts.