For many artists, an eight-month hiatus from releasing music is a relatively short period of time. However, fans of Future are used to him satisfying their need for new music no less than three times a year.

After giving his fans less than a weeks’ notice, Future released his self-titled album on Friday, Feb. 17.

With eight total mixtapes and albums released since “Beast Mode” in 2015, Future has climbed atop the rap game. For the last few years, Future’s popularity has been exceeded only by frequent tour partner and music contributor Drake.

Like all previous Future albums, “FUTURE” transports listeners to a cohesive sonic world. The album’s production comes from the usual suspects, including Southside, Sonny Digital and Metro Boomin.

Hours before the album’s release, Future proclaimed to the world that features would be absent from the album, which wasn’t met with the kind of unanimous praise that such a proclamation would warrant if, say, J. Cole were to make the same announcement.

Overall, “FUTURE”  is about three to four songs too long. A 17-song album with just one voice throughout is more of a chore to listen to all the way through. 

However, the high points outnumber the lows by a staggering margin. Future’s batting average with hits on this project goes unrivaled compared with any of his previous works.

Finally, it’s official that there may not be a place for Kid Cudi in the genre if Future is going to continue to hum better than everybody else, like he does so perfectly in “I’m So Groovy.”