Future is going to be 36 years old this year. He has cemented his status as a legend of Atlanta trap music through his numerous hit singles and quality albums, yet one has to wonder just how much longer can he continue to rap about all the drugs he's doing and all the women he has at his disposal before it becomes boring to listeners.

After a 2017 that saw him release HNDRXX, which was one of his most experimental projects to date, he came back in 2018 with another quality record in BEAST MODE 2. In terms of solo efforts Future had seemed to be heating up, and the release of 2019’s The WIZARD was met with much excitement from fans. Unfortunately, aside from a few solid tracks the album as a whole largely failed to impress. Now Future has returned and seems to have a new motivation for making his music this time around. SAVE ME has been marketed as an album where Future is going to be honest with his audience about himself for one of the first times in his career. He is someone who has shied away from letting his music reflect his personal reality, but that was supposed to change on this new body of work.

SAVE ME clocks in at a very short 20 minutes. Though this eliminates a lot of the room for error that comes along with a more lengthy project, it also allows for Future to stay focused and locked in for 7 strait songs. The opening track “XanaX Damage” quickly sets the tone for the album. Future sounds lost and almost defeated on this song as he addresses a woman who he wants, but he knows is bad for him. The interesting thing about this song is the parallels between the girl he is talking about and the Xanax and it raises the question, which vice is he turning to at his darkest moments? That is why this album presented such an interesting opportunity for Future. Drugs and women have been the two most constant things in his music since he first blew up, yet in this album he seems aware that these two entities will be his ultimate downfall. Future ends up making his experiences with women the ultimate focus of this project.

On the third track “Please Tell Me” future floats over one of the best beats on the album and tells a woman he is with that he wants to give her the world, all she has to do is ask. He knows that this love interest of his wants all the finer things in life and he is there to provide each and every one of them to her. This as well as the following song “Shotgun” have a production style very similar to some of the tracks on his 2017 effort HNDRXX. Future’s aim isn't to create another club banger, like the countless ones he has in the past, rather he is experimenting with a sound that focuses less on his rapping and his image, and more about his crooning and feelings. These songs are good and will most likely be some of the more played cuts off the album, but this isn’t anything that Future hasn't done before. Simply put, while these are solid tracks they have a sound that was done much better on HNDRXX.

While the effort is commendable, it is far from perfect. “St. Lucia” fails to capitalize on the momentum of the opening track. It could largely be because of the placement of this song that it sticks out like a sore thumb. It comes after two of the better tracks on the album where he is talking honestly about how women and drugs are making him feel on the inside. Yet on “St. Lucia” he takes the stance that he doesn't really care about these girls and he just is in lot for the sexual glory. No one is coming at Future for having slightly misogynistic lyrics, and this is nothing new from him. The issue is that SAVE ME was marketed as an album where Future would be showing us a different side of himself, and there were glimpses of it on this project.

“Extra” is one of the best songs on the entire album and it sees Future at his lowest point saying he needs to keep pouring up until he can't feel anymore pain. The drugs and women are no longer cool and for a moment, it allows the listener who typically could never relate to a superstar of Futures status feel like he knows what he is going through. This along with “Love Thy Enemies” and “XanaX Damage” also have music behind them that almost seem to be dragging but in the best way possible. The songs feel like what it is like to be drugged out for days just searching for answers. These moments are when SAVE ME shines brightest, yet too often he goes back to sounds and concepts that he has already worked with.

As mentioned earlier, no one is doubting Future’s legend status. Fans of hip hop will never be able to doubt the greatness of some of the most famous songs and projects that he has produced over the duration of his career. That being said the one thing that can be challenged is his longevity. How is he going to remain relevant in a rap scene that is ever evolving and changing. He may have pioneered the sound, but there are people now taking it and running with it in directions everyone, including Future himself, could have never imagined. He still has a sound and voice that works more often than not, and he is more than capable of producing a great track. But what does the general public really know about Mr. Future Hendrix. He has done such a good job of only letting us fans and media into the parts of his personal life that live up to his rapper persona. No one really knows what this guy is truly thinking or feeling, maybe not even him. Some of his more recent work has shown that he is very diverse in terms of the sounds that he can work with, and this album, though not perfect at least hints at him eventually delving deeper into what the true effects of this lifestyle are. He tells us he only turns to the drugs and women when he is at his lowest, and then on the next track he says that those are the only things that matter to him other than money. The title of this album is “Save Me”, but the future doesn't seem to want to admit why he actually needs saving.