Future is contemporary hip-hop’s most prolific artist, with a work rate that keeps a lot of attention on him, but also means that an album release isn’t always the event it could be. On Evol, it’s business as usual for Nayvadius Cash: beats from his coterie of Atlanta-based trap producers, and lyrics littered with drug-trade slang and sexual boasts. The problem is that the material held back for this album doesn’t always match up to the stuff given away on his many mixtapes: is Evol’s opener Ain’t No Time really better than Beast Mode’s Oooooh? Why does trap-life lament Seven Rings get the nod over the more interesting 56 Nights joint No Compadre? The odder, more experimental moments from those mixtapes aren’t replicated here, resulting in an album that is brazenly one-pace and trap-bass heavy. The formula is working, but for fans using his albums as a way in, they’re missing a big part of what makes Future so intriguing.
