The Singles Jukebox

Not the Future we chose…

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[3.67]

Micha Cavaseno: Listening to Future’s phone-ins on EVOL was dire, so listening to the equally regressive Abel Tesfaye echo in alongside him while Metro Boomin serves up dollar store snare hits is about the equivalent of feeling an unnatural need to swallow river sludge.
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Crystal Leww: Future collaborating with The Weeknd was the natural evolution of both of their careers. The fact that the song is about “repping for that low life” and sounds as flaccid as whiskey dick? This isn’t even bad — these two got famous and their music got boring. 
[3]

Brad Shoup: They seem so sleepy. And yet the sleepy part of the track — a scrambled vocal (the Weeknd’s, I assume) and dying synthstrings — is the best part. Future gets a couple good jokes in, like “roaches everywhere/like we forgot to take the trash out”. But mostly it sounds like the blurry unrealized decline.
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Alfred Soto: Adapting his eloquent mumble to high life ends is hell on Future’s taste. “Show me how you go down,” The Weeknd yearns, as if begging for a chocolate doughnut.
[2]

Anthony Easton: The slow grind slur of both of these performers would suggest a perfect match, and it kind of works. It’s a little repetitive, and I wanted to have them work with each other, as opposed to trading voices, but it has that thickness of a thought not quite present, which often occurs with a fondness for pills. It sounds like benzos.  
[6]

Danilo Bortoli: In the month of House of Balloons‘ five-year anniversary, Tom Ewing’s words on the (then new) connection between indie and R&B still ring true: “what’s appealing for me in R&B is its capacity for beauty and empathy, not its selfishness or doubt.” Which, in the context of “Low Life,” means at least two things. First, as it is made apparent, Abel Tesfaye has ditched that rare moment of brilliance for something more down to earth. Secondly, in order to do that he has returned to that ugly, narcissistic world of his, which, in this case, even gets Future thrown under his mess. This is indeed a good end of the line, considering we’ve putting up with this crap for five rough years now.
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Jer Fairall: “I’m repping for that low life,” Abel Tesfaye sings, hinting at the self-awareness that I read into House of Balloons way back when, only to squirm at every bit of celebratory skeeziness that followed. As a hook, it suits the ugliness of Future’s proud narrative of druggin’ and cheatin’, which he performs with a seductive agility, yes, but also with his ongoing preference for glaring Auto-Tune.
[5]

Cassy Gress: Future and The Weeknd both sound appropriately stoned, but I can’t conscionably support a song about taking pride in leaving a nice hotel room looking like a crackhouse. This is gross.
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Thomas Inskeep: From the Genius page for “Low Life”: “As supporters of the “low life,” The Weeknd and Future turn “high life” accommodations into austere ones.” Or to put it another way, they make living it up (in a manner of speaking) sound depressing as fuck, sucking all the joy out of would-be fun with their incessant nilihism. The Weeknd turns A Clockwork Orange into pop, somehow, making him the perfect foil for Future’s I-get-fucked-up-isms. If you don’t pay too much attention to the lyrics, the track has a nice, firm groove, but really, if you’re gonna go that direction, just find the instrumental. Because this is as depressing — and sleazy, and not in a good way — as fuck.
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