Pluto

All his best traits come together on album closer You Deserve It, an ode to hard work, commitment and patience – because the future doesn’t happen all at once.

On his debut album, the Atlanta rapper/singer makes his strongest case yet that he is one of the foremost sources of rap that's as peculiar as it is pop. He also miraculously shows that it's still possible for Auto-Tune to be an interesting artistic tool.

Pluto should be appreciated for what it is, an album of impeccably crafted, energetic, original music that is striving above all else to be popular and universal, even if such goals look less likely of being achieved than ever before.

Pluto is fat and redundant at 15 tracks, but it delivers whenever you desire that purple and woozy, Cudi-meets-Khalifa flavor.

He sounds like everybody else on Shade 45 in 2012, so it’s going to work, but it’s only going to leave the faintest impression on me.

Though the album stalls when the rookie strays from his blueprint, the phenom hit-maker’s potential as a song maker is undeniable.

Even if you stripped away the technology that makes Pluto so Tron-like, you would still be able to tell Future is a great and incredibly creative MC.

Without leaning on shtick, the massive multitasking ode “Same Damn Time” and the fierce Pimp C tribute “Long Live The Pimp” rampage as fiercely and effectively as “Tony Montana.” A few more bangers like them would have gone a long way to help balance out this sporadically engrossing, frequently frustrating curiosity.

Both Future’s drugged-out vocal style and the chintzy production, so arresting in isolation, become wearying; by the time the album hits a brief upturn in quality in its closing stages, it’s hard to rouse oneself to care.

At times tasteful and other times tasteless, Pluto demonstrates a bravado that knows no shame. Time will tell whether Future’s cheeky style is simply a passing faze or a trend that others will carry a torch for. Here’s to hoping few will.