When it was first released, I was not that fond of Burt Bacharach’s “Futures” album.  Part of the reason was that I’d gotten it on cassette, and ti never sounded all that good.  Coupled with the rather “dark” mood of the album, it never really sank in.   Fast forward 30 or more years, and I have a new perspective on the album.  It’s not a total about-face, but it certainly isn’t the runt of the A&M litter by any means.

“Futures” is a departure album, futuristic being a good term to describe it.  This was around the time that Bacharach, Hal David and Dionne Warwick had their falling out, and Bacharach no longer had a “voice” to output his music through.  If you notice, only two of the songs on this album have Hal David vocal credits (“I Took My Strength From You” and “No One Remembers My Name”).  The rest feature new lyrical collaborators.

This album is actually Bacharach’s most sophisticated up to that date.  Here, he finds other voices to write and arrange for, and collaborates with a handful of lyricists.  Overall, many of the lyrical themes of the album deal with loss, which might reflect his falling-out with David and Warwick in a subtle way.  “Us” and “Where Are You” ponder the loss of a relationship (“…what have we done to Us?”).  “We Should Have Met Sooner” mourns the loss of time prior to a relationship.  “No One Remembers My Name” is like a successor-in-spirit to “Everybody’s Out Of Town” (although the latter is more of a socio-political statement).  Even the instrumental songs have a mournful edge to them.

The assortment of vocalists gives the album some variety.  The husky baritone of Jamie Anders (which is similar to Bacharach’s own voice) is in contrast to Joshie Armstead’s.  Bacharach himself does not make a vocal appearance on this album, like he did on the others.

Where this album seemingly departs from his earlier A&M albums is that it is more of a concept album, where these songs were assembled mainly for “Futures”.  The earlier ones leaned more toward re-recordings of prior hits and arrangements he had done in the past, for other artists.  Bacharach’s follow-up album, “Woman”, would take this even further, with that album being a complete concept from start to finish.

Now that I’ve explained the significance of “Futures”, how does it play?  To me it is, as I mentioned eariler, sophisticated.  The songs are more complex, the arrangements ambitious.  A rewarding listen now that I’m over that hump of familiarity.  I find myself drawn to it most often as a late-night album.  While I don’t recommend this as a first purchase for anyone getting into his music, I do recommend it for those who wish to delve into the more complex side of his music in the post-Hal David period.  Not 100% essential, but it also begs not to be overlooked.  Currently, you can find it most easily on vinyl.  It was available on an import CD for awhile, but copies are expensive and hard to come by.  If you think of paying $50 for the single CD, you might as well grab the “Something Big” box set, which has all of his A&M and Kapp recordings in one five-disc set.