Songfacts®:

• Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats recorded their third album during the lockdown, putting the frontman in a reflective mood. The title track finds Rateliff looking deep within himself as he ponders mortality and grace.
• Rateliff struggled to come up with this song title. "I'm a big fan of Leonard Cohen and I knew he had a record called 'The Future,'" he told the UK newspaper The Sun.
  
  Rateliff then decided it would be an appropriate name for the LP as well. "The album has a thread through all the songs - what is my future? What is our future? It just felt like an appropriate title," he said.
• The album was recorded at Rateliff's Broken Creek Studio, just outside of Denver, Colorado. Rateliff and the band recorded it live as much as possible. For instance, the version of "The Future" on the record is only the second take Rateliff & the Night Sweats got down.
• The album producers are:
  
  Bradley Cook (Bon Iver, Kevin Morby, The War on Drugs).
  
  R.M.B, who are the production trio of Rateliff, Night Sweats drummer Patrick Meese, and Beach House collaborator James Barone. The trio helmed Rateliff's 2020 solo album And It's Still Alright.