UTOPIA / Travis Scott / July 28, 2023
- Joshua Yoo
- Aug 29, 2023
- 1 min read
The cultural grip Travis Scott has had on the release of ‘UTOPIA’ can’t be understated, factoring the years-long album rollout with briefcases, industry-wide support and assistance, and even a full-length feature film. The release of the album itself reveals Travis plunging even deeper into psychedelic, spacious and dark production, dialing the theatrics up to a new height of grand and futuristic sounds.
It’s no surprise that many of the instrumentals were passed down from Kanye originals, considering the influence and long-time mentoring relationship the two have had over the years. Major opening tracks ‘THANK GOD’ and ‘MODERN JAM’ establish the exact kind of disjointed and experimental shade of rap production that shrouds the overall tone of the rest of the project. The entire list of collaborators is still extensive though, and leads to expectedly creative fusions such as SZA’s vocals floating on ‘TELEKINESIS’, Westside Gunn’s grimey delivery on ‘LOST FOREVER’, or delicate, beautiful touches on production from Justin Vernon on ‘MY EYES’.
Travis Scott’s performances, both sung and rap, are consistently solid across the tracklist, even if some of his other guest features aren’t. Big hitters such as Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, and Playboi Carti blend too well into their songs and really fail to impact their otherwise interesting songs’ ideas.
The overall creative direction is still a winning one though for Travis, taking his sound to continually new areas at the expense of familiarity. ‘UTOPIA’ may not please everyone, but it’s not hard to at least appreciate the polished execution of his most forward-thinking album to date.
Highlight(s): I KNOW ?, TELEKINESIS, HYAENA, MELTDOWN, TOPIA TWINS, MY EYES, LOST FOREVER, SIRENS, MODERN JAM
Lowlight(s): GOD’S COUNTRY, FE!N, PARASAIL, DELRESTO (ECHOES)
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