UTOPIA - Travis Scott: Review

Travis Scott

is one of the biggest rap superstars in the world. He's managed to be both a massive hitmaker and a critical darling relative to his peers. UTOPIA comes two years after Travis Scott found himself at the center of the Astroworld music festival tragedy. Despite the festival's shortcomings and his maligned public reaction to it, fans were extremely excited for UTOPIA. The album was released with an impressive collection of featured artists and producers and has spawned extensive discussion among rap fans online.

Review by Lav:

It's hard for me to put into words how excited I was for Astroworld. After Rodeo turned me into a big Travis Scott fan and the years he spent building up to its actual sequel generated so much hype, how could I not be excited. I stayed up till midnight to listen to the album with my friends and unpack all the features and credits that were initially hidden. But here's the thing, Astroworld lived up to every bit of the hype. I still consider it one of the best, if not the single best album of the trap era. With its dynamic, trippy, psychedelic sound and bold compositional directions, the project still feels like a pillar of hip-hop to this day. So what's next.

UTOPIA feels like it has somehow eclipsed the hype for Astroworld with both Travis Scott's biggest lovers and haters salivating over his new material and breaking down all the pieces. As a result, I took my time with this review. Despite that I feel like I can put the album into two simple statements.

This album is inconsistent,

but I still like it.

Regardless of how anyone feels about the second point, the first one is inarguable.

I'm gonna praise UTOPIA quite a bit later on in this review but first, let's get the rough patches out of the way. The album led off with K-POP a very mediocre dancehall cut featuring Bad Bunny and The Weeknd. Fans defended backlash towards the song by claiming that it wouldn't appear on the album. Turns out it did appear on the album, but it shouldn't have. K-POP isn't actually the worst thing UTOPIA has to offer though, that's saved for PARASAIL. It's a murky ballad that I see as utterly pointless. There are no lyrics here that I can imagine anyone clinging to in any way and its bookended by pointless babble from one of the chief transphobes around today, major pass.

There are certainly other tracks on the record that I don't find all that compelling. GOD'S COUNTRY is one of the shortest tracks on the record as well as one of the lowest impact moments. I feel similarly about I KNOW ? which is another point with very little compelling sonic moments. Despite the slick flows I can't call the song one of my favorites. The first 15 seconds of FEIN are really great. Unfortunately, from that point on it's one of the worst songs here with the worst chorus on the album and two of its weakest features courtesy of Playboi Carti and Sheck Wes. 

There are points on the record I would consider highlights even if they aren't perfect songs throughout. MY EYES gives me mixed feelings because the first half of the song criminally under-utilizes the incredible vocal talents of Bon Iver and Sampha in favor of Scott's predictable refrains. I like the second half MUCH more and I think the song does a great job of bringing up the energy without losing any of the eeriness. DELRESTO is a song made up of plenty of great individual parts but the composition feels too loose for it's own good. Beyonce's soaring performance is a highlight and Bon Iver is a nice touch it just never really comes together into a great song. 

LOOOVE is very chaotic to unpack and it seemingly doesn't care too much that its various parts make sense at all. The more I listened to it the more I began to love some of the chaos even if Kid Cudi's late appearance on the song is below average even for him. One song I do like a good bit is SKITZO. I was hoping that the full 6-minute runtime would result in another Travis Scott classic though and I find the song just decent. It falls short of hitting the really dynamic compositional points that longer Travis songs have in the past. 

So that's about half the album. So far it's been a mixed bag but one that really does have its high points. But it's the weaker half of the project. There are a whole 10 more tracks and I have very little complaints about any of them. 

UTOPIA gets off to a VERY hot start. Opening track HYAENA admittedly does begin with some of the most meaningless babble I've ever heard but it really starts to kick off after that. I love the driving drums in the background and strings above it. Travis unloads a series of incredibly catchy refrains throughout. That moves right into THANK GOD which has one of my favorite moments on the album with its shoutout to Stormi.The lyrics may not be as compelling as the song makes them seem but the sound is great. Speaking of bad lyrics, MODERN JAM has a one-two punch of bicycles and the Eiffel tower that are so bad you'll just have to hear them to believe them. Thankfully the song itself rips with a dancy drum beat courtesy of Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel. Even though I'm normally not the biggest Teezo Touchdown fan in the world he fits perfectly into the song when even Travis Scott starts to feel out of place. 

Two songs I wasn't as crazy about immediately are SIRENS and MELTDOWN. The former has grown on me a lot with its surprisingly rickety beat and willingness to wander in some strange sonic directions. The latter has a hilarious whispered Drake refrain where he does a 21 Savage impression that grows on me whenever I hear it. I still don't know how he was able to record that whole verse without laughing. The song itself is genuinely very impressive though sounding a lot like Rodeo and really hitting its stride in the second half.

Generally across the second half of the album when Travis Scott tries a bold sound or new direction it pays off big time. TOPIA TWINS is one of the hardest-hitting bangers on the entire album. Travis, Rob49, 21 Savage are a perfect combo. CIRCUS MAXIMUS is a strange and interesting track that I've started to like more and more. Firstly, I love the instrumental with its driving Black Skinhead drums. I also love that Swae Lee is losing his fucking mind on the vocals. The song really builds up all this momentum and energy even through The Weeknd's chilling hook. It's one of my favorite songs on the album. I also like TELEKINESIS which doesn't get off to the best start in the world. But after Travis and Future's first verses the song really starts to blow me away. Travis shifts into more sun refrains and SZA brings it to an absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking finale. 

If I could summarize this album with one definitive lesson I learned, it's that Travis Scott and James Blake are a match made in heaven. The pair have collaborated on some amazing tracks before and they added to that roster tonight. LOVE FOREVER is a great song that meets Travis' spacey style with James' heavenly vocals. It somehow gets even better with an utterly lethal Westside Gunn feature that hits it out of the park. Finally, the closing track TIL FURTHER NOTICE is another massive highlight. It kicks off with a killer moment of James Blake's masterful vocals. Travis Scott and 21 Savage team up over a murky beat for an impressively cutthroat finale. 

If UTOPIA is the conclusion to a trilogy of major releases that started with Rodeo and Astroworld, I think it's my least favorite of the three. However, it's all relative. Taking into consideration the best efforts of Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, Jack Harlow, and Lil Durk so far this year, Travis Scott is lapping the field. UTOPIA may not have a song as transcendently great as STOP TRYING TO BE GOD or Oh My/Dis Side and it's yet to be seen if it has a hit as ubiquitous as SICKO MODE or Antidote. But what it does have is a series of distinctive experiments proving Travis Scott is still willing to go places that no other mainstream trap star will. 

As a full album experience, UTOPIA's flaws aren't exactly quiet, but its features are loud enough to drown them out. The lyrics on this project are the furthest thing from compelling and a handful of collaborators don't bring anything close to their A-game. But the explosive and unpredictable sonic palette and unstoppable energy of the album on one song after another is far too much for me to resist. On UTOPIA Travis Scott wanders further than ever before and while it's a journey that isn't without its hardships, I'm happy to be dragged along. 7/10

For more hip-hop check out my review of KAYTRANADA and Amine's Kaytramine