Travis Scott - "UTOPIA" Album Review
Since Travis Scott’s monumental album ASTROWORLD in 2018, fans were anxious to see what he would follow it up with. Would it be another star-studded, Grammy-nominated, chart-topping album? Or would he dial it back and turn more experimental? Could he even attempt to pioneer a new subgenre of rap altogether? These questions and more were among the many that the long, five-year wait inspired. However, a recent incident incited more pressing questions. In 2021, at Travis’ own Astroworld Festival in Houston, 10 innocent concertgoers died due to compressed asphyxia as a result of the venue being too rowdy and packed in like sardines. Many people were quick to blame the deaths on Travis; his performance continued for over half an hour after it was declared a mass casualty, and he seemed unaware of what was going on with his crowd.
Travis spoke on the issue the following day in a series of videos via Instagram. Through a grim grayscale filter, and in a permanent hand-to-head worried stance, Travis offered brief condolences but devoted more time to talking about his own grief, pain, and mental health than that of the families. While his heart seemed to be in the right place, it felt a little disingenuous to focus more on himself than those affected, although he did have to clear up the rumors of him being oblivious to what was going on. Regardless, it was clear that he blew the opportunity to say the right thing to his fans and skeptics who were all looking to him for answers.
Now, in 2023, Travis has returned with his new album UTOPIA, his first since the release of ASTROWORLD the album and the cancellation of Astroworld the festival. Since Travis’ statements on the festival’s tragedy were few and far between, his fans were curious how he would address it in his music, if at all. In the end, fans were disappointed to find few references, and those that were there were laced with hypocrisy. Much like the Instagram videos, he mainly talks about the tragedy from his own perspective. The song “MY EYES” is the most overtly emotional on the album, and its lone rapped verse has Travis saying:
“I replay them nights, and right by my side, all I see is a sea of people that ride wit' me
If they just knew what Scotty would do to jump off the stage and save him a child
The things I created became the most weighted, I gotta find balance and keep me inspired”
These lines essentially restate the sentiment of his original statement. However, he closes that same verse with the lyrics,
“If I gave you a day in my life or a day in my eyes, don't blink”
This line reframes the verse as a plea for empathy when he should be the one imagining what he would be feeling if he lost someone close to him because of a concert. These lyrics are even less genuine when compared to these lyrics on the two tracks sandwiched between them on the tracklist, “MODERN JAM” and “GOD’S COUNTRY”, respectively:
“The way I make it jump, I make it hard to breathe”
“Hunnid thousand, pack the fans”
While not as explicit references, these lyrics still come off as insensitive, invalidate the supposed remorse he has, and ultimately inspire the same behavior that causes incidents like this to occur in the first place. Travis isn't known for being particularly introspective or verbose, but for him not to address something this monumental in his music is a huge missed opportunity and likely has hurt his image.
Another common bond between the two aforementioned tracks is that they are coproduced by Kanye West, who also has a sullied reputation in 2023, but Travis is by no means gaining anything by continuing to associate with him at this moment in his career. Although no vocal contributions from West are present on UTOPIA, his production and influence on Scott are littered throughout it, almost to an egregious degree. Travis Scott his been influenced by and worked with his “brother in law” Kanye West throughout his career. From collaborating numerous times, to Travis expanding his creative pursuits from music to fashion and even cultivating his own label just like West did; Travis was even on West’s imprint GOOD Music before creating his own Cactus Jack Records.
West’s decade-old album Yeezus was touted as futuristic upon its release, and that statement only grows stronger over time, considering the experimental rap artists it helped usher into the mainstream (Death Grips, Danny Brown, clipping., etc.). Travis unapologetically champions those same ideas here, but in execution, his songs are closer to Yeezus knockoffs than homages. “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” is about the most blatant “Black Skinhead” copy you can get. The primal marching drumbeat, the rhyme scheme, the theme of being a rich and famous Black person in America, the sub-filled breakdown for the song’s chorus, all of the iconic traits of Kanye’s blueprint are here. Many other times on UTOPIA, Travis’ rapping sounds a lot like Kanye’s own delivery, even down to the word choices, or the way he’ll twist the pronunciation of certain words to make them fit within certain bars (the way he says “festival” on “SIRENS” and “misogyny” on “LOOOVE”). It’s very likely that the release of the album could have been pushed back due to the Astroworld festival tragedy, but why Travis would want to release such a derivative album of someone whose reputation is so far beneath his is unclear to me.
Much like his previous work, UTOPIA puts Travis’ unique ability to build worlds within his albums on full display. ASTROWORLD was a great example of this, combining the celestial body its name evokes with the haunting nature of the abandoned amusement park of the same name. The title of UTOPIA is partially ironic; the album is very dark, minimal, and aggressive, and Travis leans into a lot of what most would consider vices (drinking, sex, drugs, etc.). UTOPIA’s concept is also expanded upon in a skit featuring Drake. In it, the woman he’s brought home with him, who he promised to take to utopia, has arrived confused at his hotel room. Even though utopia is believed to be a perfect destination, Drake saying his hotel room is “perfect” to him alludes to the notion that everyone has or can find their own utopia.
These two explanations of the album’s title, along with the references to the Astroworld tragedy, are the most substantive lyrical themes that come from Travis. The production, on the other hand, is layered and diverse while still being thematically consistent with the album’s darker undertones. The opening track “HYAENA” is an explosive rush of blow-out drums and guitars that all egg Travis on to deliver a propulsive flow. The beat for “I KNOW?” has an eerie piano passage glide over a tight collection of trap percussion, allowing for Travis to come through with one of the most memorable hooks on the album.
The posse of artists featured on the album do provide nice changes of pace from time to time, but more often than not they don’t land. Some are too short to make an impact, like Sampha’s on “MY EYES”, some sound like the artist not trying very hard, from Beyoncé on “DELRESTO (ECHOES)” or Kid Cudi on “LOOOVE”, and some were clearly added to boost streaming metrics due to name recognition; The skit from Drake leads into his feature on “MELTDOWN”, a very obvious attempt to replicate the success of ASTROWORLD’s biggest hit, “SICKO MODE”, beat switches and all. Travis recruits two giants of the streaming era in Bad Bunny and The Weeknd for the album’s lone effort of a radio hit, but its nocturnal beat and sometimes corny lyrics make its place on a 19 track, over an hour long album hard to justify. Every now and then, a great feature pops up, like SZA, who enters with a triumphant horn section on the tail end of “TELEKINESIS”, or Westside Gunn, who reins in his typically freeform flow to confidently ride the beat switch on “LOST FOREVER”.
While some of the features may not land, and some of the song ideas here may be a little too iterative of others, Travis manages to put together an engaging yet exhausting listen that rarely drags but also doesn’t lean into the commercial, a choice among many other bold ones.
