After the infamous Astroworld tragedy, many people were skeptical if Travis Scott’s career would ever recover. Despite the controversies, Scott released his fourth studio album, UTOPIA, on July 28th, 2023 and it sold 496,000 copies within the first week.
Scott’s fans have waited five years for this album, and when it was released, there was immediate backlash.
The album is very experimental, which would help explain the UTOPIA haters, but don’t count this review among the haters. In my opinion, it ended up being an amazing album.
Alongside the album’s release, Scott released a companion movie, Circus Maximus, that previewed many songs off the album, giving a visual aspect as well as setting the tone for some of the songs.
Throughout the album, Kanye West’s influence can be heard. In Circus Maximus, Scott sampled the background music from the song “Black Skinhead” off of Kanye’s album Yeezus.The song “TELEKINESIS” was originally supposed to be on Kanye’s album Donda with him and Scott being the only two artists on the song.
There is not a “bad” song off of this album, per se, but there are some weak tracks. “K-POP” is a song that many, including I, have given the title of “Worst Song” on the album.
Many fans of UTOPIA have speculated that “K-POP” is more of a parody than a serious track. Scott does not like the genre of K-Pop, and that is the name of the arbitrary worst song on the album.
While the song isn’t the best, the features on “K-POP” are The Weeknd and Bad Bunny, both of which are powerhouses for streams, leading me to believe that Scott made this song for the streams and the money.
The best song is very hard to pick, with almost all of the top songs on the album being nearly perfect.
Some of my personal favorites are “MODERN JAM (Ft. Teezo Touchdown)”, “SKITZO (Ft. Young Thug)”, and “TIL FURTHER NOTICE (Ft. 21 Savage & James Blake)”.
When it comes down to it, the best song for me would have to go to “MY EYES”. This song starts off with a slow and mellow beat, then switches halfway through to a fast pace rap about the Astroworld incident, serving as an apology to fans.
“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”. These lyrics touch base on how if he knew what was happening during the Astroworld concert, he would’ve tried to help his fans, touching on how hard it is to keep inspired after this horrific and traumatizing event.
Overall, this album is very experimental, and while it may not be for everybody, I personally enjoyed it and would recommend giving it a listen.
Tracklist
1.HYAENA
2.THANK GOD
3.MODERN JAM (Ft. Teezo Touchdown)
4.MY EYES
5.GOD’S COUNTRY
6.SIRENS
7.MELTDOWN (Ft. Drake)
8.FE!N (Ft. Playboi Carti)
9.DELRESTO (ECHOES) by Beyoncé & Travis Scott
10.I KNOW ?
11.TOPIA TWINS (Ft. 21 Savage & Rob49)
12.CIRCUS MAXIMUS (Ft. Swae Lee & The Weeknd)
13.PARASAIL (Ft. Dave Chappelle & Yung Lean)
14.SKITZO (Ft. Young Thug)
15.LOST FOREVER (Ft. Westside Gunn)
16.LOOOVE (Ft. Kid Cudi)
17.K-POP (Ft. Bad Bunny & The Weeknd)
18.TELEKINESIS (Ft. Future & SZA)
19.TIL FURTHER NOTICE (Ft. 21 Savage & James Blake)
