After five long years, Travis Scott finally gave the people what they all wanted. Another La Flame solo album. UTOPIA was being teased as early as 2019 and the mystique around the release and songs just built into the hype even more.
Despite all the controversy, there’s not a lot of people that have captured the attention of a generation like Travis Scott. Every festival and tour instantly sells out, fans clear out the merchandise whenever it releases on his website and when he drops music the whole world is tuned in.
This rollout was a little different than some of his previous ones. “K-POP” featuring Bad Bunny and The Weeknd was the lone single to come out before the album, but the Texas native also released a full-length film in theaters the day before the album dropped. Naturally, I bought a ticket the second I saw the tickets released. We were greeted with a free t-shirt at the door, and then we proceeded to see all the crazy visuals for almost every song on the album. Once I saw the video he did for “SIRENS“, I knew this album was going to be something different.
I went to watch the movie at 10 p.m. at the Tysons Corner Mall. So when it finished, I was able to go to my car and listen to the album in full on my hour-long ride home from the theater. Since that night of July 27th, I have listened to this album so many times I’ve lost count. So without further adieu, here’s what I thought about Travis Scott’s “UTOPIA”…
“THE YSN REVIEW”
- TELEKINESIS ft. SZA & Future
- MY EYES
- I KNOW ?
- THANK GOD
- SIRENS
- TILL FURTHER NOTICE ft. James Blake & 21 Savage
- PARASAIL ft. Dave Chappelle & Yung Lean
- MELTDOWN ft. Drake
- DELRESTO (ECHOES) ft. Beyoncé
- MODERN JAM ft. Teezo Touchdown
- FEIN ft. Playboi Carti
- GOD’S COUNTRY
- CIRCUS MAXIMUS ft. The Weeknd & Swae Lee
- K-POP ft. Bad Bunny & The Weeknd
- HYAENA
- SKITZO ft. Young Thug
- LOST FOREVER ft. Westside Gunn
- TOPIA TWINS ft. Rob49 & 21 Savage
- LOOOVE ft. Kid Cudi
A unique experience from start to finish. That’s what I thought of Travis Scott’s “UTOPIA”. I went into the album genuinely not knowing what to expect. There were conflicting reports saying he was going back to the “Rodeo” sound or saying he was going towards a “whole new” sound. I’d say that it was kind of a mixture of both.
Songs like “MY EYES” and “SIRENS” definitely had an old-school “Rodeo” feel but tracks like “MODERN JAM” and “DELRESTO (ECHOES)” just felt completely different (in a good way). However, there is a piece of art that was compared to this album more than others. And that was an album by the name of “Yeezus”. Travis seemed to take inspiration from his predecessors album on several tracks, and even paraphrasing lyrics from the songs.
“Welcome to my world where it’s packed in” – Travis Scott, CIRCUS MAXIMUS
“Middle America packed in” – Kanye West, Black Skinhead
While Travis’ 2018 “Astroworld” was more of a roller coaster of a listen, with a lot of emphatic and hype songs, “UTOPIA” focused in more on a space where Travis could get lost in his own world. An actual utopia, so to speak. Something that he addressed on the track “LOST FOREVER” ft. Westside Gunn.
“Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been lost?”
And three tracks later on “TELEKINESIS”, he’s talking about seeing the future. However, that’s not the only concept that I got from that track. Travis is alluding to a concept he has talked about several times before in his discography, the concept of God. On “Astroworld” he had a song called, “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD” which was a song to not only his peers, but to himself, to take a step back and realize that you are not God and although you have all these material things that not everything is in your control.
On “TELEKINESIS”, he talks about seeing the future, but he also talks about letting Jesus take the wheel and accepting the second coming.
In the next line he says, “Won’t you take the wheel? I recline and I sit still,” which in this situation can mean two things. One, that he is no longer lost like he was talking about on “LOST FOREVER” and he’s comfortable to wherever life takes him. Or two, that he is letting “Jesus take the wheel” and surrendering the ego and status that he currently has as a superstar.
“Might as well turn up now, He gon’ pop up unannounced
To the trumpets, do you like the way it sounds?”
I think what I take away from this album the most is just realizing the grown that the one they call “La Flame”, has made as an artist. From “Upper Echelon” to “TELEKINESIS” you can just tell that he’s learned so much along the way. I truly did love this album, it was a real experience from front to back.
I know that it took me a long time to give it the attention and proper analysis it deserved, but it’s not every day that there’s a Travis Scott album to review. I felt like I had to give it the respect it deserved.
There have been a couple of albums that have been heavy in my rotation since “UTOPIA” dropped. However, I’m thinking my next album review will be about a certain artist from Canada.
“Look in my eyes, tell me your tale
Do you see the road, the map to my soul?”
Thank you all for reading. I’m hoping I can get my next album review done soon enough. This is YSN, until next time, signing out.
Some of my new favorite Travis songs are on this album. I never really liked the slower songs, but TELEKINESIS truly changed my opinion on that. Great review!