We are still living in the shadow of ASTROWORLD, and the hype surrounding the next solo Travis Scott record maintains that 2018 album’s influence, popularity, and lasting appeal. With impossible expectations, UTOPIA dropped with instant commercial success and praise from listeners, signifying a worthy successor. Find out below if the new Travis Scott is worth your attention.
The Epic Hip-Hop Art of UTOPIA
The first aspect of Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD follow-up the listener notices is the length: though only two tracks longer than its predecessor, UTOPIA stretches to over 73 minutes. As intended, this is not a brisk listen. Scott requires investment if you want to be fully absorbed by his musical concept, steeped in atmosphere and variety that achieves a darker mood than his past music. Lyrically, he never reaches the gravitas of his peers in the neighboring genre called (somewhat problematically) “conscious” hip-hop. But for an artist associated with trap music, the rhymes are good enough to point to higher themes with only occasional lip service.
The listening hurdle to overcome on UTOPIA is sustaining interest over an extended length of time, and that is where personal preference here will lead to a split reaction. We at Streaming Now cannot picture the majority of audiences listening intently to an unbroken album experience here, though the lush production makes for solid background music. Critics are divided 50/50 on the answer to this problem; for every review praising its successful experimentation within the rap genre, there is another who finds Scott‘s performance here lacking vigor and substance across the whole record.
A Simultaneous Step Forward and Backward for Scott
Even the harshest critic cannot deny that Scott shows musical development on his new album, but when asking someone whether the rapper is moving back, forward, or a combination, the answer varies from person to person. The inspiring blend of influence and innovation on select tracks like “MODERN JAM” and “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” shows up amid the derivative snooze of overlong ballads and trap beat loops like on “MY EYES” and “MELTDOWN.” Scott deserves some props for thinking outside the box on out-of-character tracks like “K-POP,” even if it understandably leads to divisiveness.
In any case, UTOPIA is a step down from the animated, engaging experience of ASTROWORLD. For all its surface-level remodeling, the seventeen recognizable features on this new record lend to easy accusations of guest-heavy popularity seeking, something ASTROWORLD excellently embedded rather than sprinkled throughout. UTOPIA almost did not even credit its features on streaming services, but that problem ended a few days after the initial release. Regardless of the attempts to hide these guest artists, the resulting popularity boost on streaming services and blatant drop-ins on lengthy runtimes proves some filling of gaps has gone down here.
Though not necessarily one to skip, especially for any level of hip-hop fan, UTOPIA represents the type of record we should all be more wary and critical of in musical discussions. This modern brand of rap album, where pressure from streaming revenue evolves into nineteen tracks on a record where a length closer to Yeezus could benefit the proceedings, hides the better rap albums throughout the year in a decent, uneven, but great-looking package.
UTOPIA is streaming now wherever you listen to music.