The Weekly Coos

Much time has transpired since the Astroworld tragedy that left many dead and families stricken with grief, but for Travis Scott, his sympathies have gone down the drain – oh, and new music has been stagnant, I guess. A single here, a featured verse there, and now, five years since his Astroworld album, Travis has returned with Utopia, a slightly futuristic-sounding album treading familiar territory lyrically, creating a vacuous void of consistency. Though as it has been with past albums, the viscosity remains high. Not much has changed; the construction of his songs continues to expand, thus making it worth the wait – it’s close to as sonically rich and profound as Birds Sing McKnight In The Trap – but squanders a cohesive trip with a bloated tracklist, and wrought lyricism, that becomes evident around the middle marker, where its pacing tapers – then you get left with an overlong stretch of mediocre to great songs, some of which brings half-baked allusions, and political siding with Ye over Biden, as noted in the track, “Skitzo.” These may be minor to the overall acceptance and enjoyment of the album; the need for provocation, and some repetitiveness, dwindles it to being part of my pushback from finding it outstanding instead of just another solid Travis Scott album.

Utopia begins on a high note with the hypnotically anthemic “Hyaena,” which also sets the platform for Travis Scotts’s typicality; some references and writing help move it a tier above, but it isn’t always definitive. Like with “Hyaena,” where one of the last things I’d expect from Scott is white sitcom references, one of which gets used here – if we’re being honest, Travis has always been more of a Niles Crane than Frasier – additionally, some disses, one of which aimed at Timothy Chalamet – and though they took me off guard, his writing is still clever, and stays as consistent as the production. But I digress, as Travis seems to have a hold on quality when the features getting incorporated are, to a lesser extent, glorified hook and bridge singers. Bon Iver and James Blake never crater past a balanced atmospheric performance, adding some nuance to a song like “My Eyes,” which is reflective for Travis but still falters at hitting it directly with something lyrically profound over a beat reminiscent of a Blonde (Frank Ocean) throwaway; instead, you get a composite of a song where at least every faction is hitting somewhere between the line of listenable and great – more so towards the latter.

Unfortunately, one can’t say similarly for the abundance of features, where responsibility shifts the balance on more than one shoulder for the songs to hit. With the rap features, they are more consistent with the performance than singers are with some of the hooks and verses, like Teezo Touchdown on “Modern Jam,” which heavily samples an early version of the “I Am A God” beat off Yeezus, or the shortlived verse from Rob49 on “Topia Twins,” that leaves you a little less than satisfied. It continues with an unceremonious Swae Lee feature on “Circus Maximus” – same for Beyonce on “Delresto (Echoes)” – and The Weeknd on “K-Pop,” that you retroactively appreciate the effort put in by Scott to keep himself afloat with quality. There are many fantastic featured performances, like Bad Bunny, who ferociously delivers an anthemic Reggaeton-Trap collab, only for the song to lose steam with the Weeknd; fortunately, there are tracks like “FE!N,” “Meltdown,” and “Lost Forever” to express cohesive, front-to-back fluidity, especially in the former two where we get some highlight performances from Playboi Carti and Drake respectively.

As the album goes through the motions of keeping itself hot-footed in the momentum, more comes to life, like how Travis Scott’s verses aren’t always saying a lot, diluting his personality to being more homogenized. One can argue that the same dribble can become overbearing and lead you to an uninteresting flow of songs that mean little, especially if the beat isn’t up to par to balance the scale. It gets prevalently heard with some of the solo ventures and ones with features, like “Skitzo” with Young Thug, where the verses have little weight, but the delivery carries that potent impact. In contrast to these more energetic presences, Travis pulls back a little tempering the sound and delivering something smoother and softer like “I Know?” an interesting contrast to the frenetic and fantastic “Topia Twins” – all this while creating an ecosphere of delineating sounds that are in tune with Travis’s kineticism and, to an extent, the features that replicate as such. I’m talking Drake, Rob49, 21 Savage, James Blake, & Westside Gunn. Others feel placated throughout, trying to connect these varying intangibles; Young Thug does this on “Skitzo,” but it isn’t enough to gloss over the weak lyricism from Travis Scott.

Like most Hip-Hop albums today, the lead artist brings many producers to concoct beats, which usually wanes but more so teeters toward having an abundance of them. In hindsight, it’s understandable as certain producers do certain things better than others, whether it’s the synths or any form of live instrumentation; it can still get overcooked. When I took a gander at Utopia, Travis Scott brought more than expected – 47 producers – and somehow, there never feels like we get a true detachment from the slightly linear direction Travis Scott takes. He’s elevating and de-escalating with the tides of the beat, and though some aren’t the most interesting, some teeter on the line. It’s what separates something that’s more profoundly softer in “Parasail” to the candescent southern trap beat with “Skitzo,” featuring a solid verse from Young Thug and faux-edginess from Travis. But as all these elements round out, you get left with an album that’s bloated and modestly inconsistent at times – going on small spurts of solid work before reeling you back with some mediocrity – one example comes in that run between “Sirens” and “Topia Twins,” where the Beyonce feature sizzles out and starts feeling like a scrubbed loosie from Renaissance.

There is much to like about Utopia, especially the height in quality from the apropos tracks that fall within one’s expectations parameters but never too far into being dull. Simply, the ratio of okay to great isn’t balanced, and leaning in the direction of the former – it progresses, and you get left whelmed with some quality songs that have replay value, and more so memorability. Utopia is a rap blockbuster, from the features to the production and its event status – this includes the pseudo-film Circus Maximus and the lead-in with the eventually canceled Pyramid of Giza concert and so forth. It’s an underwhelming blockbuster, but it seems, no matter the medium, blockbusters aren’t as potent these days, and at least Travis Scott replicates that. It has its moments to remember, but it’s not something I will find myself returning to as frequently, despite liking some songs. Here’s to Utopia.