“UTOPIA” marks Travis Scott’s return into the music world as it’s his fourth studio album, following the successful release of “ASTROWORLD.” Travis had to really pump out a great album here after the 2021 incident at his Astroworld Festival.
The project clocks in at roughly 75 minutes, making it his second-longest album. It also shares features with the likes of Drake, The Weeknd and SZA.
“HYAENA” starts off the album energetic as ever. The drum patterns, bass and other assortments of instruments are in full effect. On top of the overproduction of the track, Travis is back again with his amazing delivery and flow. While he’s not known for being the most lyrical rapper by any standards, he still makes this track enjoyable for the average listener.
One of my favorite features on the album is by Teezo Touchdown on “MODERN JAM.” He’s been making a name for himself as of lately, and this performance from him doesn’t disappoint. Travis is having so much fun on this track as his usual autotune is being used here. To pair up with this, we have Teezo’s verse that is very reminiscent of David Bowie or Freddie Mercury’s soundscape with his vocals. This song is one of the best that “UTOPIA” has to offer.
“GOD’S COUNTRY” is a leftover from Kanye West’s “Donda” that was given to Travis for this project. The influence from Mr. West is strong here from the entrancing instrumental to some vocal effects, like Travis’s screams, as they sound eerily similar to Kanye. The track as a whole is a great addition to the tracklist.
“MELTDOWN” gives the listener another collaboration between Travis and Drake. The song had big shoes to fill since their last outing together, “SICKO MODE.” This track does everything right, from Drake’s verse, Travis’s verse, and even the chorus is flawless. Drake offers one of his best verses of the 2020s so far. The second half of the song has a beat switch and has Drake and Travis going back and forth for a bit, before going fully into Travis’s verse. All artists’ performances here are amazing, making this one of the greats on the album.
My favorite track on the album is “I KNOW?” with good reason. The content of the track is Travis’s life as of now with drugs and alcohol tainting it every second of the day. With this, we get the realest he’s ever been. With his raw vocal and no autotune, we hear the fact that he’s reflecting on himself. The instrumentation is excellent as well. While it’s as simple as some effects being thrown around over a piano beat, I love it so much. The track brings together everything great about Travis, cementing it as the best on the project.
We get one of the few lowlights of the album with “TOPIA TWINS.” Everything about this song is just decent at best. I’m not the biggest fan of the Rob49 verse here at all. People just know him for sounding similar to NBA Youngboy, who I also dislike to a certain extent. Travis’s verse is decent but not anything to be in awe over. The 21 Savage verse here is great, but it isn’t enough to save the rest of the performances here. The worst part of this song is the chorus. It’s just annoying as Travis stretches the syllables in the words within the chorus, which irritates me. On top of that, it’s just repetitive.
I often see myself skipping past “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” because it lacks personality. Every other collaboration between Travis and The Weeknd is excellent. However, this record just doesn’t seem to have both artists giving it their all. The instrumental is spacey which I thought I’d like, but with the subpar verses, it made the song worse.
A major highlight of the album is “SKITZO.” It offers several beats, all of which are fantastic. Travis’s performance starts off at great but slowly starts to ramp up as the beats switch. Young Thug, a common collaborator of Travis, keeps up with Travis here well. I’m not blown away by his performance, but it doesn’t take away from the track. The last verse of the song is my favorite by far. The sample used here, on top of the instrumental, is perfection. It wraps up the whole song excellently.
Yet another highlight is heard with “LOST FOREVER.” James Blake is credited on the track but adds little to the overall track besides a short intro and a sample cut used throughout the song. Travis has a great verse per usual. Westside Gunn steps into the scene and blows me away. The beat turns twisted as he begins, making it seem like a complete dystopia. His weird rapping style scratches an itch in my brain. With this, his adlibs, flow and delivery of all of this, he gives us one of the best verses on the project.
“LOOOVE” is yet another one of my favorites. The instrumental is as fun as ever. Kid Cudi takes the cake here as the beat matches his style used here so well. I love the chorus and refrain from Travis. While it is repeated a lot here, it’s fine because it’s simply so good. You can just tell that both rappers had so much fun on this track, which I appreciate a lot.
Possibly the best outro track on a Travis Scott album is here with “TIL FURTHER NOTICE.” James Blake’s voice conveys so many emotions of sadness here and gave me goosebumps during my first listens of the song. Travis’s and 21 Savage’s verses are fantastic as they rap over the beautiful instrumental sent in by none other than Metro Boomin. Metro showed me why he’s the best hip-hop producer as of right now. The record is used as a way of telling the listener “until further notice” of new music from Scott.
After all is said and done, this is Travis Scott’s best work to date. It may be recency bias speaking, but I believe it’ll stand the test of time. While there are some lowlights seen on the tracklist, they’re still great at least. The positives absolutely outweigh the negatives. Between the production, performances from the artists and the flow of the overall album, we have an amazing album in front of us.