Such playful exploration ultimately serves as American Utopia’s greatest strength. The track mocks country homes and the fetishization of foodie culture, but builds to a playfully extravagant techno-inspired breakdown to temper the cynicism. Some moments, such as “Doing the Right Thing,” may seem like bitter attacks on Byrne’s upper-class peers.
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“Bullet” gets even more abstract, with Byrne detailing the trajectory of a projectile-“His skin did part in two/Skin that women had touched”-with slow-motion electronics and an assortment of guitars. Each focuses on the blissful ignorance of an animal’s brain to illustrate human waste, the former with a sparse, slightly-Caribbean vibe and the latter via a stark, ambient ballad. “Every Day Is a Miracle” and a “Dog’s Mind” seem like two sides of the same coin. Splashes of Middle Eastern folk occasionally emerge above the beat-focused soundscapes. “Gasoline and Dirty Sheets” vacillates between war-torn helplessness and the blank emptiness of Western advertising. Throughout the well-recorded effort-offering up tall, arching cathedrals of sound and a vibrant immediacy on vinyl-Byrne paints high-tech, cosmopolitan pop with a surrealist’s edge. Similar back-and-forth gestures dominate the record’s 37-minute length. Credit-card debt and dead-end careers dominate the lives of the protagonists, and while the chorus goes for high-energy movements, it never offers a release. While not as overtly political as Pulp’s explosive mid-90s anthem “Common People,” the song takes a similar view: We dance like fools because that’s pretty much all we can do to feel better. The opening “I Dance Like This” plays with these contrasts, alternately capturing a desire for community yet conveying a sense of helplessness. The method keeps you guessing, making songs feel like puzzles. Think of films like The Big Short, which tackles America’s most recent financial crisis with absurdity and cynicism.Īt times a treatise on modern life, American Utopia alternates direct, everyday imagery with that of the bizarre. And yet the electronic-heavy soundscapes are too cold to be empathetic. Music from this album would be a great soundtrack to:Īmerican Utopia takes a wide-angle view of life in the U.S.A., sometimes putting us in the mind of farm animals or a weapon. Byrne’s direct, talk-sing vocals keep the listener on edge, making for an album meant for moving-an accompaniment, perhaps, for a brisk walk or afternoon errands.
It presents a colorful and refined exterior but ultimately aims to confront and challenge. Like much of Byrne’s work with the Talking Heads, American Utopia feels something like a rock n’ roll Trojan horse. It’s Byrne making sense of 2018, culturally and sonically, and blending Latin, reggae, and R&B influences with propulsive digital textures. Here, the Talking Heads anchor works with longtime friend and aural adventurer Brian Eno to produce a set that melds electronic and global influences. Yet he’s been far from missing in action, having collaborated with the likes of guitar sorceress St.
Often offbeat and wildly experimental, David Byrne’s American Utopia stands as his first proper solo album in more than a decade. Review By Todd Martens When listening to this album I think of this band or music:
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