‘Utopia’ by Travis Scott Review: Leaning In to Hip-Hop Spectacle

Travis Scott was a divisive figure in the rap world even before the 2021 tragedy at his hometown Astroworld Festival in Houston, in which a crowd-crush incident during his set led to 10 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Though Mr. Scott—born Jacques Webster in 1991—was enormously popular, with two No. 1 studio albums and four No. 1 singles, his rapid rise was often greeted with skepticism by hip-hop aficionados, who felt that his music was light on substance and that his lyrics had little to say. He was further criticized for his reaction to the concert disaster after he offered a jumbled apology via video that didn’t seem to match the gravity of the situation, and some believed that he bore personal responsibility, given his onstage encouragement of fan intensity. Though the rapper was never formally accused of wrongdoing, he’s mostly kept a low profile in the two years since, contributing to a handful of singles by other artists.

That all changed last week with the announcement and release of “Utopia” (Cactus Jack/Epic), Mr. Scott’s fourth studio album and the follow-up to his smash 2018 LP “Astroworld.” His timing is good. So far, 2023 has been short on “event” records in hip-hop, and as Rolling Stone reported early in July, it’s been a weak year for the genre on the charts. Mr. Scott has a chance of single-handedly changing the narrative with a collection that is epic in terms of both its content—at 73 minutes it’s quite long for a hip-hop record—and its star-studded guest list. “Utopia” is deliberately framed as a blockbuster, the kind of release every fan of the genre is forced to engage with. And while it won’t do anything to change the minds of those who have questioned Mr. Scott’s writing skill, it’s a consistently strong and occasionally thrilling collection of songs.

Mr. Scott’s two greatest assets are his taste in production and the resonance of his voice. Since the beginning of his career, he’s expressed admiration for rock and pop artists with an experimental streak, such as Björk and Radiohead, and “Utopia,” like “Astroworld” before it, is packed with lushly psychedelic beats. Though dozens of producers, songwriters and guest vocalists appear on the record, Mr. Scott and studio collaborators, including Mike Dean (Kanye West, the Weeknd), have assembled the pieces into a coherent whole.

The first track, “Hyaena,” opens the set with a quaking bassline and drums that sound like a herd of cattle stomping over a smashed steel gate, and after effortless high-speed rapping from Mr. Scott it concludes with a sample from Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain.” Another early highlight, “Modern Jam,” is produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, better known as one half of Daft Punk, and the sleekly minimal pulse is the perfect backdrop for Mr. Scott’s melodic verses. The song is an “I’m back!” statement, and he’s not saying anything particularly profound—“Know it’s been a year since I seen the road / Had me inside like I’m on parole” is a representative couplet—but “Modern Jam” lives up to the billing of its title.

While Mr. Scott’s limitations as a line-by-line lyricist and storyteller are clear, his voice is one of the most distinctive in rap this century. It’s gravelly and slightly nasal at the same time, and it’s both a deeply physical sound and one that lends itself well to electronic processing. This combination gives Mr. Scott’s rapping a futuristic sheen, and he always comes across as “new” even when you listen to tracks from several years ago. That said, he tends to skim the surface when he raps and frequently makes the most obvious choices. On the fifth cut, “God’s Country,” that means delivering lines like “Go Ted Bundy, then go home and play Al Bundy ” that are both clumsy and mean nothing in particular.

But while such groaners crop up regularly on “Utopia,” the album’s sonic wonders provide balance. The gorgeous “My Eyes” features the voice and glitchy electronics of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and an equally great cameo from soulful English singer Sampha on a song that conveys mournful resignation. And the menacing “Meltdown,” with an opening rap by Drake, has a progressive structure that feels like three tracks in one, as it moves from eerie string samples to the thick bass growl of rap subgenre drill and ends with a coda of strummed acoustic guitar. Beyoncé drops in for a fleet rap to open the brisk and jazzy “Delresto (Echoes)” and then switches to singing as Mr. Scott joins her while Mr. Vernon once again contributes vocals.

One reason rap is faltering on the charts is because regional scenes have been ascendant. Hip-hop today is a fragmented and fast-moving genre with innumerable variations based on geography and shared aesthetics, and a lot of the music is created at home by the young. “Utopia” is fun in part because it pushes forcefully against that lo-fi trend. It’s a highly polished and sophisticated production that probably involved some expensive studio bills, never mind the cost of features by big names like the Weeknd, SZA and 21 Savage. Yes, it’s too long and ultimately doesn’t have a lot to say, but take a long drive with “Utopia” turned up loud and you’ll understand why we’ll probably be hearing tunes from it in public spaces for many months.

—Mr. Richardson is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Follow him on Twitter @MarkRichardson.