Review Summary: Swipe left
In the leadup to
Utopia, Iceland’s queen of pop teased us with titbits about her 9th studio album: the utilization of woodwinds; another collaboration with Arca; an alikeness to the ‘Pagan Poetry’ B-side ‘Batabid’; and ultimately a more optimistic counterpart to
Björk's previous album, the heartbreak-embodying
Vulnicura. It all sounded too good to be true.
All things considered, it was.
Utopia’s 72 minute running time makes it
Björk’s longest album, giving it more opportunity to falter – in reality, the album’s length is the biggest fault in itself. Most songs are simply twice as long as they ought to be. The beautiful and explosive splendour of ‘Body Memory’, ‘Arisen My Senses’ and ‘Losss’ exhaust themselves prematurely, leaving the latter halves of these songs feeling like a chore to listen to – a statement I would never expect to say about
Björk’s music.
This is especially exhausting given that most songs barely progress anywhere; the boundaries between verse and chorus are not clearly defined and any new interesting developments quickly ricochet back to orbiting the homogeneity of the main vocal melody. Songs like ‘Family’ and ‘Atom Dance’ from
Vulnicura manage to unfold new motifs and tones over their lengths with refreshing effect; whereas even the relatively short ‘Blissing Me’ in
Utopia pussyfoots around
Björk’s delicate vocals with no coherent structure or direction.
Another statement I wouldn’t find myself saying is that the best track in
Utopia is ‘The Gate’. Upon release as the album's first single, it felt unimpressive, but in the context of
Utopia, its restraint gives the album and
Björk herself room to breathe. The lone vocal melody accentuates the fragility of
Björk’s tender lyrics, following the vulnerability of the ‘wound on her chest’ from
Vulnicura, but still performs its role as the centrepiece of the song, with the sparse instrumentation augmenting the vocals rather than drowning them. ‘The Gate’ is the only long track whose length is warranted given its spacious delivery. The delicate closer, ‘Future Forever’, also flaunts
Björk’s unwavering strength as a vocalist, where the playful delivery of “future forever” is reminiscent of the youthful
Debut and
Post, and is otherwise a tranquil, near enlightening track. However, this formula alone is not the key to
Utopia’s success, as the desolate vocals in the eerie ‘Features Creatures’ is a bewildering choice given the romantic lyrics.
Most of the remaining songs aren’t quite as lucky, where the lead vocals are either drowned out by the instrumentation or, ironically, the backing vocals. This is apparent even from the album opener, ‘Arisen My Senses’, where the panned vocals fade in and out so frequently that they oversaturate themselves and lose their gravitas - it doesn't help that the trap hi-hats in this song sound dreadful. Arca’s contributions are hit and miss; where the crushing and erratic beats in ‘Sue Me’ and ‘Body Memory’ can be distracting or oppressive, they work surprisingly well in ‘Courtship’ and ‘Losss’. The stuttering electronic arpeggios in ‘Claimstaker’ are by far the most engaging in
Utopia; although they’re restrained alongside the strings and
Björk’s vocals, they build anticipation and give ‘Claimstaker’ momentum - give it
life. The rise and fall of vocals and strings in this track are fantastic, too. If anything, ‘Claimstaker’ is the only song that would benefit a longer runtime. The lack of dynamic range of the woodwinds in ‘Utopia’, ‘Courtship’, ‘Sue Me’ and ‘Paradisia’ is catastrophic, further amplified by the previously mentioned lack of thematic variety. It’s a shame because their presence in ‘Tabula Rasa’, ‘Saint’ and ‘Losss’ is great when they draw out the melodic lines or lurk in the shadows, building on the song’s ambiance. It’s no wonder that the instrumentally-restrained tracks like ‘The Gate’, ‘Future Forever’ and ‘Claimstaker’ are the most enjoyable to listen to, and feel like the bright and airy utopia that
Björk is trying to conjure.
Two things I can’t fault
Utopia on are the excellent transitions between tracks and its ambiance. From the chirps and rustling canopies in ‘Utopia’ to the snarling wolverine in ‘Body Memory’,
Björk brings a convincing natural atmosphere to the album. Though saying that,
Björk’s declaration of
Utopia being her ‘Tinder album’ isn’t very convincing – the sensuality is only explicit in ‘Blissing Me’ and ‘Courtship’, and other themes of femininity and nature point more towards a motherly nurturing in ‘Tabula Rosa’, ‘Utopia’ and ‘Saint’. There’s nothing here that reaches the immaculate sensuality in
Vespertine.
It can be frustrating listening to Utopia; not because of its inaccessibility, but because of the realization that this album could have been so much more if it was so much
less. There is no song in
Utopia that is inherently bad, some are even fantastic, but the sum of all their flaws and, most fatally, their bloatedness ruins what could have potentially been one of
Björk’s most captivating records.
