But what happens when the vibes are off? UTOPIA is a more expensive model of his previous albums, but it doesn’t sound like he’s leveled up because his life is so different now that when he tries to act like it’s not, he comes off as fake as hell. The bar for him as a rapper is already low he’s here for the vibes, not the skill, and that’s fine. Travis needs those knockout guest appearances because nobody expects him to carry an album himself. But again, at his peak, Kanye was able to draw showstopping features out of collaborators-these are nothing more than fleeting thrills. Future is strong over the orchestral beat of “Telekinesis,” and I like when he raps, “Countin’ so much money till my skin peel.” SZA is here, too, sounding good and sounding like she’s collecting a check. The rage beat on “Fe!n” is played-out, but Playboi Carti’s new vocal trick (sounding like he has bronchitis) soaks up the attention and just lets Travis do a bunch of ad-libbing. The digitized lilts over Blonde-inspired fogginess on “My Eyes” sound nice enough, especially when sprinkled with dreamy riffing from Sampha and Justin Vernon. ![]() Sometimes, the marquee features and shiny production are good at masking the fact that Travis is an emotional blackhole on the mic. In the Circus Maximus film, the visuals are at times so pristine and polished that Travis looks like a cyborg UTOPIA sounds a lot like that, too. Unafraid to look like a fool, or at least convinced that he was so cool that it didn’t matter if he did. Raw no matter how much he tinkered, layered, or absorbed. Even at his most wild, most narcissistic, and most famous, Kanye still felt shit. Well, that’s impossible, because even with the moody AutoTune warbling of 808s & Heartbreaks, the grand maestro vibes of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the icy electro synths of Yeezus, and the famous-friend-apalooza of The Life of Pablo, Travis is missing arguably the most important aspect of Kanye. But UTOPIA veers from heavy inspiration into Travis pretty much trying to Single White Female him. That probably won’t be a surprise to anyone who has ever heard any song by Travis Scott, who’s been a Ye disciple since the days of getting some production credits on Yeezus a decade ago. And to get that across, here is UTOPIA, a big, empty rap blockbuster that lives in the shadow of other bigger, less-empty rap blockbusters. Spoiler alert: He does still have the ability to rage. ![]() While Travis remains a defendant in several civil lawsuits, he was not held criminally responsible for the incident and has seemingly moved on, or pretended it never happened. In 2021, while he performed one of his raucous sets at his hometown Astroworld Festival in Houston, 10 people were killed and thousands more were injured during a sudden crowd crush. ![]() Since he released his inescapable album Astroworld five years ago, Travis has fully embraced his persona as the ultimate hooligan, even after tragedy put that character under fire. Anyone with a liking for early 70's blues oriented rock will love this album.This is Travis’ idea of getting vulnerable. This album is well crafted and flows dramatically from one song to the other without a dull moment. Highlights are including "Rock N' Roll Children," "Big Mama Boogie - Parts I & II," and the title track, which closes the album in suitably kick-ass fashion. Kicking off with one from the latter column, it's the unexpected slow and heavy take on Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." The other cover, a version of Chuck Willis' "Feel So Bad," is more than serviceable but it's really the originals that are the stars of this show. The album offers eight tracks of which are six originals and two covers. Existing of Vanilla Fudge rhythm section Carmine Appice (drums) and Tim Bogert (bass), as well as former Amboy Dukes lead vocalist Rusty Day (vocals/mouth harp), and Jim McCarty (guitar) from Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and the Buddy Miles Express. ![]() Or Another was the second studio outing of supergroup Cactus.
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