It’s a special release day for The Utopiates. ‘Best and Worst Days’ is their first signed to V2 Records and marks the official run to their debut album.
Single is available from their Bandcamp page.
The shimmering acoustic guitars of ‘Kinky Afro’ and the chilled sunset beats of ‘Dennis and Lois’ chime gloriously in the intro of this tale of looking back. Frontman Dan Popplewell’s ability to bring influences into his indie-soul vocal continues to grow. This time out, he softens his snarl to allow nodes of Bernard Sumner and Danny Wilson in. It adds to the sense of self-reflection permeating throughout but, in the closing moments, he turns on his raw power to say goodbye to his younger self.
They’ve taken the classic rock ‘n’ roll adage of “you have to go there to comeback” and juxtaposed it with their archetypal trippy sound. It’s an astonishingly open ode to their early twenties. Nights of excess, relationship failure, and letting people down are examined from a wiser perspective. It’s that latter point that gives the track’s lyrics brevity the sonic deserves. Without the protagonists understanding that it’s made them who they are, a Cobain nihilistic nightmare would be looming.
No matter the torment of the discourse, through Ed Godhsaw’s keys, the single finds a way to cruise effortlessly to the sun. He’s lifted The Horror’s distressed seaside sonic of ‘Primary Colours’ out it’s their despair and slipped them a pill whilst dancing with New Order.
The Utopiates formed during lockdown. Quite how the bleakest of times produced something so entrenched in love is beyond us. This is not the sound of a band on the rise to their debut album. This is The Mondays approaching ‘Pills Thrills and Bellyaches’ or Depeche Mode gearing up for ‘Violator’. Fully formed and brilliant!
Catch them tonight at Colours in Hoxton.