London-based groove machine The Utopiates return this Friday with their first release of 2025. Their new single ‘Evanescent’ was produced by Pigeon Detectives and Maximo Park cohort Andy Hawkins. It will be released via V2 Records.
Image & artwork courtesy of the band.
Previous singles ‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Reputation’ have been privileged to lift 00s NYC indie-electro back to the fore. As it turns out, they’ve been the perfect bridge to ‘Evanescent’ where the band, arguably, step out alone sonically for the first time.
Frontman Dan Popplewell adopts the poetic fire of Skint & Demoralised in the verses, allowing the songs’ discourse of time passing you by to swell. His newly adopted spoken word delivery comes after years of post-punk bands doing the same. It is a testament to his venomous clarion call speeches that it sounds fresh, a lone wolf in a bloated crowd of intolerable bores.
Josh Redding’s punchy riff condenses Art Brut and TV On The Radio into a slick, angular moment of aggression. Not since Stone Cold kicked to the gut pre-stunner has something so jarring been this enjoyable! Its brutal impact allows the looping synths and Popplewell’s angelic chorus to melt away life’s ills.
Live, The Utopiates have always had an air of defiance that hasn’t shone through on the records. It hasn’t needed to; such was the beauty of the debut album. On stage, though, their humanity shines through, and they’re band desperate to prove to the world they’re worthy of attention. On ‘Evanescent’, they’ve allowed this sentiment to seep in, and it’s freed them up to take creative risks, and it’s paid off.
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