The Utopiates - Let’s Make This Happen

Image courtesy of the band.

London outfit The Utopiates have released their second album, ‘Let’s Make This Happen’. It follows the 2023 album of the year, ‘The Sun Also Rises’. The album was recorded at The Nave in Leeds with longtime cohort Andy Hawkins producing.

Having set the bar high, can they follow up?

Their debut album cruised to the hearts of the UK in 2023 with effortless grooves indebted to acid house and baggy scenes of the late 80s and early 90s. On ‘Reputation they bridge the gap between then and now with ‘Devolution’-esque charisma and New Order production grooving their way to sunnier climates.

For large sections, though, they chart a course to the 2000’s where NYC basslines and the neon colours of the UK’s NU-rave scene reigned supreme. ‘Neighbourhood’ builds on the debut’s driving grooves but introduces a sharper, hyper-modern strut. This LCD Soundsystem meets Depeche Mode banger sets the tone for their new vision, big sounds, fewer guitars, and a laser-like focus! ‘Lost My Groove’ forges LCD Soundsystem with New Order whilst frontman Dan Popplwell offers up one of several spoken ventures. His vocals have previously been so aligned with soul and soaring indie euphoria; switch up to a darker, venomous version of Matt Abbott (Skint & Demoralised). It allows the themes of time running out and the fading chance of destiny to embody bitterness and spitefulness, giving them a new, abrasive edge.

Frontman Dan Popplewell continues the poetic fire of Skint & Demoralised in the verses of ‘Reputation’, allowing the songs’ discourse of time passing you by to swell. Unlike so many bands of recent times, there’s a desperation to his delivery, a lone wolf in a bloated crowd of intolerable bores.  Meanwhile, the star of the debut Josh Redding’s guitars, fight for existence, striving upwards for sunlight, the perfect metaphor for this album

On the title track ‘LMTH’ and ‘Montezuma’, they wrap up this album's journey. Both are perfectly entwined, ‘LMTH’ being the natural successor to ‘Montezuma’. The former, beset with hazy production and gentle comedown keys, oozes a quiet, nagging pain, one of the underdog feeling undervalued. Dan Popplewell’s voice carries the wide-eyed innocence of Rob Harvey and the stoic depth of Bernard Sumner, winding itself around synth lines that shimmer with Kraftwerk’s elegance.

“It can still happen, let’s make this happen”

As the phrase loops, the song’s true beauty unfurls bittersweet and bruised by doubt. Maybe it won’t happen; maybe it will. But it should. Still, they move forward, unshaken, their credibility intact.

Whereas ‘Montezuma’, a tale of a perfect holiday, becomes bigger and broader through its Hooky-esque bassline. Lyrically, this is comfortably Popplewell’s finest moment to date. Too many writers leap to the feeling of love as a get-rich-quick songwriting scheme. Popplewell takes you on a journey from the bleakness of 9 to 5:

“So, pleased to meet you and what do you do? / I fake all these friendships for cash / It’s dragging me down and it’s stealing my prime”

Then reminds you of why you sell your soul to get there:

“Dream of the horizon / Close your eyes and see, / We lived and died in Montezuma”

The Utopiates have not yet had that leg up in the industry to the next level they deserve. A concept that has driven so much of this album’s defiance may also be the one that sees them fade away, this album’s other major focus. Their skill at merging the bitter and the hopeful here is utterly mesmeric. It defines the times we live in for so many under 40. Go to uni, get a job, oh, here’s your graduate tax, and there are no houses. Write two good albums, guess what, you're not a nepo baby, so fuck off. How The Utopiates steadied their course to incorporate the beauty of LMTH, the dreamlike Montezuma, or the unifying New Order-meets-Depeche-Mode brilliance of The Path is a triumph of the human spirit.

The Utopiates are still waiting for the industry to recognise the music they deserve. That frustration fuels much of this record’s defiance, yet it also lingers as its greatest threat. This is an album caught between belief and burnout, bitterness and hope. In that tension, they capture something painfully familiar for so many under 40: do everything right, follow every rule, and still find the finish line moved further away. Go to uni, get a job, oh, here’s your graduate tax, and there are no houses. Write two good albums, guess what, you're not a nepo baby, so fuck off.

And yet they endure. Through the fragile beauty of LMTH, the sun-drenched escapism of Montezuma, and the unifying, synth-driven surge of The Path, The Utopiates steady their course with remarkable conviction. Whether the wider world finally catches up is another question. But the spirit driving them forward is impossible to ignore.