London-based outfit The Utopiates are set to release their debut album ‘The Sun Also Rises’ on the 5th May via V2 Records.
Image and artwork courtesy of V2 Records.
Over recent years, the band’s live shows have been mesmeric, but their desire really grabbed audiences’ attention. A sheer will to succeed was omnipresent, a sense that their time is now was always at the forefront of everything.
Where many bands fail to translate their live power in the studio The Utopiates have succeeded on ‘Seekers’, ‘Making History’, and ‘It’s Coming For You’ as the band serves up their destiny with serious mass appeal. ‘Seekers’ spirals heavenly with the vastness of ‘Second Coming’ but the anticipation generated is all firmly 1989’s. The military-esque drums and melodic keys create the sense of “coming up” that the album rarely pivots far from. Lead guitarist Josh Redding’s Hendrix and Squire licks forge breathtaking sunsets that unite the classes of ’88, ’92, and the current DMAs generation can unite behind. Political change may loiter in 2024, but culturally, The Utopiates are defining the epoch shift right here, right now!
In recent years, rock ‘n’ roll has fallen by the wayside. Plenty of promise, but a failure to deliver a generation-unifying album. The fashion, the sound, and the polemic felt too indebted to yesteryear. The Utopiates’ however, have found the path which links the broad brushstrokes of New Order’s ‘love’ and Oasis’ swagger with defiant punk and coming-of-age lyrics. Bullish and oozing togetherness and unwavering confidence, ‘Making History’ binds the bucket hats and Doc Martens types with their Oasis-tinged rhetoric:
“One day you’ll see, yeah they’ll look at me, I’m not up here making tunes, I’m making history!”
Ed Godshaw’s keys look to the Inspiral Carpets’ ‘Life’ and Black Grape’s debut, Redding has the showmanship of Prince, whilst Popplewell’s vocal nods to Dave Gahan. Collectively, the destiny they illuminate feels ginormous, but always within their grasp. Meanwhile, on ‘It’s Coming For You’, the hedonism of the Roses’ ‘Tightrope’, ‘Tears’, and ‘How Do You Sleep’ is taken into the mire by Popplewell’s steel and Redding’s heavy guitars. They encapsulate their struggle to escape the lives most of us lead and hate. As Redding’s guitars take flight, Cream’s ‘Disraeli Gears’ dances into view- but with the financial and social burden of the 20s hanging around its neck, rather than the hallucinogenic freedom of the 60s.
Most fledgling bands wear their influences on their sleeves; The Utopiates wear them on a trip. ‘Sick Love’ slips into the post-MDMA rush, with its free-flowing easy-riding soul of Morcheeba and Richard Hawley and Duane Eddy guitars. Whereas ‘Ups and Downs’ takes you right to the heart of a rush, with its nod to Asha JJ’s ‘Tribute’. It’s the acid house-infused anthem Serge Pizzorno has dreamt of making for a decade. ‘Midas Touch’ delves gloriously into the wonk of Happy Mondays’ ‘Wrote For Luck’ on a comedown. Spaced out and expansive, they conjure a blissful sonic for eyes to roll back to.
The album culminates in two places. ‘Only Human’ and ‘Best and Worst Days’, both former singles, light up an already fine album for very different reasons. ‘Only Human’ is the stop-everything moment! Like ‘Live Forever’, ‘Last Night’, and ‘Lay Down’, it pulls from the greats and spits out something new for the world to clutch to its hearts. Depeche Mode’s darkness; Marr’s expressiveness; EMF’s soul; New Fast Automatic Daffodils groove and Prince’s star power are forged into something near perfect, as The Utopiates propel themselves towards greatness.
‘Best and Worst Days’ is a different animal. More universal and polished, it’s classic songwriting that should straddle indie and corporate radio stations alike. 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. Popplewell’s ability to bring influences into his indie-soul vocal continue. He softens his snarl to allow Bernard Sumner and Danny Wilson nodes 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 the latter 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 of its despair and with ecstasy and New Order.
Whether you’re coming of age or finding a new lease on life, The Utopiates are the band to soundtrack it. From ‘Devolution’ to ‘It’s Coming To You’ they clutch onto hope with their fingernails as their sonic tumbles towards the darkness. Like all great bands before them, they find a way to lead the mortals out of their doldrums. During the introspection of ‘The Sun Also Rises’ the fog begins to lift allowing the rhapsodic ‘Ups and Downs’ conjures a moment of unrivalled happiness. The journey to their promised land is completed on the angelic reflective come-down piece ‘Simple Minds’.
Undeterred by Spotify’s influences, they take their time on intros and solos alike. They’ve allowed rock ‘n’ roll to breathe once more. The results are nothing short of a perfect debut album.
‘The Sun Also Rises’ is available for pre-order here: https://merch.theutopiates.com/products/the-sun-also-rises-album-pre-sale. Click the image below for tickets to their upcoming tour:
