After a long awaited five years from his last full-length album, ASTROWORLD, Travis Scott dropped a new album: UTOPIA. The album has over 1 billion streams and the biggest vinyl sales week for a hip hop or rap album since Luminate began tracking in 1991. An album of 19 songs, with features on 13 of them, has certainly boosted the collection, skyrocketing the streams of multiple songs.
Marking his first piece released since the deaths that occurred in Houston at the 2021 Astroworld Festival, Scott dropped the single “K-POP,” to tease his new album. The song included The Weeknd and Bad Bunny, and was put on streaming platforms on July 21. The rest of the album was released a week later, and eight days after that, on Aug. 5, “K-POP” debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The following week, the entire album reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums Chart. Which according to Billboard at the time, was the third-biggest week of 2023 for any album and the largest for any hip-hop or rap release.
These statistics intrigued us to give UTOPIA a listen; we wanted to see if the album’s quality lived up to its popularity (which in the end, we found it did). We are excited to share what we thought were the top 10 songs of the album.
1. “I KNOW?” – The instrumental in the beginning starts off the song with an eerie ambiance, but as it continues and Scott starts rapping, the mood shifts to something more mellow. Then the chorus hit, which we found got stuck in our heads quite easily, due to the tune and lack of words. Although we typically find having songs replay in our heads annoying, we didn’t mind as much with this one because it was just that good. The song is overall very catchy and easy to vibe with, even if you don’t listen to rap. This is why we find this piece more appealing to the masses in comparison to other songs on the album. We both equally loved this song and felt that it was the best on the album.
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2. “TELEKINESIS” – Similar to “DELRESTO” with Beyonce, “TELEKINESIS” with SZA shows a consistent chorus and tune throughout, captivating listeners with the introduction of SZA in the later half of the song. Singing similar lyrics to Scott, SZA adds a nice tune and contrast to the song. We felt that this song was a perfect representation of the album. Gaining popularity on TikTok, it’s clear that TELEKINESIS is a fan favorite.
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3. “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” – This is one of two songs on the album featuring The Weeknd, and the only song featuring Swae Lee. The intro of the piece, sung by Lee, creates a calming undertone, which soon evolves into a more rapid, energetic anthem after being picked up by Scott. The pulsing beat of the song continues until the interlude, where it is contrasted by The Weeknd’s soft, melodic voice. The Weeknd appears later again in the outro, constructing the perfect closing to tie into the ethereal vibe of the album. This song reminds us of something that would play in the background of an action movie during a character’s training montage. Because of the hype it brings, we think it is one of the best gym songs on the album.
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4. “FE!N” – Featuring Playboi Carti, this song rose to the top of the album, garnering many listeners with its catchy melody and repetition. The constant beat keeps us engrossed, and the repetitive lyrics manage to stay fresh. Although Playboi Carti’s feature on the song is short, it fits perfectly into place. This song is perfect for a late night drive home from practice, or a good hype song as you hit the weight room and perfect for any occasion. It will have you hitting repeat over and over.
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5. “TOPIA TWINS” – “TOPIA TWINS” features Rob49, and is one of the two songs on the album that include 21 Savage. The piece is catchy, and is the perfect song to blast in your car with the windows down. The voices of Rob49, 21 Savage and Scott blend together nicely while remaining uniquely distinct from one another. This is an excellent song to vibe out to with friends, so much so that we already added it to our playlist this year.
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6. “DELRESTO” – Beyoncé’s feature added a new perspective and voice to the song, making it 10 times better that it would have been without her. Beyoncé’s lyrics start the song off strong, picking up the pace and reappearing in the background every now and then, as Scott slowly fades in. Dominating the beginning of the song, Beyoncé backs up a little bit and Scott has a go at it, the lyrics meshing perfectly with the overarching theme, almost as the feature on a Beyoncé song.
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7. “THANK GOD” – Drawing you in with an instrumental beat, Scott starts his chorus, immediately captivating the listener. With Scott switching between singing and rapping, “THANK GOD” remains one of the few songs on the album without a feature, but it certainly doesn’t need it. A very cool and steady song, it needs no beat drops or intense chorus, the instrumentals are simply enough. As a rap song with a lot of instrumentals, “THANK GOD” touches on many genres.
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8. “PARASAIL” – “PARASAIL” features artist Yung Lean and comedian Dave Chappelle. The song starts off with a voiceover from Chappelle establishing the melancholy vibe of the music. It then transitions into an alluring chorus sung by Scott. Chappelle appears again during the bridge, and Yung Lean appears in the pre-chorus and the outro, giving him a total of five lines. This song was different from the rest of the album in that it wasn’t a rap song. In addition, while a majority of the “UTOPIA” soundtrack seems to have a quick tempo and energetic feel, this piece was much slower and calmer. We liked how ‘PARASAIL” stuck out compared to other songs in the collection. It seems like the perfect thing to listen to when overridden with emotion.
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9. “SIRENS” – Similar to “THANK GOD,” “SIRENS” starts off as a slow burn, building the beat in the background. As the listener focuses on the beat, the lyrics slowly increase in rhyme and speed, only slowing down again for a little instrumental section. The lyrics are captivating, and the simple beat never ceases.
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10. “MELTDOWN” – The first minute-and-a-half track is rapped by Drake, until Scott takes over for the rest of the song. Drake does appear briefly again in the chorus, but we would’ve liked him to be given another verse. Although this song was not as good in comparison to some of the others on the album (we felt like it lacked some of the magic the other songs contained), it is still fun and pretty catchy. We hope to hear it in the future at events such as parties or school dances. This piece was still a great classic-rap song
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Arwen Pelletier • Nov 1, 2023 at 9:46 pm
I loved y’all’s creative rankings of the songs. The way you wrote a description for each song showed that y’all were well versed in the album, and it made me trust your rating even more. Great job!