Since the release of his first studio album, “Rodeo”, on September 4, 2015, Travis Scott has remained one of the most popular and influential rappers in the industry. Regardless of how much time he takes between each release or the size of the release, his fans remain enthusiastic about his music and will always find time to listen to his music, as evidenced by his 39,974,044,815 all time music streams according to kworb.net.

However, one of his albums has been in the spotlight most recently. On July 28, 2023, Scott released his fourth studio album, “Utopia”. The album was released at first with hidden features, drawing in listeners’ attention by building up suspense of what major artist he may have invited to the studio for this album. These artists include massively popular superstars such as Drake, The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, and 21 Savage.

The album, although noticeably different from Travis Scott’s usual style, was very popular and well received amongst fans and critics alike. The contrast that the featured musicians provided to the album led to enjoyment by most listeners. Popular online music reviewer Anthony Fantano, also known as “The Needle Drop” on YouTube, awarded the album a seven out of ten. This sounds less impressive than it is, but due to Fantano’s notoriously harsh rating system, and his often-noted aversion to most mainstream rap albums, this rating is actually quite a heavy feat for Scott to achieve.

Utopia’s marketing campaign was fantastic. Travis Scott’s most recent studio album was Astroworld, released on August 3rd, 2018. This album was a smash hit and had highly successful, popularly streamed songs that remained in the spotlight for years ahead. However, it is understandably difficult to keep fans excited for an album five years after your most recent release. This is what Travis Scott did with Utopia and how he made it one of the most hyped album releases we’ve seen in years.

However, despite the popularity of Scott’s music and the general enjoyment of Utopia by the public, I found it underwhelming when compared to the rest of Scott’s discography. Scott’s style is typically grand and flashy, as evidenced in possibly Scott’s greatest album, Astroworld. Astroworld is fast, loud, and outgoing while also being fleshed out and with well-made beats. This style, I think, is lost in Utopia.

Scott tried too hard to match the afflictions of the features on each song without allowing them to play off of his specific style. The songs felt rushed and reached unsatisfactory conclusions. This would have been understandable if the songs played off each other at all, but they all feel equally rushed, making them difficult to enjoy. A popular song on this album was “FE!N” featuring Playboi Carti. Carti hasn’t dropped music in a very long time, leaving his fans grasping at straws for music releases.

This is genius marketing, sure, but I think that listeners allowed this to overshadow the genuine quality of the music, which has dropped off noticeably when it comes to Scott’s songs. FE!N was disappointing and felt empty even after the first listen. This, being one of the more popular songs on the album, does not set a good precedent for the rest of the project.

To summarize, Travis Scott’s album Utopia is very popular and well-received. However, I was wildly disappointed after the expectations that Scott has built for himself. I feel like Scott can do better especially with the star-studded roster that he was working with on Utopia.