David Byrne - "American Utopia" (2018)

The last Christmas gift album in focus, and the album I received that I like the best. During my teens, I listened a lot to Talking Heads, but after the band split up, I didn't follow Byrne's solo career as thoroughly. I have some of his solo albums, some created during the TH period, and some from the time after, but I haven't heard everything. I have mixed feelings about his solo performances.

American Utopia is his seventh solo album under his own name, he has created a number of records  together with other artists (Brian Eno, Norman Cook among others), And it's his first solo release since 2004. The sleeve states that all songs are created from original tracks by Brian Eno, and apparently Eno created rhythm tracks which then Byrne developed to whole songs. Eno is also listed as a co-composer for most songs. But the album is, as mentioned, released under only Byrne's name.

It\s a groovy album with quite easily accessible music. My experience is that Byrne has always done relatively intellectual music, which hasn't always been easy to spontaneously love. But on American Utopia, nothing is too difficult. Some songs, such as Every Day Is A Miracle, even has a happy sing-along chorus that you want to join while dancing on the living room floor. The music is part of a larger multimedia project, Reasons To Be Cheerful, which focuses on spreading positivity at a time when the world is facing some difficulties, regarding politics and the environment. The songs paint an alternative, positive image of the world, and Byrne discusses on the cover text that we need to create images of the world we want, in order for it to become reality.

There's a lot going on in the songs, and it is a fairly well-filled sound, The music is generally of high quality, and nothing feels like fillers, although there are some tracks I find less interesting. If you study the lyrics, they are, as usual with Byrne, a bit strange and odd, and somewhat difficult to interpret. But that's fun. Byrne is a very experienced musician, almost a legend, so he knows his craft. It's fun that in his older days he creates something as energetic and fresh. He still seems to be filled with a desire to create.

Tracklist

Side A
1.  I Dance Like This 3:34
2. Gasoline And Dirty Sheets 3:20
3. Every Day Is A Miracle 4:46
4. Dog's Mind 2:30
5. This Is That 4:31

Side B
1. It's Not Dark Up Here 4:11
2. Bullet 3:10
3. Doing The Right Thing 3:39
4. Everybody's Coming To My House 3:30
5. Here 4:14