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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
For long-time fans of Björk and music nerds who need some reason to believe, with a preposterous degree of positivity regarding the human condition, despite Donald Trump’s emboldening of AmeriKKKa, or Harvey Weinstein and Lars von Trier’s treatment of women in Hollywood, Utopia is a world you want to live in.
100
Wondrous and intense, Utopia is as Björkian as it gets.
100
It’s a dense, lengthy work (at 71 minutes the longest studio album of her career). Only one song, the ecstatic, pulsating techno of Sue Me, is likely to work on the dancefloor. Yet the errant, raucous confluence of sounds and styles has a homogeneity that works to create a beguiling, and ultimately hugely rewarding whole.
90
It’s an album that, like Björk’s music itself, grows on you – and even if it doesn’t, you can find a great deal of respect in its sophistication and its intricacies.
90
Utopia sees Björk demonstrating newfound strength and optimism, painting in bright shades and surrounding herself with the sounds of her own Eden.
90
Utopia feels like both a journey and a collection of statements that define and affirm who Björk is.
90
Utopia is a long winding road of dreamy elegance and passion from an artist who has created her own private world in reaction to the one she exists in.
90
‘Utopia’ is an absolute turn towards the light, and it’s covered in flutes (especially on ‘Courtship’); as a result, it’s an album you’ll want to return to again and again.
85
Jokingly described by Björk as a “Tinder album,” the LP is something else entirely, a depiction of happiness and contentment that fuses romantic, filial and platonic love into a vision of inner and outer peace.
85
Björk’s confidence and theatricality are in full form here, and the majority of Utopia’s experiments succeed. It’s encouraging that, nine albums in, Björk still has so much to say, and the vision and talent to say it so well.
84
It’s a long, skittering discovery of googly-eyed romance, a rebuke of the violence inherited by men, and a generous offering of love song after love song, rendered musically with unerring elegance and passion.
83
Utopia is almost completely a sensory experience, fantastical soundscapes designed for secret snowflake rituals and Valkyrie picnics.
83
If Vulnicura watched volcanic ash blanketing the life Björk had come to depend on, Utopia paints brand-new life rising from the fertile ground.
80
She has always channelled bliss and joy into compelling music, but Utopia’s take on love is more than pure feeling; it’s the basis for a personal and political manifesto.
80
If you’re willing to give it your full attention, this is a frequently stunning record. It may often be difficult, but like most hard work, Utopia reaps its own rewards.
80
Utopia isn't quite as idyllic as its title implies, but its mix of idealism and realism makes it an even greater success as a manifesto for radically open love and as a document of thriving after loss.
80
Utopia can be dense stuff, but repeated listens will bear out not only a sympathetic ear for the artist's struggles and subsequent rebirth but also a familiar, Björk-like vibe.
80
The sound palette of Utopia is bright and airy. Flutes, pan pipes and other woodwinds make up the main instrumentation, as tactile but ephemeral as a warm breath on the back of your neck. It's rich with life.
80
Björk exudes a lust for life again on her self-styled ‘Tinder album’, a hope-filled set powered by flutes and birdsong.
80
It’s a Bildungsroman, a journey from libidinous bliss down to chaos and back up to a wiser bliss based more in resilience.
80
There’s nothing resembling a versechorus pop song but there are moments where it all threatens to coalesce into the purest beauty.
80
Utilising ideas of breath, space and breeze to thrilling effect, this is Björk at her most reflective and inquisitive. There are no clear cut 'hits' as such, and the album clearly begs to be enjoyed as a whole entity rather than have its innards plucked and picked at. However, if given your full attention, it will transport you to paradise.
80
‘Utopia’ is where art, real life and deep experimentation intersects, and it’s utterly compelling.
80
Instead of wallowing in self-pity about the past like before, Björk – who celebrated her 52nd birthday a few days before this release – is encouraging herself in the next chapter of her life and others to look into the keyhole to the future and imagine what a perfect utopia looks like and if it’s achievable.
80
Björk’s Utopia is as much about attempting to reach paradise as it is setting up camp there. On her longest album to date, she has given herself the space to embrace the natural world as well as continuing to reckon with her past.
80
Both musically and lyrically, Utopia is extraordinarily gripping and majestically consistent in its intent to shake and uplift. If there is one aspect that runs the risk of breaking the spell it is its duration.
70
Utopia is one of Björk's most majestic and revealing albums yet, but it's also her most bloated and unkempt.
70
As it is ... ‘Utopia’ remains, in its flawed honesty, floridity and explorative nature, as good an expression of late-period, high-concept Björk as one could hope for.
70
Björk seems to have reconjured the elements that made her music so exceptional, and consistently enough that one can imagine a shorter, more curated iteration of Utopia that could stand with her very best albums.
70
Utopia’s idyllic voyage eases Bjork triumphantly out of Vulnicura’s thorny darkness, where endurance is a necessary attitude that is central to her patient story arc. The elegant orchestrations she develops are oftentimes rewarding, even if they gloriously highlight some of her nagging indulgences.
65
Utopia, for all its new tricks and ideas, still sounds very much like a Björk record, meaning it will neither disappoint her dedicated base nor catch the casually interested much off guard.
60
Simultaneously beautiful and befuddling, dazzling and irritating, Utopia has something of Stravinsky or Stockhausen about it.
60
While there’s nearly always a sense of beauty embedded within ‘Utopia’ ... there’s also a feeling of harshness.
60
It doesn’t sound like anything else, it’s audibly the work of an artist mapping out their own fresh musical territory. But occasionally, it also feels like the work of an artist with their eyes so firmly fixed forward they’ve blocked out their audience: an emotional journey you watch, intrigued, from a distance, rather than feel or participate in.
60
Utopia feels like a diversion, not a destination. A nice place to visit--beautiful, even--but you wouldn't want to live there.
Print Only
2y
58
Clocking in at over 70-minutes there's a lot to digest, but the focus on soundscapes over melody and conventional song structures makes this a difficult album to connect with.
20
Achingly dull, and self-regardingly solipsistic.
Utopia is the most challenging and adventurous album in Bjork’s discography. If you know where she’s been then you know that’s saying a lot. This album sounds like a synthesis of everything that Bjork has done up until now, but it also forges boldly ahead into the new. Bjork sings and sometimes simply speaks on personal and political topics, with the common thread being her effort to envision a “possible future,” one liberated from the painful mistakes of the past. ... read more
EDIT: This The Independent's review has to be some kind of joke because their review are pure ridiculous.
There is no bad song in this, Björk once again deliver to us a magical artwork filled with orchestral instruments like harp and flutes mixing with unorthodoxically weird beats. Even though, sometimes sounds like something she has already done, Utopia is totally unique, original and precisely unpredictable.
Favs: Arisen My Senses, Blissing Me, The Gate, Utopia, Body Memory, Features ... read more
I have similar issues with Utopia that I had with Fossora. The consistency of the album is weird. There are some tracks that make me feel like I'm floating while others just feel like throwaways where Bjork will make a 5+ minute track that doesn't hold up as well as some of her longer tracks from Vulnicara where those tracks felt more like a magical journey than a boring stream of nothingness. Utopia is an album I feel like a lot of Bjork fans can say there are some of Bjork's worst tracks but ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Arisen My Senses 4:59 | 91 |
| 2 | Blissing Me 5:05 | 87 |
| 3 | The Gate 6:33 | 90 |
| 4 | Utopia 4:42 | 85 |
| 5 | Body Memory 9:46 | 83 |
| 6 | Features Creatures 4:49 | 73 |
| 7 | Courtship 4:44 | 81 |
| 8 | Losss 6:51 | 87 |
| 9 | Sue Me 4:57 | 78 |
| 10 | Tabula Rasa 4:42 | 78 |
| 11 | Claimstaker 3:18 | 79 |
| 12 | Paradisia 1:44 | 77 |
| 13 | Saint 4:41 | 82 |
| 14 | Future Forever 4:47 | 82 |
Total Length: 1 hour, 11 minutes
Year End Lists
| #3 | / | Rough Trade |
| #4 | / | The Wild Honey Pie |
| #5 | / | The New York Times: Jon Pareles |
| #6 | / | NOW Magazine |
| #7 | / | Dazed |
| #7 | / | Junkee |
| #8 | / | Albumism |
| #11 | / | Baeble Music |
| #11 | / | Slant Magazine |
| #12 | / | Mixmag |
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Added on: September 18, 2017