With the title coming from the feminine version of the word “digger” in Latin, Fossora is set to see the artist hone in on the natural world around her and describe her current fascination with mushroom life – even going as far as reportedly depicting herself as a forest sprite becoming one with the fungi on the cover. “They’re taking tradition into the 21st century, which I really respect. Expectations have indeed been cemented, but after all, cement does make some pretty strong things.“ a pacifist, idealistic album with flutes and synths and birds,” Björk states, explaining why she contacted the dance duo to participate in the release. It isn’t the transformative piece that Blackstar was for Bowie, rather a tightening and polishing of the things you liked about Byrne’s past projects. It doesn’t seem fair to call American Utopia old news, but it does little here that Byrne hasn’t done before, particularly if you’ve been paying attention to his latest projects with St. Utopia is a freshly-graduated young man cutting his hair and donating his Nirvana cassettes to Goodwill - still the same guy, but more approachable, more experienced, and with a better haircut. It features the same longing and occasional regret present in early Talking Heads tracks but replaces the resignation and dreariness with hope. Utopia is a pep talk, it’s a self-help book. Was it dreary and dismal? Quite, but it reflected a state of mind that people experience it was honest. Consider “No Compassion” from Talking Heads’ debut. There’s a tone of optimism, and if you take it ironically, a satisfaction with being unable to meet expectations. A lot of (what seems to be) the album’s message can be extrapolated from its title. There’s a lot to unpack here, his metaphors are dense. If you’re a scholar of David Byrne’s lyrics, you’ll certainly find it interesting on that level. “This Is That” is the most instrumentally unique among the tracklist it takes a welcome step towards fragility, with a hushed, stuttering synth backing and some glassy, skeletal percussive flairs that sound like something off a DJ Mustard mixtape. While these all factor in to making American Utopia enjoyable and praise-worthy, they also make it more predictable. Vincent lovable is here as well: warbling horns, industrial electronics, and tense layered vocal passages. Everything that made Byrne’s album with St. Everything that made Talking Heads’ Remain In Light so lovable is here: crunchy post-punky guitar stabs, primal shouts, and hypnotic, repetitive grooves (“It’s Not Dark Up In Here” being the most direct example). You’ve heard most of this before, although here it’s more polished, more intricate, more subtle. If you’re already a fan, you’re going to enjoy it, but you’re not going to be surprised. Simply put, this isn’t a particularly boundary-pushing album for David Byrne. So you can see what I’m getting at: is American Utopia upsetting your expectations of Byrne or cementing them? I’m inclined to go with the latter. “Gasoline and Dirty Sheets” on the other hand sounds like the chorus and verses of the previous song got thrown in a blender on low, with a saxophone or two thrown in for good measure, providing a steady, percussive track with calming keys and a sax-driven chorus. “I Dance Like This” starts out by setting the tone, creeping in with some gentle piano chords and subtle yet twangy electronic flourishes only to completely blow its cover with a pounding, tribal chorus accented with Byrne’s classic ad-libbed yelps, that disappears as suddenly as it appeared. I can’t decide whether the best piece of advice for listening to David Byrne’s new album is to expect the expected or to expect the unexpected.
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