"Is this meant ironically? Is it a joke? Do I mean this seriously? In what way?"
David Byrne seems to be simultaneously inviting and acknowledging some likely reactions to his 2018 album,
American Utopia, in his own liner notes. At a time when America has been thrown into a state of chaos -- something
Byrne witnessed and creatively reacted to as an artist during the
Reagan era -- here he imagines what appears to be an alternate version of the United States and the people who live in it. (Animals, too -- a variety of critters pop up in "Every Day Is a Miracle," and "Dog's Mind" imagines how our canine friends view the world.) Not everything in
Byrne's Bizarro World America is a good time, especially on "Gasoline and Dirty Sheets" and "This Is That." But much of this album portrays folks who are both dazzled and overwhelmed by the abundant possibilities presented in "It's Not Dark Up Here," "Everybody's Coming to My House," and "I Dance Like This."
American Utopia began as a series of rhythm tracks created by
Brian Eno, which
Byrne then fashioned into songs, with a variety of other collaborators reshaping the results, including co-producers
Rodaidh McDonald and
Patrick Dillett and musicians
Daniel Lopatin,
Thomas Bartlett, and
Joey Waronker. The final product is a sonic crazy quilt that's rich and evocative, by turns ominous and seductive, and the stylistic shape-shifting that dominates these tracks suits the many moods of
Byrne's characters very well indeed. In concept,
American Utopia bears faint resemblance to the cheerfully odd average Americans who populated
Talking Heads' 1986 album
True Stories (and
Byrne's accompanying feature film), but this album's wit is more pointed, the tone is cooler and less secure, and the cumulative effect less joyous and a bit more puzzled about what awaits us with the next dawn.
American Utopia is an album of beautiful and witty surfaces stretched over a sea of troubled waters, and if
Byrne is rarely inclined to give direct answers to the questions he asks, it's obvious this isn't a joke, it's an ambitious work from an important American artist. ~ Mark Deming