Comments for Utopia, Swing To The Right

SWING TO THE RIGHT is far and away Utopia's worst album. Of the 10 songs on the album, the only three which are any good at all are "Swing To The Right", "Lysistrata", and "One World". The latter two are available on the ANTHOLOGY CD, and the title track, while pretty decent, does not make the album a must have by any means. The most difficult to listen to performances are "Shinola", during the refrains of which Todd continually attempts to scream out notes that are well beyond his vocal range, "Junk Rock", and "Last Dollar On Earth", which are both just a bunch of irritating noise. "Only Human" is a very boring ballad that goes on far too long and features another poor vocal performance by Todd. A little more work might have made "The Up" a very good song, but it doesn't quite cut it. As much as I love Utopia, I'm objective enough to say that this album is crap.

Nou, Ik ben het helemaal niet eens met voorgaand commentaar. ]het is een mooi album, en het de onderwerpen zijn ook nogeens steeds aktueel. Gevoelig en fraai gecomponeerd. Een echte aanrader.

"Swing" displays the most prominent R&B influence of any Utopia album. I speculate that your reaction to it depends upon your perspective: true believers would probably consider this one of the weaker Utopia outings, while those on the outside might consider it one of the better ones. As a fan, I''m not wild about it. Not surprisingly, the highlights are the purest Todd: the bouncy pop of "Lysistrata", the power ballad "Only Human", and the energetic "One World". On the other hand, "Shinola" has all of the ingredients of a Rundgren classic, but they don''t come together and this is one time where his reach far exceeded his grasp. In addition, the title track sure could use a catchy chorus. Elsewhere, Kasim''s vocalized rave-ups on "The Up" and "Fahrenheit 451" are worth a listen. On a trivial note, their cover of Gamble and Huff''s "For the Love of Money" has appeared (with permission?) in the background of at least a couple of television commercials that I''ve seen in the past decade or so.

As Utopia albums go, this one doesn`t do a whole lot for me.I can`t really put a finger on it, but I find that I don`tlisten to this album very often.