UTOPIA NOW!

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  2024 Top 20

  Adam Wood

  Rosie Tucker’s previous full length release—Sucker Supreme—narrowly missed out on a list spot in 2021. I found its marriage of arch, self-knowing lyrics with the unpolished character of their voice—off-balance gymnastic, approaching the melody aslant—to be immensely effective. On Utopia Now! they takes everything up a notch: hookier tunes for the crunchy guitars to chomp through; more ambitious vocal melodies for Tucker’s singular voice to somersault all over; and—perhaps most of all—an absolute banquet of wonderful lyrics.

  For me, with its mix of laid-back sweetness and post-grunge guitar textures, Tucker’s sound here calls back to the mid-90s rock of early Weezer and that dog. The kicker is that they're a superlative lyricist. Vibrant images, revelatory metaphor, surrealist poetics… Tucker has it all in their toolkit, and deploys each in turn in a singular mix. The sticky melodies alone would be more than enough reason to revisit the album, but it was some of the best lyrics that I found brought me back time and again.

  I throw stones like if I keep in motion I won't sink

  ​If at the bottom of everything we are all alone

  ​Then I want nothing but unending bliss for my enemies