I was going for humor to hang on my anger and bitterness, and I think a lot of this record was about trying to recognize that bitterness can be internally caustic if you hold onto it and try to figure out how to excise that. "Lightbulb," for me, synthesizes a lot of what I was thinking about during this record. It deals with technology, as I literally had a pack of lightbulbs that were color changing and the app on my phone wanted the permission to be able to read my text messages and that freaked me out, and I related the paranoia of this to how a whole generation of people are caught in this space where we've grown up in a situation where we cannot separate what we love to do from a very mechanized relationship with metrics – play versus economics.
Utopia Now! is a 2024 studio album by American singer-songwriterRosie Tucker. It has received positive reviews from critics.
Reception
Writing at BrooklynVegan, Amanda Hatfield praised the anti-capitalist lyrics on this release and stated that "it's a satisfying followup to [2021 album] Sucker Supreme without straying too far from what made that album so appealing".[3] Avery Gregurich of PopMatters rated Utopia Now! an 8 out of 10, calling it "an alchemistic mix of post-pandemicmall punk and dream pop" where "Tucker turns ironic ennui and allegory into truly enchanting pop songs".[4] In Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield characterized this release as "definitely a portrait of North America in our moment, set in a culture where non-sponsored fun is just a rumor, where your phone is spying on you, where every small-time artist has to turn into a full-time huckster just to keep making their art" and compared the music to Juliana Hatfield, Minutemen, and that dog.[1] On June 4, writers at Stereogum did a roundup of the best albums of the year so far and ranked this 32, with James Rettig stating "Tucker's songs are sarcastic and wry and unbelievably catchy".[5] Nate Sloan of Vulture called this release "something of a fresh start" and "a distinctly different artistic approach" for Tucker.[6]
Track listing
All songs written by Rosie Tucker, except where noted
"Lightbulb" – 2:46
"All My Exes Live in Vortexes" – 2:30
"Gil Scott Albatross" – 2:37
"Paperclip Maximizer" – 3:24
"Maylene" – 3:15
"Big Fish/No Fun" – 3:23
"Suffer! Like You Mean It" – 3:04
"Unending Bliss" – 2:54
"White Savior Myth" – 0:54
"Obscura" – 4:51
"Me Minus One Atom" – 2:23
"Utopia Now!" – 1:47
"Eternal Life" (Shira Small) – 3:28
Personnel
Rosie Tucker – guitar; keyboards; synthesizer; vocals; bass guitar on "Paperclip Maximizer", "Maylene", "Unending Bliss", "Obscura", and "Eternal Life"; programming, production on "Maylene"
Sam Becht – drums on "(All My Exes Live In) Vortexes", "Gil Scott Albatross", "Paperclip Maximizer", "Big Fish/No Fun", "Suffer! Like You Mean It", "Unending Bliss", and "White Savior Myth"
First Ever Boys – backing vocals on "(All My Exes Live In) Vortexes"
Genna Projansky – bass guitar on "(All My Exes Live In) Vortexes", "Gil Scott Albatross", "Big Fish/No Fun", "Suffer! Like You Mean It", and "White Savior Myth"
Sarchasm – backing vocals on "(All My Exes Live In) Vortexes"
Alex Botkin
Mateo Campos-Seligman
Stevie Campos-Seligman
Marta Tiesenga – saxophone on "Eternal Life"
Madi Vogt – drums on "Lightbulb", "Maylene", "Obscura", "Me Minus One Atom", and "Eternal Life"
Wolfy – guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, programming, recording, engineering, production on all tracks except "Maylene"
