UTOPIA

Utopia could be considered as a band version of Todd Rundgren - they certainly saw eye- to-eye with this, self-titled release from 1982. Sadly, not really anything to do with prog. Having said that, it is a neat album of catchy and clever pop tunes, highly melodic, sometimes quirky, with each member contributing 100% to the songs, either in vocal performance or on their respective instruments, of which the overall mix is well balanced, with some excellent synth playing from Roger Powell, and Kasim Sulton's solid Bass work. Some songs border on the cheezy side, but definate winners are : Libertine, Feet Don't Fail Me Now, I'm Looking at You...., There Goes My Inspiration and Princess of the Universe. I have some video clips of songs from this album and it's nice to see that the guys never really took themselves that seriously, just having some fun - but it's a little disappointing that their talents weren't focused towards more progressive ventures, as they had done before with 'Ra' or with Steve Hillage on his album 'L'.