An emotional catharsis
Nobody gets to the core of the raw feelings and thoughts which plague the tormented soul in a more upbeat way than Stephen Steinbrink, who has just released his fourth studio album Utopia Teased on November 9, through Melodic Records.
Through torrents of emotional sentiment which underlie every one of his songs, no matter how light-hearted they may sound, Steinbrink especially encourages listeners to explore the depths of their trauma and heartbreak in this album. Written while taking loads of LSD and holed up in his shipping container studio for days on end and directly influenced by the devastating Oakland Ghost Ship fire in 2016, Utopia Teased truly does communicate tender emotion coupled with a starry-eyed vision of how we can all deal with the heartbreak in the world.
According to Steinbrink, who sees his musicianship as less about putting in the hours and more about “getting one’s soul right,” he wanted it to reflect how fried his brain felt at the time, which was “totally pulverized.”
A human experience which we can all relate to, the raw emotion truly seeps through the pores of every sound on this album. Opening with “Bad Love,” delicate guitar ballads back the sentiments that “you always trust what you feel” and that “you’ve got to fight for yours.” Closing with funky synthesizer sounds which accompany many of the sounds on this album, the song transitions to the next, titled “I Wanna Be Free.” Happy and free is truly how audiences will feel while listening to this song, even as Steinbrink sings, “I can’t keep this alive, no not all the time… There’s nothing to say, there’s nothing to do. I wanna be free.”
The synthesizer and piano sounds on this album, accompanied by fiery electric guitar riffs, transport listeners back in time to feel like they are in Say Anything, or any number of John Hugh’s movies for that matter. These sounds are the focal point of “A Part of Me Is a Part of You,” which is reminiscent of intimate ‘80s lovemaking scenes when he sings, “Can’t tell me that this ain’t real. His lips taste good, how do they feel? You burn me like I’m LSD, your good love is my bad dream.”
The “bad dream” continues in “Empty Vessel,” where the dramatic ‘80s post-punk sounds continue with the sexy synthesizer beats. “You’re 31, you don’t believe in anything,” he says as he alludes to the continuous angst, which plagues many throughout their life no matter what age they reach. Longing for freedom and joy above all in life, Steinbrink speaks for the masses in “Maximum Sunlight” and “Zappa Dream,” with lyrics like “You’re someone I could never be, the way you love yourself so free…” and “Are you in love with your life or a dream? Or just overwhelmed, wondering what this could possibly mean?”
“Coming Down” brings a necessary instrumental break, breaking free of the imprisonment of words and instead allowing his music to transmit heavy emotion, which is also seen in “Become Sphere,” later in the album. “Mom” and “In Another Kind of Dream” continue to disclose his troubled thoughts in a questionably cheerful manner. Sounds of blissful acoustic harmonies and the most upbeat, dance-inducing synth beats carry deeper emotional currents which are communicated through lyrics like, “Just for today, I want to feel small” and “Checking my physicality, slight suspicious glances in the mirror, afraid to look too close.” In the latter, he seems to be referring to the comedown of a psychedelic trip, previously referenced in “Coming Down,” when he says, “This morning, I got up and barely knew where I was. I walked around naked for a while, checking out my identity in the long mirror in the front room, and I was disappointed in what I saw.”
Overall, this album communicated more emotion than the outward sounds would automatically suggest. An album to walk home to on a crisp fall evening, Steinbrink puts into words the thoughts that many may feel too cumbersome to write out oneself. An emotional catharsis in the autumnal season, where angst and sadness run high, audiences may be grateful to finally feel that they are not alone in their despair.
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