American Utopia by David Byrne

American Utopia, David Byrne's eighth studio album, came out on March 9, 2018, through Todo Mundo and Nonesuch, and it was his first record credited to him alone since Grown Backwards in 2004. That credit hides a partner: Brian Eno, his collaborator of long standing, wrote eight of the ten songs and plays on four. Byrne produced it with Rodaidh McDonald.

The album is one piece of a bigger multimedia venture, Reasons to Be Cheerful, set up to spread a little positivity, and it sounds like the former Talking Heads frontman squinting at a gloomy world and deciding to find it funny instead. The grooves are jittery and bright, with Byrne's yelp as quizzical as ever. "Everybody's Coming to My House" went out as the lead single on January 8, 2018, and "This Is That" followed at the end of the month.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.