(2018) Stephen Steinbrink - Utopia Teased

Review: 
Stunned with grief in the months following the Ghost Ship fire, Oakland-based Stephen Steinbrink ate LSD daily, bought a synthesizer, and locked himself in his shipping container studio, refusing to sleep for days as he wrote and recorded what would become Utopia Teased, as a means of working through his overwhelming feelings of cynicism and loss. 
Recorded in between stints touring as a member of Dear Nora, and then as a touring member of Girlpool, Utopia Teased is Stephen Steinbrink’s followup to his critically acclaimed 2016 album Anagrams. Unlike the pristine production of Anagrams, on Utopia Teased, Steinbrink embraces the rough edges, as he shifts his focus from the craft of production to the art of processing and capturing his experiences with honesty. He explains, “I was driving the preamps a little too hard, mixing down to tape, bouncing back to the computer, and repeating the process over and over again. I wanted it to reflect how fried my brain felt at the time, totally pulverized. The songs just poured out of me, it hardly felt like work to make them up. It was like turing on a spigot. I don’t write often, maybe once or twice a year, but when I do, a lot comes out. To me my craft is less about putting in the hours physically playing music — the real work is getting my soul right so that when the holy wave of pure creative energy moves over your house, it will recognize you as worthy enough. If it does, maybe it’ll give you a song.” 

Tracklist: 
01. Bad Love.flac 
02. I Wanna Be Free.flac 
03. A Part of Me Is a Part of You.flac 
04. Empty Vessel.flac 
05. Maximum Sunlight.flac 
06. Zappa Dream.flac 
07. Coming Down.flac 
08. Mom.flac 
09. In Another Kind of Dream.flac 
10. Become Sphere.flac 
11. You Could Always Leave.flac 
12. I'm Never Changing Who You Are.flac 

Summary: 
Country: USA 
Genre: dream-pop, experimental