Swing to The Right

"...Dealing with the changes brought on by the first year of President Reagan and the moral majority, this is the band's most political album, (dealing) with recession, inflation, racism, covert military activity and censorship. From the dripping sacastic wit of the title track to the emotionalism of Only Human to the joy of One World, this is one to get..." Amazon reviewer Dark Star-The Other One

Utopia: Swing To The Right

Like Oops! Wrong Planet, Swing To The Right sees Utopia getting political once more...but this time the messages are a little closer to home...and the offered solutions are nowhere as apparent.

First up, though, the cover: Rundgren & da boyz go out on a limb by taking that famous picture from The Beatles record-burnings after the famous John "We're more popular than Christ" Lennon gaffe...and superimposing Swing To the Right's cover. Hmmm.

"...What intrigued me when I first ran into this years back was the "rock'n'roll (da Beatles, in particular) is the devils music" bonfire shot -with the album's cover superimposed as the offending product...Jiminy Crunketts, what chutzpah!..." Amazon reviewer yyqsqqsdrassil

Next: the music...and gone are the good times of their previous album, Adventures In Utopia. Instead, we've got a harder, heavier band, with Kasim on bass sounding damn fine, in particular. Lyrically, though, the heaviness has also brought out a snarling and sarcasm in the lyrics, making few of them worth repeating...though they work pretty well within the context of the album. 

The subject matter: 

Junk Rock (One Million Monkeys) & Shinola...are scathing attacks on the music industry and Utopia's label, Bearsville, in particular, which they were about to leave

Last Dollar On Earth & For The Love Of Money (written by Gamble & Huff)... attacks Materialism & the Greed-is-good society (see also my review of the movie Bonfire Of The Vanities) 

Lysistrata...reworking the Ancient Greek play by Aristrophanes in which the women withheld sex from their men until they ended the war...into a modern anti-war song

"...Lysistrata, open up the bedroom door
What is the matter, ain’t you in love with me no more?
I enlisted in the army today
One more time before I march away
Make me feel like a big strong man
You say you don’t care about my pride
You love me too much just to let me die
And you won’t let me come inside
Unless I don’t go to war no more..."

                    Lysistrata

Lysistrata is a personal favorite, 'cause that's actually what is sorta what's happenin' but no one's had the...uh...chutzpah to say it..." Amazon reviewer yyqsqqsdrassil

Lastly, there's the title track, Swing To The Right...about the re-emergence of Conservatism...      

"...Swing to the right
Try to face the fact that I ain't that young no more
Hair's short again and a suit is 'n'
Better brush up on how to tie a windsor knot..."

               Swing To The Right

And so on and so on. Swing To the Right is a dark album, fairly prophetic...and thematically, well ahead of its time. However, the music doesn't seem to have the finesse of other Todd & Utopia releases. At the time, Utopia's record label Bearsville didn't even want to release the album as they thought it would be a commercial disaster...and they were right but that frustration seems to have bubbled through the music and Swing to The Right is, essentially, austere. 

[Incidentally, Joni Mitchell was to hit a similar brick wall when her similarly-themed album, Dog Eat Dog was released at around the same time.]

Swing To the Right is heavy and hardly representative of Utopia...but then again, which album is?

Should you get it?

Possibly. There are certainly some flourishes but I'd strongly recommend you listen to the snippets on Amazon first. However, the final track, One World is one of those gorgeous anthemic album closers that Todd seemed to be able to churn out effortlessly, which I would recommend to Todd fans anywhere...

Utopia: One World

Utopia: Swing To The Right

"...A 5 Star album. The music is great stuff. And the messages are as relevant today as they were then..." Amazon reviewer D. Melick "music is my blood"

"...I didn't realize when I was in high school how these songs would follow me in life. Though basically anti-establishment, some may notice some songs have been used by major companies (i.e. Nissan among others) in ads of the past ten years. A sleeper in the best sense, you should have this in your CD collection. A precursor to bands such as BNL and Phish, Utopia's sense and sendiments can be shared and felt by all who listen..." Amazon reviewer Tom

With Bearsville reluctant to release Swing To The Right, Todd still took Utopia on tour, captured on this LIVE DVD. The Amazon review says it's simply superb, so head on over, right now!

Utopia: LIVE At The Royal Oak DVD

"...This comes across more like a Todd show with Time Heals and The Wheel being the centerpieces but we are still On The Road To Utopia. There's Caravan, One World and Back On The Street to let you know it is Utopia..." Amazon reviewer sambucab

By the way, Utopia soon left Bearsville and, ironically, their next album, the self-titled Utopia was an absolute killer!

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Swing To The Right
• brief interview in The Scene, 1982
• God And Me an unreleased song from Swing To The Right (I hate it!) + images from Utopia's STTR tour 
• Todd LIVE on David Letterman, 1986 Lysistrata