After releasing three albums in Welsh and Cornish, *Utopia* is Gwenno Saunders' first album recorded predominantly in English, revealing a very different facet of her life and writing. At 43, Saunders has already been many people. The disillusioned Cardiff teenager; the Vegas showgirl at 17; the singer in the indie-pop group The Pipettes. She has also starred in a Bollywood film, toured clubs, and cleaned floors in an East London pub. Long before she became a singer-songwriter acclaimed for her work in Welsh and Cornish—winner of the Welsh Music Prize, Mercury Prize nominee, and recognized as a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh—there were the years spent between Nevada, London, and Brighton; Irish dancing, techno clubs, disorder, and chaos. *Utopia*, Saunders' fourth solo album, is an extraordinary exploration of all these identities. While she considers her first three records—*Y Dydd Olaf* (2014), *Le Kov* (2018), and *Tresor* (2022)—as "childhood albums," rooted in her upbringing, her parents, and her foundational identity, *Utopia* marks a moment of self-determination and experimentation. These are songs of discovery, of the years between being someone's daughter and becoming someone's wife and mother. It features dance tracks as well as piano ballads, with contributions from Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline, and references to William Blake, a favorite poem by Edrica Huws, and even the 73 bus. It is her most accomplished work to date.
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