Synth-pop band, St. Lucia, led by husband and wife duo Jean-Phillip Grobler and Patti Beranek, have touched down with their fourth studio album, Utopia. Inspiration for the LP has been tapped from a multitude of places, like 70’s funk and 80’s pop as well as artists like David Bowie, The Weeknd, and Daft Punk. Their sonically diverse sound with an amalgamation of influences has been enhanced by the great mixing talents of Chris Zane. The album’s release is accompanied by a music video for their single, “Gimme the Night,” directed by Nicole Lipp and featuring model/friend of the band, Ireland Basinger Baldwin. 

“Our vision for ‘Utopia,’ that only emerged as we were working on it, was to make an album that was the antidote to the last few crazy years, while also acknowledging what we collectively went through,” shares frontman, Grobler. “We could have just made a sad record. We could have pretended we were happy the whole time. But both of those would’ve been a lie. What we went through was one of the most extreme periods of our lives:extreme isolation, extreme intimacy, extreme sadness and, at times, moments of extreme elation and joy when reunited with loved ones. We needed to somehow process the ambiguity of that experience, and the making of ‘Utopia’ was our therapist.”

The music video for “Gimme the Night” takes place inside of a dim-light convenience store, where Baldwin hides away from swarming paparazzi, making friends with the store clerk played by Jetta Juriansz. The hideout spot becomes the perfect scene for a party for two, where they rip into potato chip bags and pop open bottles of vodka, dancing around the convenience store turned dancefloor. “We love videos that have a poignant message wrapped up in something seemingly not so poignant,” said Grobler. “Here we have a parable of fame and how it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, with the role of the young starlet being played by our good friend, Ireland Basinger Baldwin, who, due to her celebrity status, is well accustomed to this song’s message.

The album has been preceded by three singles, “Take Me Away,” “Hey Now,” and “Touch.” These singles consistently intertwine colorful production with heavier themes, such as in “Take Me Away,” where yacht rock synths highlight the song’s message of how to deal with mental health struggles. Utopia highlights this perfect world that the band has constructed for themselves on the other side of a tumultuous few years in the world since their last release.