Photo credit: Renata Raksha

You know it’s an Austra song when you hear that signature lush, yet beautifully cryptic croon. Austra, also known as the Canadian vocalist and producer Katie Stelmanis, has brought great pleasure to many patient fans today with the release of her new video/song “Utopia.” The new song reveal comes with the announcement of her forthcoming album Future Politics. Following Austra’s 2013 release Olympia, Future Politics is Austra’s third full length record and will be out on January 20, 2017 via Domino. The album comes with a hopeful message and is “a commitment to replace the approaching dystopia,” shares Stelmanis. “Not just hope in the future, but the idea that everyone is required to help write it, and the boundaries of what it can look like are both fascinating and endless. It’s not about ‘being political,’ it’s about reaching beyond boundaries, in every single field.”

With Austra’s new song “Utopia,” we are once again blessed with that gorgeous voice of Stelmanis’. With her echoing “hooos” and somber tone, the track’s electro pop elements give “Utopia” a churning buoyancy. At times the song is dark, soft and steady — while other times the crescendo builds into an infectious electro-pop ditty. Austra brings the song to life with an Ex-Machina-esque video companion where we find Stelmanis held captive in a modern apartment, eating bugs and becoming a slave to technology. While we love the video concept (directed by THAT GO), we just can’t help but feel like the video is a promotion for Amazon Echo. It’s a bit much there considering this is Austra; something less corporate, and more technologically obscure and experimental would have been more appealing.

Watch Austras new video for “Utopia” below.

Austra – “Lose It”