Having released three albums in Welsh and Cornish, Utopia is Gwenno Saunders’ first album recorded predominantly in English, and presents a very different side to her life and songwriting. Forty-three years into her life, Saunders has been many people; the disaffected Cardiff schoolgirl, the teenage Las Vegas dancer, as well as the singer in indie pop group The Pipettes. Utopia, Saunders’ fourth solo album, is an extraordinary exploration of all of these selves. The singer regards her first three solo records — 2014’s Y Dydd Olaf, 2018’s Le Kov and 2022’s Tresor as “childhood records”, rooted in her upbringing, meaning Utopia captures a time of self-determination and experimentation. These are songs of discovery, of the years between being someone’s daughter and becoming someone’s wife and someone’s mother. They range from floor-fillers to piano ballads, via contributions from Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline, and encompass William Blake, a favourite Edrica Huws poem, and the Number 73 bus. It is her finest work to date.