Delresto (Echoes)
by Travis Scott (featuring Beyoncé & Bon Iver)

Album: Utopia (2023)
Charted: 25
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • On "Delresto (Echoes)" Travis Scott teams up with fellow H-town native Beyoncé. The track marks the first time La Flame has worked with the Queen B. Scott recorded the song for his fourth album, Utopia.
  • Scott released "Delresto (Echoes)" as the second single from Utopia on July 28, 2023, the same day he dropped the album. Though the album was made available through Scott's Cactus Jack and Epic Records, the single was also released under Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment. The cover art for the track had been being used as a visual on Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour for months prior to its release.
  • Justin Vernon of Bon Iver joins the pair as well. Scott had never collaborated with Bon Iver before, but there's another Utopia track, "My Eyes," in which Vernon also appears.
  • Beyoncé kicks off the action with some wealth-based flexing.

    Statues in the next room
    Billions in Escrow
    Bulletproof the whole thing
    Ignore the dress code
    Step into the ballroom


    Beyoncé sets the scene of a lavish mansion with a ballroom fit for royalty. But it's hard to let go of the things that don't bring life.
  • The rest of the song is difficult to decipher, but the poetic lyrics appear to read as if Scott and Beyoncé are two lovers trying to connect. Something is in the way, obstacles that are making it tough.

    It's only echoes I escape for
    Walk, walk
    Only echoes on the return
    Walk walk


    In the echoes, we hear their struggle, symbolic of the hurdles they face in this dance of love.
  • So what's behind the "Delresto (Echoes)" title, which doesn't appear in the lyrics? "Resto" seems to point to a restaurant, and Scott throws "echoes" and "the restaurant" into the second verse.

    It's the echoes that I wait for
    It's the echoes that I'm made for
    Recognize the restaurant
    Recognize the let go


    Scott's wordplay cleverly links the "rest" in "restaurant" to the idea of letting go.
  • Scott cooked up the electrifying, eerie beat, giving the track a thrilling vibe that'll haunt your soul. Beyoncé is also listed as a co-producer, and Allen Ritter, Hit-Boy and Mike Dean as additional producers. Mike Dean also mastered the Utopia album.
  • English singer-songwriter James Blake co-wrote the song with the three artists and three producers.
  • Scott first revealed the Utopia album title on July 8, 2020, when he posted a picture on Instagram with its name. Fourteen months later, he said the album would focus on what he believes to be the essential ingredients of a utopian state: "medicine, nursing, being a better person, talking, language, communication."

    "You think utopia is a society where everything is good: health, buildings, architecture – nah," the rapper explained in an interview with CR Men magazine. "It's just about proper lines of communication."
  • Travis Scott expressed interest in collaborating with Beyoncé eight years before creating "Delresto (Echoes)" with her. "You know, I'm from Houston, she's from Houston," he told Complex. "I feel like we - we're definitely in due time to do some music."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real Group

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real GroupSong Writing

The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.

Jeff Trott

Jeff TrottSongwriter Interviews

Sheryl Crow's longtime songwriting partner/guitarist Jeff Trott reveals the stories behind many of the singer's hits, and what its like to be a producer for Leighton Meester and Max Gomez.

Michael Schenker

Michael SchenkerSongwriter Interviews

The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.

Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright IIISongwriter Interviews

"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."