|
|
Todd RundgrenAlbums ReviewedRunt (1970)Runt: The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren (1971) Something/Anything (1972) A Wizard, A True Star (1973) Todd (1974) Hermit Of Mink Hollow (1978) Anthology 1968-1985 Utopia: Anthology 1974-1985 Runt(1970)Having already recorded three albums as guitarist and principal songwriter for garage rockers The Nazz, who enjoyed several minor hits, Pennsylvanian Todd Harry Rundgren was still only 22 when he recorded his solo debut. Even though he'd grow appreciably with each of his subsequent three albums, Runt is already a remarkably assured solo debut. As a pop musician, Rundgren's strength and weaknesses are relatively self-evident; on the positive side he's a skilled musician on multiple instruments, a gifted technician who's contributed to landmark albums from The Band, Patti Smith, Meat Loaf, and XTC, and a capable composer and arranger. On the other hand, his lyrics are often fluffy and lightweight, and his music is much more technically impressive than it is significant, although his goofy persona is often endearing in it's own right. Musically, Runt veers between sixties pop - inspired largely from the British Beatles/Zombies/Kinks axis - and early seventies singer-songwriters like Carole King and Laura Nyro. As well as this, Rundgren's penchant for guitar heroics and progressive rock is also starting to come into focus, especially in the closing 'Birthday Carol'; Rundgren states in the liner notes that he thought that every album should end with an epic a la 'A Day In The Life' on Sgt Peppers. As his first effort with artistic control, Rundgren produced and played the vast majority of the instruments - mostly he's just assisted by the rhythm section of Tony and Hunt Sales, who later played in Iggy Pop's band and Bowie's Tin Machine. As proof of Rundgren's ability, it's the more lightweight, conventional tunes that are among the weakest, while the two lengthy efforts at the end of the album are among the album's best. 'Birthday Carol' starts off as a blues jam before settling as a pretty piano ballad, while 'Baby Let's Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don't Tie My Hands', dedicated to Laura Nyro, jumps effortlessly and joyously through a bunch of melodic tunes, showing the soulful potential in Rundgren's voice. The appropriately titled 'There Are No Words' shows an obvious Brian Wilson influence, while the low, croony vocal in 'Once Burned' is actually all natural, created without studio effects. Meanwhile, the single is memorable; the hilarious lightweight piano pop of 'We Gotta Get You A Woman', dedicated to the manager of his record label and his inability to hook up. Runt is a terrific start to Rundgren's solo career - incredibly, each of his three next albums build on the previous, growing in scope without sacrificing his natural tunefulness and playfulness. 
Runt: The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren(1971)What the previous paragraph said about each early Todd Rundgren album increasing in scope isn't entirely the case for his sophomore effort - while it covers different territory to the debut, it's more focused to one genre, specifically Rundgren's take on the singer-songwriter prevalent in 1971. Rundgren's too much of a pop craftsman to give too much of himself away, and this is perhaps closer in tone to something like Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection or Paul McCartney's first solo records than genuinely emotionally communicative like Joni Mitchell's Blue or John Prine. As such, it's more like a pop album that was released during the singer-songwriter era, and whose low key, acoustic arrangements are closely aligned with it. Rundgren's often predominantly on piano or acoustic guitar here; although, ever the studio compulsive, he lists an occasionally large number of instruments that he uses on each track, but it's still subtle layers like clavinet and percussion rather than the triple synthesiser lineup that he'd employ in Utopia later in the seventies. For most of the tracks, he's joined by Tony Sales and drummer N.D. Smart, although studio pros Jerry Scheff and John Guerin are the rhythm section for 'Be Nice To Me' and 'Hope I'm Around'. The radio friendly pop of 'Long Flowing Robe' kicks off the record, and it could have easily fitted onto Carole King's Tapestry with its lush, but piano-driven arrangements. At the other end of the spectrum, the haunting 'The Wailing Wall' is pared down to just Rundgren's piano and voice. The fun, faux-country of 'The Range War' provides some subtle diversity, and it's perhaps the most emotionally affecting piece here: "If I had my own way, we would be together back in Pittsburgh/It's the only town east of the river I know" is probably the most touching line on the record. Some of the slighter pieces like 'A Long time, A Long Way To Go' and 'Remember Me' are also charming, and it's only the rockier tracks that are slightly problematic; 'Parole' especially isn't abrasive enough to be effective, but still too abrasive to fit onto the album properly. The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren doesn't smack you over the head, as pretty much every other album in his catalogue tries to, but every song here is a worthwhile, subtly ingratiating, piece of popcraft.
Something/Anything(1972)Although Rundgren's skill and musical faculty had increased over his two previous records, the extent of Rundgren's ambition here is close to extraordinary. Ambitious firstly because the first three album sides are performed and produced by Rundgren alone, working with just an engineer, pulling off an impressively professional and ornate performance. He's not exactly a virtuoso on drums or bass, but his guitar and keyboard work is excellent and it's hard to believe that some of these recordings aren't the product of a well-oiled studio band. Ambitiously secondly because it's extremely eclectic, albeit completely within the parameters of white music, running the gamut from Gilbert and Sullivan showtunes to psychedelic freakouts. Sure it's loose, broken up with skits (predating hip hop) and false starts on the fourth side and a tour of the studio, but it's also relentlessly melodic and entertaining. Some of the lesser pieces get accused of being filler, but in my mind it's pretty much rock solid; a couple of the heavier songs on the third side are where Rundgren is closest to outreaching his grasp, but even those are interesting enough. Some may get turned off by the novelty songs on the fourth side, but I'm fine with them; it's not like lyrics are Rundgren's main strength anyway, and I get a giggle out of lines like "She's got saggy thighs and baggy eyes/But loves me in a way I can still recognise" in 'Slut' or the STD/heartbreak double entendres of the vaguely heartfelt 'You Left Me Sore'. Initially I wasn't impressed by Something/Anything outside the obvious highlights - the opening double punch of 'I Saw The Light' and the Neil Young-like 'It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference', the power pop majesty of 'Couldn't I Just Tell You' and the reworking of The Nazz's 'Hello It's Me' - but the remainder snuck up on me pretty quickly. There are tons of highlights here; earnest ballads like 'Marlene' and 'One More Day (No Word)', the awesome gospel of 'Dust In The Wind' (not to be confused with the mediocre Kansas song with the same name), the weirded out 'I Went To The Mirror' (Rundgren's excellent track by track liner notes suggest lying with your head between the speakers and looking into a mirror while listening), and even the synth instrumental 'Breathless'. I can understand someone being left cold by this - it's much more a technical achievement than say an emotional one, but any fan of sophisticated pop would be well advised to pick Something/Anything up.
A Wizard, A True Star(1973)It actually audibly sounds like Rundgren discovered acid sometime between his last album and this one. If Something/Anything was eclectic, its successor A Wizard, A True Star, is insane, reeling between a ten minute medley of Motown covers, a lovely version of 'Never Never Land' from Peter Pan, a bunch of noises that sound like Todd rubbing a balloon, some lovely ballads, and a touch of hard rock. Rundgren has the musical facility to pull the disparate threads of A Wizard, A True Star together, showing off his impressive production skills, vocal range and guitar playing. While A Wizard, A True Star is awfully entertaining, its highlight is the three closing songs. The lovely ballad 'I Don't Want To Tie You Down' is followed by the hard rocking 'Is It My Name?', complete with ridiculous lyrics and a ridiculous guitar-hero solo (the defining lyric is "My voice goes so high you'd think I was gay/But I play my guitar in such a man-cock way."). To cap A Wizard, A True Star off the closer 'Just One Victory' is a beautifully melodic ballad providing a lovely dessert to a veritable feast of randomness. Given the ambition of A Wizard, A True Star it is surprising that its worst moments, particularly 'Hungry for Love', are conspicuous in their blandness. While it is a long way from perfection, there's plenty to like on A Wizard, A True Star; Rundgren isn't particularly interested in wearing his heart on his sleeve like his singer-songwriter contemporaries, but one can't help but admire his musical skill and ambition.
Todd(1974)As someone who's never tried anything stronger than a cigar, I'm hardly in a position to comment, but my observations on the effects of drugs on musicians is that they often create one glorious burst of creativity, then precipitate artistic decline. The Beatles peaked with Revolver and Sgt. Peppers around the same time they started experimenting with drugs and never reached the same heights again, while Rundgren peaked with A Wizard, A True Star about the same time as he started taking LSD, and he never approached the same level of greatness again. From a cynical perspective a lot of the material on Todd can be labelled either as (a) flaky instrumentals where Rundgren shows off his growing fascination with synthesisers or (b) sentimental ballads that sound cooler than they are actually are as they're meshed between flaky synth instrumentals. Of course, that fails to take into account lots of other cool stuff that's hidden among the double album sprawl, like the Gilbert & Sullivan cover 'Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song' or the anthemic closer 'Sons Of 1984', but I could cut Todd down to a single disc without missing too much. There are enough strong songs here to make Todd worthwhile - its sprawl is somewhat engaging, but it would be less frustrating if there was a higher ratio of good songs to weird synthesiser instrumentals. Even if Rundgren's experimentation is going off the deep end here, he's still capable of creating gorgeous pop melodies like the pretty 'A Dream Goes On Forever' and the melodic, half-instrumental 'Don't You Ever Learn', where Rundgren creates sonic majesty from his arsenal of synthesisers. 'Izzat Love?' is superficially simple, but it's the product of a pop mastermind, packing ridiculous numbers of key changes, tempo changes, and shifting time signatures into less than 2 minutes. The cock rock of 'Heavy Metal Kids' ("When I die I'll probably come back as a Sherman tank") also shows up the lack of Rundgren's guitar in some of the other tracks. I'm sure there are lots of Rundgren fans who regard Todd as a masterpiece on the level of A Wizard, A True Star, but in my eyes it's too disjointed to reach anywhere near the same heights. In its favour though, there are plenty of great moments over its 66 minutes - a forty minute version of the album could potentially rival Something/Anything as my second favourite Rundgren record.
Hermit Of Mink Hollow(1978)After a series of ambitious works with Utopia and solo projects (the very conceptual Initiation and the painstaking recreation of classic rock standards on the first side of Faithful), Rundgren suddenly dropped back into straightforward pop with the completely solo Hermit Of Mink Hollow. It's still intricately produced, and Rundgren's experimenting with synthesisers and sound effects, but there is enough emotional content to justifiably accompany the bleak cover image. In many ways, Rundgren's skills as a multi-instrumentalist are stronger than they were when he made Something/Anything; if that album had a few rough edges, it's difficult to tell that Hermit is a one man effort at all, even pulling out a credible saxophone solo in 'Bag Lady'. On the other hand, Hermit has less personality than Rundgren's early seventies peaks - inspired by relationship difficulties rather than psychedelic dabblings, it's basically a bunch of normal pop songs, albeit with lots of great hooks and detailed production. Regardless it's still infused with a strong sense of Rundgren goofiness, both effective (the hilarious novelty song 'Onomatopoeia') and irritating (the misguided social commentary of 'Bag Lady' and 'Bread'). The best known song here is the syncopated piano groove of 'Can We Still Be Friends', one of the few genuinely expressive pieces in the Rundgren catalogue, like he wrote a song to express feelings rather than demonstrate his technical prowess. In the same category is the simple 'Lucky Guy' ("When there's pain, he never minds it/When it's lost, he always finds it.") and the melodic 'Hurting For You' (the staggered vocals on the chorus are a great arrangement touch. There's also the aggressive rocker 'Out Of Control', delivered at a fast enough pace to suggest that Rundgren had taken note of punk, while 'Onomatopoeia' is a production masterpiece, a novelty song that actually bears repeated listening, with tons of sound effects inserted seamlessly into the song. There's tons of catchy mid-tempo stuff - the opening 'All The Children Sing', the bouncy 'You Cried Wolf', and apart from a couple of embarrassing lyrics, there's little to complain about; from an artist who previously delivered the compelling, risky A Wizard, A True Star, it's a little too safe to deserve too high a grade, but it's a great, tight little record where every track is likeable. From an artist who was otherwise largely going off the deep end at time, that's an extremely commendable outcome. On an unrelated note, my copy of this album came with two booklets - if you'd like one, please send me a self addressed envelope and I'll flick you one out.
Anthology 1968-1985(1989)Reaching back into his origins as leader of sixties garage bandThe Nazz, Anthology traces Todd Rundgren's development as singer-songwriter, pop craftsman and singing Buddhist self-help manual. A double disc set covering eleven studio albums, it's a good option if you're not willing to explore the entire career of the Runt, covering such high points as his sardonic pop of 'We Gotta Get You A Woman', the uplifting epic 'Just One Victory' and the gentle 'Can We Still Be Friends'. Also included, although it's certainly one of the weakest songs on the disc, is the faux-reggae of 'Bang on the Drum All Day', a song favoured by radio stations at 4:30pm on Friday afternoons. There's something terminally uncool about Rundgren's work; his lyrics are often sentimental and sometimes banal, and he's not above cramming as many sickly synth tones as possible into his records. But his sense of melody is expansive, and he's far more experimental than his Carole King-like early singles would suggest. Even on the weaker second-disc, where the results are more dated than the wide-eyed singer-songwriterisms of his early work, there's still acres of creativity and craftsmanship poured into each moment. It does tail off right at the end with the selections from his A Capella allbum, but it's still technically impressive that he managed to create all those sounds with only his voice. I don't know what else to say about this; it's well-crafted pop music that's likeable because of Rundgren's goofy personality and craftsmanship, even when it's lacking in emotional resonance or authenticity. Instead, here's a list of my favourite Rundgren songs featured on this compilation: (1) 'Just One Victory': an irresistible gospel-toned ballad that's the keynote track of A Wizard, A True Star. It features a startlingly elaborate arrangement which takes a while to sink in, but demonstrates Rundgren's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach at its best. (2) 'It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference': This Neil Young-like ballad finds Rundgren in an unusually pensive mood, before the triumphant middle eight and the synthesiser flourish that bring the song up to the final chorus. (3) 'Can We Still Friends': Most of the songs on the second disc are dominated by keyboards, perhaps a misjudgement since Rundgren's a talented guitar player. But the bouncy, stop-start piano riff drives this generous break-up song. Used brilliantly in an ironic sense in the movie Vanilla Sky. (4) 'Don't You Ever Learn?': Finds Rundgren in more of a progressive rock mood (he launched a parallel career as leader of the prog band Utopia around this time), highlighting simple but effective instrumental themes. When the starry eyed vocal finally appears, it's just the icing on the cake. (5) 'We Gotta Get You A Woman': Rundgren sometime overdoes the humorous aspect of his music, but this song about procuring a prostitute for his friend is hilarious. Delivered by Rundgren with wide opened optimism and lush harmonies, before descending into sleaziness with the last line.
 UtopiaAnthology (1974-1985)(1989)Rundgren formed Utopia as his live backing band, and to allow him to pursue more of a progressive rock direction. The original lineup even included three keyboard players, although in the face of punk, they scaled down into a slimmer and more pop-oriented outfit (Rundgren: "there just wasn't that much of a market for players' band...we didn't want to become baroque.") The group became more of a democracy that you'd expect with something involving Rundgren, but this anthology definitely puts the spotlight on Rundgren and when the other guys get centre stage they tend towards blandness. Most of this anthology tends towards the guilty pleasure category, even compared to Rundgren's solo work (which admittedly is hardly blemish free in that department either); this is strictly pop geek territory, it's often hollow and constantly dorky. Drawn from ten studio albums, which is insane when you consider how much solo work and production for other artists Rundgren released over the same period, the quality is sketchy enough that I have little interest in exploring Utopia further, but there's enough good Rundgren here to make it a good option for dedicated fans. A lot of this isn't to the same standards as Rundgren's accompanying double disc solo anthology, but opener 'Crybaby', with its stacked histrionic vocals, and the gentle sappy 'Mated' would both hold their place easily. The also sappy 'Love Is The Answer' is strangely memorable with its over the top gospel bridge, while the goofy 'Trapped' also benefits from the group's strong vocals, as all members in Utopia's pop edition were competent singers. There are only a few representatives from the band's progressive rock side, and they're fine if somewhat monotonous: the gentle 'The Wheel' and the bombastic 'Overture: Mountaintop and Sunrise/Communion With The Sun.' With their dorky pop approach it's not surprising that a few of the tunes grate; 'I Just Want To Touch You', from 1980's Beatles' pastiche Deface The Music is perhaps the worst offender, but all of the representatives from 1980's Adventures In Utopia are also irritating. The drop off in quality of Utopia's Anthology compared to Rundgren's solo collection is somewhat disappointing, but there's enough here to make it worthwhile for fans; it's just even more awkward and geeky than Rundgren's solo work.
|
|
|
|
Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
