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7 out of 10
Prog-rock, let's just take that label and pop it in the bin shall we, set it aside or put it in the fire. Yes, "Utopia" was a classic recording from a classic bunch of artists that all got chucked under that label. After a while the ’genre’ stagnated and was harpooned by punk. Using the term now would indicate a hark back to that era and I really don’t want to go there. What's more, Mr Rundgren's primarily a pop artist. Yeah, some of his albums were a little experimental, but look at his back catalogue and he's a like a mix of Tom Petty and David Bowie. Well maybe that's stretching it a bit.
What do you get then, preconceptions aside? Well, you get something that's comparable to many to what many 70's pop/rock artists released in the mid to late 90's, a pick and mix bag of styles. From the hard pop/rock of "Mad" to the soft pop of "Suffer", the tongue in cheek of humour of rock tracks "Pissin" and "Gun" (the latter mixing in quotes from "Full Metal Jacket"), the hard rock of "Mountain Top" to the synth based pop of "Today". Now this album manages to avoid the pitfalls of a fair few 'mixed bag' albums in that the tracks are ordered and arranged so that they never stray drastically in style from the last and remain closer to the pop side of things than to straying further toward hard rock, electronica or blues (as examples). This works fine, the album flows well and all fits. But, in avoiding these pit falls, we have unfortunately steered the old unstable bike into the mother of all musical potholes. I'd love to pick a stand out track, namely I go with Mad, as that's the album opener, fairly catchy, flips between hard driving and soft, gentle mellow. And after that you have the rest of the tracks which are all just as good and enjoyable. And after you listen to the LP for the first time you can only really remember the intro to the first track. And the second time you listen. And the Third. Four or five listens in you're starting to remember. This in essence is the problem; nothing really grabs you about the album. Nothing jumps out and says "WHOA! Get in here buddy!" Nothing really sticks in your mind, which is a shame really as it's an enjoyable album.
To cut a long blithering story short it's a good release but it's not the best he's done, nor is it the most memorable. Worth picking up if you're a fan of his, or of David Bowie and Tom Petty.
Listen: www.myspace.com/toddrundgrenmusic
Tracklist:
1. Mad
2. Afraid
3. Mercenary
4. Gun
5. Courage
6. Weakness
7. Strike
8. Pissin
9. Today
10. Bardo
11. Mountaintop
12. Panic
13. Manup
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