A lot of people who critique music ( I think it would be fair to say most) consider SOMETHING/ANYTHING Rundgren’s greatest recording….It is impressive….A double album’s worth of versatile songwriting and clever melodic twists.
However, while I like Rundgren’s music, he has always been someone more in my second tier of artists….In other words, not everything he has done is essential in fact for a guy so talented in so many ways (singer, musician, songwriter, producer) he has put out a lot of really bad music….In addition to musical self-indulgence and musical experimentation mistakes, there is a sterility factor in his music as if he is putting out what he thinks a good song sounds like rather than what he feels (“soul” if you want to call that).
But enough criticism!....A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR is my favorite Todd Rundgren album and it is amazing especially the first eight songs which are around the two minute mark and some less so but span so many different musical genres in such a short period of times it reminds me of switching the channel on FM radio listening to all the different types of music for different audiences.
This is music that takes weeks to sort out due to all the different melodies styles abrupt switches of melody, depth and versatility….I would also recommend THE HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW and THE EVER POPULAR TORTURED ARTIST EFFECT as both show Rundgren at the peak of his singing/songwriting powers as well as the self-titled UTOPIA album from 1982 (Utopia being a side band project of Rundgren’s).
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