A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR

The first side is a kaleidoscope of short tracks bookended by the International Feel theme. There is some interesting stuff in here. The weird choice of a cover of Never Never Land works, Tic Tic Tic is a nice instrumental, as is Flamingo, and Rock and Roll Pussy will be forever remembered as Todd's challenge to John Lennon. Just Another Onionhead is a cogent attack against an approach to art, while When The Shit Hits the Fan is a great song. That's the first half of the album. There's some great stuff here, but there's also an awful lot that is less than great. I've heard the first half of this referred to as one epic piece due to the bookending of International Feel, but it's not that coherent. The first half is hit or miss.

The second half starts out well with Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel and continues in the same vein with Does Anybody Love You? The medley that follows this is ok but not great, while Hungry For Love really btrings things down. I Don't Want To Tie You Down is probably one of the best short slow songs that Todd ever recorded, but it's so short. It's not really a detriment mind you. This song definitely doesn't outstay it's welcome. It's just that it is so short that it can't affect my rating so much. After that, we get the rocker Is It My Name?, which doesn't add anything to the album except for energy. It's well placed in the album, but it's not a great song, The album caps off with One More Victory, which is one of Todd's best anthems. It's inspiring and well worth the listen.

This is the middle in Todd's series of three double LP albums, and in my opinion the weakest. A Wizard, a True Star doesn't really know what kind of album it wants to be. In some places it wants to be an experimental masterpiece, in some places it wants to be a pop album, and in some places it wants to be trite and offensive.

I'll give this three stars. It's good, but there is very little here that is compelling.

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