RA

Their first full album of all studio tracks, Utopia's RA is very eclectic in mood and style, with the nice ballad "Eternal Love", the angry "Jealousy", the Beatles-like psychedelia of "Magic Dragon Theatre", the serious band workouts "Communion With the Sun" and "Sunburst Finish", the not-so-serious yet trippy band workout "Singring and the Glass Guitar", and the brooding "Hiroshima" all sitting along side each other, but it's also very consistant in quality. There's some very good playing on the album, namely in the excellent "Sunburst Finish", and "Magic Dragon Theatre" shows that Rundgren still had the ability to find melodies and chord sequences that sound like they've never been used before but always should have been. To round up or down? I gave Utopia's RA 4.5 stars with a 4 star "checked" rating mainly because I think it's nicer to see the lower rating up there first, then to read in the review that it's actually higher, rather than bring it down later. I would not, however recommend listening to RA while sitting inside the actual sun, though, as that could bring your rating down a bit.