A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR

Whilst I found the subsequent Todd Rundgren's Utopia to be hopelessly overblown, on A Wizard, a True Star Todd Rundgren indulges his prog instincts in a more adept manner. The first side is a suite of hyper-short snippets, tape experiment, pocket songs, and sheer musical delirium, which puts me in mind of the first side of Absolutely Free by the Mothers of Invention less in terms of its musical style (quintessentially 1970s prog-tinged USA art rock) and more in terms of its structure. The second side finds Todd blending prog and classic 1960s Motown numbers in a number of longer, more developed pieces,

If both sides were like side 2, this would seem like a natural evolution from Something/Anything?, but with side 1 in place it becomes a sonic revolution, and a well-realised and intriguing one at that.