TODD RUNDGREN'S UTOPIA

You could practically just look at the cover and the track lengths and convince yourself that this is already upper echelon prog rock at it's most superb. Imagine a pop superstar like Todd Rundgren getting an artistic itch, enlisting THREE (I emphasize the three) keyboard players and chucking out a half-hour epic would get lots of praise from the prog community. It certainly has the potential...

I admit that if there is one thing I really enjoy about UTOPIA is that it actually achieves a unique sound that is constant throughout the album. For some reason, funk broods into the sound here, mostly in the bass and electric piano, and the guitars (whenever I can hear them) bump this more into the rock spectrum. So, this has a great sound, but do the compositions work?

For me, slightly not. Take ''The Ikon'' for example; it's length and the first section are there to lull me into a false state of mind thinking that I've hit prog paydirt. As the epic evolves, I find many sections far too overextended, particularly the section where everybody gets to solo. All of the ideas are great barring a spot towards the end that seems to cop Genesis, but all ideas go far longer than necessary. It could've been one of the greatest epics ever had major trimming been done.

This complaint applies to the whole album. Parts of ''Freak Parade'' don't make any sense despite it's great funk foundation, the title track seems too tact after the vocals come in and ''Freedom Fighters'' is...well...a decent pop tune. Eh, UTOPIA had promise but it fails to keep my attention for too long.