A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR

I am gonna be blunt, I am not a huge fan of Todd Rundgren's work. I like a few Utopia albums but I feel like he is definitely the front facer of why so many people think Progressive Rock is a pretentious hogwash of a genre due to him putting so much music on his albums, sometimes even creating side long pieces that are 30 minutes. While you could argue he is meant to try and be ambitious, it feels like he ends up hurting himself more than he likes to admit by creating these big 50+ minute albums with 20+ songs that are like a minute or two long. Each time I see his albums whether at a store or on Spotify I end up not wanting to listen to them because of how much music, most likely filler music I have to stomach throughout it, but that is why I shall listen to this album. I am gonna give it a fair shot and see if I may be wrong about Todd's music and ambitions or if my fears are absolute.

The album opens with International Feel. This song has a pretty big ELO vibe mixed with some stuff from Kansas or Styx since Todd is from America and all. To be honest there isn't a lot in it to really warrant much of an opinion, it just kinda comes and goes. Nothing really impactful to be honest.

Next song is Never Never Land, and it's kinda boring. The singing is fine but it feels a bit too short handed by the lack of much of anything in the instrumentation and how it feels. Really just like the last song, it kinda comes and goes.

I'll be honest, I feel as though these short, nothing of note songs are gonna be a trend here, and I think I confirmed that theory with Tic Tic Tic It Wears Off. Going back with the whole American Progressive Pop vibes, it kinda just comes and goes for me, though I do like it's sorta weird keyboard playing, but it is still too short for me to really appreciate it.

And the songs just get shorter with You Need Your Head, which simply goes from one ear and out the other, and is really not too interesting. In fact the songs afterwards, Rock and Roll Pussy, Dogfight Giggle, You Don't Camp Around, Flamingo are basically that, small filler songs that are just nothing really, and I feel like this trend really breaks this album for me. To me, simply making an album with a lot of songs just to have a lot of songs is really dumb. In fact I feel like if you made these smaller songs into one conjoined melody or suite then I would really enjoy this album much more, but as it stands, especially with all these short, 1 minute or so songs, it just feels very much like nothing to me.

However, what isn't nothing is Zen Archer, the best song on the album. It definitely is of note how different it feels since it feels like the most developed song on this album and one I truly really like. I love its cryptic European feel, and I know they came about long after this album's release, but it does remind me of The Dear Hunter, especially tracks like The Poison Woman and The Bitter Suite IV and V. It has that awesome baroque feel I really do wish more Prog bands attempted, especially in this day and age. Also that saxophone solo is very lovely, super dream-like and just nice to listen to. Honestly I want more of this, cause it is actually just really good.

However I feel as though my wish will not come with Just Another Onionhead / Da Da Dali. It just feels so, fillery you know? It is a perfectly fine song but man does it just feel confusing after that awesome 5 minute doozie of a song Zen Archer. It feels like Todd struck gold, held it up, and tossed it aside because he thinks it isn't as good as digging for iron. It is a waste of his talents that he clearly has but also doesn't seem to want to pull off the bat. It's honestly kinda sad.

I do think it does kinda redeem itself with When The Shit Hits The Fan / Sunset Blvd. which is a fun, sorta surf rock song with some nice and fun riffs and playing. I do like it a bit more because I can at least tell Todd really did try to develop this song a bit more than some of the other stuff here, which I appreciate.

What I do not appreciate is instantly going back to the same 1 minute song structure with Le Feel Internacionale. It makes me confused as to why he would develop one song to where it'd actually be a full and complete song, but not do so for other's, or make the small one minute songs like just one conjoined suite so it can be better appreciated? It feels like a waste of good talent.

Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel is another developed track, a slow ballad that definitely has some good moments and emotion, something much needed by this point.

After that, and another small track called Does Anybody Love You! (Seriously stop doing these short songs, they are kinda peeving me off) we get a?a melody of short songs that encompasses into a full piece. Ok, why wasn't this done with the other short songs this album had? Why now? Is it because these tracks flowed better into one another so it was just a thought to make them into a melody, but the other tracks also did, so why not make them melodies too? It baffles me how Todd, a man who clearly shows his worth, doesn't use it until stupid moments like this. The melody is fine but man does it just make me confused.

I don't think I need to talk about I Don't Want to Tie You Down and Hungry For Love, they are those in and out the ears songs that I clearly have a gripe for.

The second to last song is Is It My Name? which goes for a more British hard rock style like The Who or The Rolling Stones does. It is actually kinda cool, and definitely a fun song to listen to if you just want a good time so I definitely applaud Todd for making another good song.

This also stays true with Just One Victory, the last track on the album. It is a lot more R&B based but it is still pretty fun and a good closer for this album. I clearly like this song, but the fact this is the last song on an album filled with filler is just sad, cause Todd really puts in effort when he making tracks like Zen Archer or When The Shit Hits The Fan, but he never utilizes it with the shorter songs due to how nothing they feel like, which just puts a bad taste in my mouth.

I really did want to like this album, it has good moments, and songs that I really enjoy, but it has so much small amounts of filler in it to where if you subtracted the 1-2 minute songs and only included the full developed songs, no matter how short, it'll turn out to be a much better album, and with that, I think my fears are definitely true for my feelings with Todd's music, and all I can say is that I hope the best for him wherever he is now.