Review Summary: One of Todd’s best works. One of the most prog too.
“Todd” is the fifth studio album of Todd Rundgren and was released in 1974. The line up on the album is Todd Rundgren, Moogy Klingman, Ralph Schuckett, Buffalo Bill Gelber, John Siegler, John Miller, Kevin Ellman, Wells Kelly, Peter Ponzol, Michael Brecker, Randy Breker and Barry Rogers.
Todd Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer, native of Philadelphia, who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Utopia. He began his professional career in the mid of the 60’s, forming the psychedelic band Nazz in 1967. Two years later, he left Nazz to pursue a solo career. From his early work with the Nazz, Rundgren showed a tremendous melodic gift and an ability to craft a sophisticated sound fused from various genres. While his music ranges from The Beatles influenced pop to Jimi Hendrix inspired rock, he retains a gift for honest setiment, inspiring lyrics and laconic wit throughout his ample body of work. Prificent on no end instruments, Rundgren has frequently displayed his ample chops by performing all vocals and instruments on some of his albums. His adventurous use of synthesizers during the early 70’s helped to usher that instrument into widespread use in the music. He has also clearly inspired many artists and bands all over the years.
“Todd” was an expansion of Todd Rundgren’s experimentation on his previous fourth studio album, “A Wizard, A True Star”. It showed his growing interest in the synthesizer, and its ability to expand the textures of the rock music. Much of the album is intensely experimental. However, this isn’t an album without its share of pop songs. Todd Rundgren also tinkers with the synthesizer heavy progressive sound he would take further with his later prog band Utopia. Perhaps it’s less fragmentary than its predecessor, and perhaps less exciting, still all the elements of the predecessor can also be founded here, but the ideas are no longer alluded to, but “through-composed”. “Todd” thus has a less homogeneous character, the songs are more isolated, without which Rundgren could now accuse that “Todd” is a mere piecework.
The progressive part of the music has risen significantly on “Todd”, but as with so many Todd Rundgren’s albums, there are a lot of different genres on “Todd” and so slowly one recognizes a kind of concept behind it. For instance, the obligatory cover version of the “Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song”, (which is a super funny ironic and very British interpretation of a composition by the “Light Classics” author duo Gilbert / Sullivan), the fake hard rock cracker “ Heavy Metal Kids”, the heartbreaking ballad “The Last Ride”, the multi-layered, somewhat obscure progressive piece “Don’t You Ever Learn?” and the inevitable anthem at the end of the album “Sons Of 1984”, all are perfectly examples of that.
Though that side one of “A Wizard, A True Star” is, perhaps, Todd Rundgren’s triumph, his follow up, “Todd”, is perhaps a better album. It was issued as a double LP too, but the sound quality is better. However, for as good as the side one of his previous album, the side two is fairly forgettable. Besides, “Todd” more generously spreads the love across to the entire album. Though, the bulk of the best songs appear on side three, especially “No 1. Lowest Common Denominator”, “Izzat Love?” and “Heavy Metal Kids”. But, there are still plenty of psych pop triumphs here, notably “I Think You Know”, “The Spark Of Life”, “Everybody’s Going To Heaven / King Kong Reggae” and “Don’t You Ever Learn?”. But, above all, this is a Todd Rundgren’s album, which means there’s a decent amount of filler, see “An Elpee’s Worth Of Toons”, “Lord Chancellor’s Nightmare Song”, and “In And Out The Chakras We Go”. People unfamiliar with Rundgren’s work might be surprised by how adventurous, and at times, how state of art this album is, due to “Something/Anything?”, “A Wizard, A True Star” and “Initiation” rule the discussion of what is his best album.
Whether this or the previous album is the more prog is academic, as both find Todd at his experimental best. Here we have a diverse selection of experimental music, ballads, melodic pop and a host of other style all into a fine package.
Conclusion: This is, for me, a very difficult album to rate. Sometimes it seems to me very prog and others it seems to me very popish. Sometimes it seems to me has great tracks and others it seems to me has AOR songs. Sometimes it seems to me has good original vocals from Todd and others his vocals seem to me vocals from Prince. So, the final result is a kind of a “mixed bag”, really. I think the album has shocked many people when it was released and even today. Todd mixes up all of the styles of music he was into at the time, making this music a lover’s extravaganza. It’s really difficult to listen to this album in only one breath. Still, this album is one of the main reasons why Todd is considered a prog artist. So, despite be an album with so many different styles and a popish feeling at times, for my taste, I think it’s full of short synth instrumentals and experiments that sometimes work very well. I really like it, indeed.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
