Skip to main content

State of the Reviews - 2

Sunday Times
"A distillation of the Runt's multigenre musical journey, State is a persuasive addition to his canon. Prog bombast, heavy riffage and swirling synths wage sonic war, yet Rundgren's flower-pop and soft-rock leanings cannot be ignored, any more than can his enduringly honey-sweet vocals. This makes for a fascinating hybrid, nowhere more so than on In My Mouth, Ping Me and, above all, the confessional Smoke, where EDM synths meet a melody that is pure 1972. Sir Reality and Something from Nothing are equally absorbing. Not bad for a 24th solo album."

Scottish Sunday Express - Martin Townsend
"Rundgren is undoubtedly a genius: one of the great American songwriters of the past 40 years. Yet the same Todd who composed ... I Saw The Light a...also gave us the awful Born To Synthesise. State ...flirts with both extremes"

See Also:
Rock Cellar Interview with Todd covering State, The Beatles and Patti Smith.
Scotland on Sunday - Rough Guide to Oddities

Comments

Jim Marquis said…
I liked Born To Synthesize. Though I will admit, it was a very strange performance on The Midnight Special in 1975...
4:52 PM
Scott said…
Never minded BTS either.

The New album is not a classic (2 full listens), but is never less than interesting and has some good stuff on it. Will do my own review later in week.
9:05 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Substack: the new blogging and a new music newsletter

  Hello again my old blogger blog. Just checking in to plug the new substack newsletter I'm doing. It is also home to the CTTB Music podcast and its archive too. Why not pay me a visit and sign up for future editions of the newsletter (free) 
Post a Comment
Read more

Todd Rundgren @ The Forum 23/11/2008

I think this was Todd's first appearance at the Forum since he recorded a live album there back in 1994 on the No World Order tour. He was all alone for that one. Tonight, things could not have been more different as Todd brought the Arena tour to London. What can I say. It rocked. Playing the same set that he has been doing for the whole tour - opening with Love in Action, Open my Eyes, Black Maria, I Saw the Light etc, before playing Arena in its entirety - this was guitar rock heaven (and let's face it, probably the last time you'll see Todd doing this kind of tour in the UK). The band were tight, the backing vocals near perfection, and a few ropey moments aside, Todd's vocals strong and good. It was a real joy to see him playing so much lead guitar, after recent years of being more of the 'singer in the band'. There were a few technically issues near the start, when Todd couldn't get the clean guitar sound he wanted, and one amusing moment when he manag...
1 comment
Read more

The Decemberists - 'The Hazards of Love'

Whilst the Decemberists have been around for a number of years, and a friend of mine is a big fan, I have to confess - a few tunes aside - they have never really made much of a splash with me. With their fifth album - 'The Hazards of Love' - a 17-track concept album that sort of tells a story about a fair maiden ravished by a shape-shifting demon (no, really) - however, I am suddenly find myself surprisingly won over. On some levels - like most concept albums - it is utter tosh, but with its repeating musical motifs and reprises, making you quickly think that actually there are only about five actual songs on the album - a clever trick. Like with all good concept albums this makes listening on shuffle not the ideal way to digest this album - especially as their are short 'interlude' pieces joining all the songs too. Added to all this the fact that the band seem to have a love for early 70's British folk/prog/heavy metal and this walks right up my street - and will ...
6 comments
Read more