Todd Rundgren Album Review

‘ARENA’

Cooking Vinyl

Without debate, Todd Rundgren is a musical genius and one of rock’s great unsung heroes. To many, he is still known as the producer of Meat Loaf’s mega-selling musical extravaganza ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ rather than as a musician with a rich solo career; and let’s not forget his awe-inspiring Utopia stuff with the brilliant Kasim Sultan.

Well, ‘Arena’ is by far the most all-out rock album Rundgren has made – it’s fantastic. There’s a good mix of hard rock nutcases and melodic mid-paced tracks such as the marvellous ‘Courage,’ the steady ‘Pissin’ and the haunting ‘Bardo.’ A song like ‘Gun’ is a toe-tapping hard rocker with a memorable chorus. The album’s production is excellent and it’s probably one of the year’s finest releases; ‘Arena’ is notable for its consistency and simply for high levels of pure enjoyment. Rundgren’s voice is as magnetic as ever; just listen to the infectious ‘Weakness’ for further evidence. What you have here is a collection of 13 well composed and meaningful tracks; each one has its own identity. I’m just surprised at how heavy ‘Arena’ is; it immediately hits you in the face with the opening track ‘Mad.’ And the AC/DC like ‘Strike’ is also a steady but heavy mix of guitars, drums and bass; each chord is played ever so tightly. ‘Today’ is probably the most distinguishable track on the album; it’s a quirky prog rock number with a sturdy bass intro which is held consistently throughout the track.

There’s no doubt about it, ‘Arena’ is wonderful stuff and I can’t wait to hear some of it played live when Mr. Rundgren tours old Blighty in November. All of these songs will work brilliant live, especially the harder edged tracks. It’s a winner. For more information, visit his official website at www.tr-i.com.

 

Neil Daniels.