Utopia
Adventures In Utopia

Like everything that is meant to be catchy, listening to "Adventures In Utopia" will be enjoyable only if you approach it without questioning the numerous inconsistencies, the lack of linearity, or the many concessions made for the sake of "supermelody"...

If you're looking for the coherence of the concept, or the correspondence between song and song, the arrangements, or even the definitive musical identity of this band, then this album, born between '79 and '80, will fully disappoint every expectation.

However, if you can set all that aside, forget that much of the clichés, on a musical level, that distinguish Utopia are, in the end, typical if not strong points of Rundgren's solo discography and style (we're talking, specifically, about surf rock, Liverpool powerpop, and old American soul), and if you have the willingness to focus exclusively on the songs, then "Adventures In Utopia" isn't a bad album at all. Quite the opposite...

In this work, Todd, Kasim, "Willie," and Roger mix all the cards at their disposal, as well as those picked up from who knows where (but most likely from the American top ten); the result is something that tastes like everything and nothing: if we wanted to be snobbish, we could say as much. At the same time, if the ears approaching "Adventures" belonged to a 'novice' (rather than the highly trained ones of an aficionado, like myself), well, the unfortunate listener couldn't help but enjoy this "vaseline-disc," one of the most useful to "introduce us" subtly to Planet Rundgren.

In here, after all, there is a bit of prog in "The Road To Utopia", made 'normal' thanks to a swift and pleasant pop melody. And what better and softer way to instill a bit of progressive into a kid born in 1992? Or is adulthood necessary for that? And if the fifteen-year-old learns to love "Second Nature" (boy, does this album lend itself well to all sorts of double entendres!) and its power pop (which is not a 'nickname' for your tool, but a musical style), perhaps soon he might find it little challenging to appreciate the majestic, the well-endowed "Something/Anything?"!

How will he navigate the adorable apparent confusion inside Rundgren's head, if he can't get past "Caravan", a cross between old prog and powerpop, easy in the choruses, but with a surf rock special never so vitaminic? And the crossover between Arena rock and the '70s musical of "Last Of The New Wavers", where, among the choirs, it seems you can hear the ringing voice of Roger Taylor, the Queen drummer (but perhaps, today, at fifteen, no one listens to Queen anymore)?

If you're even more hopeless than I imagine, my dear fifteen-year-old, and you can't handle these tracks, well then know that in "Adventures In Utopia" there's even better (or worse), starting with "Set Me Free", enjoyable and syncopated pop, so easy to remember, so easy to hum after just a minute... which was the only single in the band's history to enter the American top 40 (I might have made a mistake saying that: now he knows Utopia never had success, never made it to the top ten; he'll label them, without telling me, not to hurt me, as too complicated or not genius enough, and certainly too unlucky, and he'll go back to listening to his genius and super-cool Tokio Hotel).

And there's also "You Make Me Crazy", which sounds like "Since I Held You" by the Cars, from the contemporary album "Candy-O", and when I say Cars I mean good but easy "LIGHT" music... And there's "Shot In The Dark", a space surf alternating with the "usual powerpop", or yet "The Very Last Time", which sounds like another song by Ric Ocasek, that skinny guy (not that Rundgren is obese, but compared to Ric...) from the Cars, only that in the chorus, instead of the mix of rockabilly and AOR (as Ric would have done), there's a blend of surf and Arena rock (do you also see the difference between the East Coast and the West Coast? But what do you understand, you! Listening to a German band of your peers and dreaming of becoming Pete Doherty!). And then there's still "Love Alone", a gospel full of choirs and slow slow, which resembles an extended version of "Dear Friends" from the early Queen (always if you know them), with accompaniment only from the talented keyboardist Roger Powell, instead of accompaniment of piano and black-painted nails of the late Mercury. What? You didn't know Freddie painted his nails? "Just like that guy from Tokio Hotel!", you'll reply... And if in the end, you don't understand a damn thing, as I'm starting to suspect, there's even a bit of late '70s disco in "Rock Love"...

Okay, all right, I get it... Do one thing: listen to an early album by the Cars. If you like it, listen to the others too. Then check out the live album by the New Cars. Then discover that in the New Cars, Todd Rundgren sings, and not Ric Ocasek, also find out that in the live, (only) two old Todd tracks are performed, and that he composed the unreleased studio tracks... If you like the stuff with his signature, then delve into his solo albums and savor them slowly, I insist... Here's a piece of advice: don't be discouraged by the aged sound, the fact that some are double albums, that others have strange covers, that there are medleys, that you'll encounter some tracks a bit too experimental: there are just a couple of difficult albums; the rest will soon grow on you.

Then discover that Kasim Sulton, the bassist of the New Cars, played along with Rundgren in a band called Utopia. Get their albums, perhaps skip the first two, which are live and sound very prog (you still have a lifetime to learn the progressive) and listen to the rest... Discover that Sulton, in the end, sings even better than Rundgren... And then finally realize... Eventually stumble upon "Adventures In Utopia", recognize the prog you've skipped, the pop, the soulpop, and the surf of Rundgren as always, and the Arena rock of the previous "Oops! Wrong Planet"... And see that there are moments that sound like old Queen, and, disco experiment aside, there are tracks that sound like the Cars in their first two LPs, coincidentally around the '79 and '80, just like this album...

In short, do more or less what I did when I was your age (instead of the New Cars CD, two years ago, I was gifted a tape with Cars on side A and mixed stuff, including some Utopia tracks, on side B) and ask yourself if "Adventures In Utopia" is a good album.

In the end, I didn’t mind it, you know?