Utopia
Oblivion

It's the 1984. What was predicted by Orwell's famous novel? The future has always been an obsession of the most fervent minds, not only in literature but also in science. But what is science? Everything could, in fact, be defined as science if we mean by it the knowledge of something that requires in-depth study, application vastly superior to the average, and experimentation.

There was a man in the world, born in Massachusetts, who was a mathematician, architect, astronomer, engineer, inventor... He wrote numerous essays, theses, treatises, "scientific" texts precisely, just like his other colleagues... Yet his works had a very different destiny than usual: they crossed the boundaries of the "scientific" and influenced ordinary people, they were read like novels, like sacred books, like literary classics (and today some of them actually are), or like current journalistic essays, thus fertilizing a much larger number of fertile minds. Many were young politicians, students of deeply different subjects, philosophers, and also, why not, literati. And a musician (or at least "this" musician): Todd Rundgren.

This man's name was Richard "Bucky" Buckminster Fuller, and in 1959 he predicted, if his guidelines were followed, the end of world poverty by the year 2000. We can together imagine the scientific reactions, and those of ordinary people... The fact is that this poor madman who knew how to do everything and invent everything, this sensationalist megalomaniac seeking easy (vain) glory, got his revenge when, regarding the aforesaid statement (written and published according to all the canons of science), in 1977 he took a great revenge: the National Academy Of Sciences, having tested "Bucky" Fuller's claims and instructions, had given him reason: by following his instructions, in a few decades the world would never know hunger again!

We all know, or otherwise, we can easily verify, what the meaning and origin of the word "utopia" is, but what we lack is that Utopia is the idea of a perfect future city branded by Fuller, obviously an architect of the highest caliber. What Utopia was described in, as we can imagine, was not just a text good for architects: Buckminster Fuller described, at the same time, the example of a possible civilization. He contrasted this city with a diametrically opposite example: an uninhabitable city for a corrupt society, a concrete jungle (a theme dear to Italian prog, one might say!) for a corrupt, rotten and self-devouring civilization... He wrote that book in New York in 1969, and you can imagine the impression it made on the youth of that time. If you are lovers of that new primordial soup called '68, then probably the advice is to get this book (I have ordered a copy in English, and I hope my Albion language is still up to a whole text, even if it is scientific)... The title of the book? But of course, "Utopia Or Oblivion," in other words, the name of the band and the name of the album.

In 1984 Todd Rundgren and his companions see the world resembling an Oblivion, an inhuman city... They, optimistic aliens fallen to Earth from the planet Utopia (see my review of their album "Oops! Wrong Planet" from 1977), decide to venture into the depths of this dark city/civilization, passing through the numerous pitfalls unscathed, to return to their home planet with a detailed report.

It would have been nice, such an album, right?, considering that Utopia was born prog and for a certain period were Arena rock, two genres very inclined to concept albums... And yet this "Oblivion" is the third album of little songs of Utopia in the '80s (it would have been the fourth if the '80s had started in 1979), after the excellent "Swing To The Right" and the good "Utopia." Much of the drooling I experienced reading that the titles were "Bring Me My Longbow" (post-third world war neo-prehistoric civilizations?), "Too Much Water" (Waterworld following the melting of glaciers?), "Welcome To My Revolution" and "Winston Smith Takes It On The Law" (for the record Winston Smith is the protagonist of "1984": do you see how everything coincides?), well much of this drooling, it is fair to say, was produced uselessly.

It's the usual early '80s record (even if we’re no longer at the beginning), where the superband has "readjusted," found themselves a new seat, a bit like Mr. Parsons did with the contemporary "Stereotomy." Light and non-alcoholic prog sounds, two effective AOR rock, two splendid pop wave pieces to make the twenty-year-olds of the time jealous, a poignant ballad and a mad and funny episode such as the already mentioned "Bring Me My Longbow"... Few, three out of ten, are the less noteworthy episodes; then it's a matter of taste: maybe, for example, AOR rock is not liked no matter how good it may be (blame the genre in general), just as pop wave may not be appealing... I, who digest these genres a little all, maintain that only three episodes out of ten are not up to the best Utopia.

The facts are that "Oblivion," as good as it is, is not comparable to its two older brothers, and that the iron struck by the previous albums has now cooled: after all, this is a band that in the five years '79-'84, released four albums of original songs and one of covers! How can such records, assuming their authors have good intentions, not resemble each other?

Finally, the title: although it recalls Orwell and refers, in a single track, to the vision of Buckminster Fuller's genius, "Oblivion" is perhaps an exaggerated title. "Utopia vol. II" would have sufficed... But... wait a moment... Is it possible that "Utopia" and "Oblivion" are like the sun and the moon, album one and album two, volume one and volume two, of a project born unique and then separated at birth? If so, then the "little song" chapter would be considered, with "Oblivion," definitively closed, and finally, space could be made for new experiments, for the "mad pop scientist"... Instead, Todd will show he hasn’t learned the lesson, remaining just as prolific and not changing genre. Without even foreseeing that toys are not made to last forever...