CD Review: Todd
Rundgren – State
MVD Audio/Esoteric
Antenna/Cherry Red Records
All Access Rating: C+
 |
| Todd Rundgren - State 2013 |
With mirrored ski goggles on, making him look like a
somewhat cracked amateur scientist from the ‘80s, Todd Rundgren returns to the laboratory – or home studio in this case – for more colorful experiments in electronic-pop sound collages on State, his 24th
album.
The protective eyewear he sports on the cover of State is necessary, given the UV radiance flooding from Rundgren’s
synthesizers, instruments he buried under the expansive, guitar-based crunch
and sharp, giant hooks of 2008’s infectious rock contagion Arena, an underappreciated collection of big-sounding, solid hard-rock
bombshells that only served to cement his reputation as a sublimely talented
pop innovator.
State is something
altogether different. This is the Todd Rundgren of art-rock stylists Utopia,
not the lovable, dog-eared Todd Rundgren of The Ever Popular
Tortured Artist Effect. Whimsical and playful, even ridiculously absurd at
times, as the silly, squelching, plasticized ‘80s funk of “Angry Bird” so ineffectively
illustrates, State is a
head-scratcher. Equally capable of delivering moments of pure, transcendent
electro-pop ecstasy on “Smoke” – with its muted popcorn beats and blooming
keyboards – and “Ping Me” that rival his production work on XTC’s Skylarking and succumbing to utter stagnancy, as it does on the plodding,
heavy-lidded “Imagination,” State feels
as if it was carelessly thrown together in a rather dated and complacent DIY fashion,
especially with regard to its surprisingly uninspired vocal melodies.
And yet, just when it seems that State ought to be written off as an ill-conceived lark, the bright,
candy-coated future-shock funk of “Serious” hits the dance floor with a hard, robotic
strut, as does the bouncing “Party Liquor,” and State, however briefly, suddenly comes alive with excitement and energy.
Too often, though, State seems too
laid-back and too dependent on its many textures and moods to create interest,
at the expensive of real song craft. At least momentarily, this wizard has lost
some of his magic.
- – Peter Lindblad
