For quite some time now, every other Todd Rundgren release has seen him delve into new musical territory, whether broadway, hip hop, bossa nova or RnB. Arena continues this pattern. The concept this time is 70's stadium rock and heavy metal.
Some may say that this perpetual musical mimickery shows Rundgren lacks the originality he once had. But in actual fact Todd Rundgren has always been an acolyte for the art of reproduction, the chief alchemist taking base musical metal and altering it wonderfully so. It's that gift that made him a Wizard, a TRue star. From the Carole King and Laura Nyro influenced Something Anything to the didactic titled Arena, Rundgren never conceals his musical cues. Sometimes he does it well. Sometimes he doesn't.
With limited resources at his disposal, Todd Rundgren ought to be given credit for his skill in putting together another album on a shoestring. However it is disappointing to hear that all the same sound issues that blighted The Individualist are present on Arena. Lyrics are hard to make out, as if Todd is TRying to disguise the frailties of an aging vocal behind loud music. The overall production and mixing has a cheap digital feel.
Granted, he has toned down the usual Rundgren embellishments on this album; a TR-ick he has used copiously in the past to tart up fundamentally weak and repititive material. This time the music isn't an ugly mug with some make up on, just an ugly mug. The music sounds remarkably mechanistic and artificial for an album that is supposed to be stripped-down lo-fi ballsy rock. This is more like faking it in front of the mirror with an air laptop. The epitome of plastic pastiche.
Taking a look at the tracks themselves, MAD is just about ok, but the way he takes the song from it's nice clean acoustic CSNY/America beginning, and thrusts it into heavy metal, is just one of many dubious progressions on this album. The Utopian heavy metal guitar sounds like someone trying to cut their way out of a brown paper bag with a blunt chainsaw. Unconvincing and unpleasant.
Many songs on Arena not only have a limited pleasure principle, but also compositional problems. Too many songs on the album sound like a verse has been grabbed from here, a riff from there, and a middle 8 from some sub-folder leftover from the Liars album. It all sounds too much like a square object jammed into a round hole. This album has a lack of musical fluency which Rundgren tries to disguise with for example the little funky flick on Afraid, tenuously linking the verse to the middle eight. It cons some people, but it doesn't work for me anymore.
TR-i isn't hiding behind multi-track polyphonic wizardry this time, which just makes the limitations of this psuedo-analogue reTRovation all the more apparent.
AFRAID is just a banal conciousness-raising effort that sounds like a Christian rock song. A miserable dirge.
MERCENARY has this Led Zep Hawkwind thing goin on, threatens to be pleasing but is killed off by the sheer digital mechanical lethargy of it all.
GUN is a witty blues-rock indictment of gun culture. The middle eight is a lovely piece of blue eyed soul, Todd's instinctual phrasing is flawless here, pity it sounds like a totally different song.
COURAGE and WEAKNESS are two lumps of sugary earcandy for the Todd crusties. We've heard these chords, harmonies, and the sensitive-man sentiments a zillion times before. Passable, lyrically truthful, and unoriginal.
Todd takes impersonation to a new level of literalism on STR-iKE. Single handedly incorporporating the whole of AC/DC in his macbook reportoire.
PISSIN is fun. Reminiscent in some ways of Soul Brother from Liars. The same laid back wit.
Almost surprised to see that TODAY came bottom of a Todd Rundgren fan poll, gaining zero votes. Lovely spacey Utopia synth intro, and a riotous guiter-vocal, best served loud, ala Billy Idol. This is Arena rock with spikey short hair. Slightly Emo, and a hundred times better than MCR. A good track.
BARDO is just a soporific spliff-fest. More Eastern preachy. Gary Moore. Not my scene.
MOUNTAINTOP. Synchronise those air guitars, throw out the mic, your goin up to the spirit in the sky... It sure feels like I may expire at any moment. Rolleyes.
PANIC, frenetic rock reminiscent of The Police and Utopia's network album. Good track.
MANUP, the rockier side of Foreigner and The Cars. If that's ya drift, It's an alright track. But not my drift.
To sum up, this album isn't in the same league as its RnB inflected predecessor Liars, and is emblematic of my own existential loss of love for the music of a life-long hero. This is Todd in, fling out another album hit the road and have a few beers mode. Other than that, the innovaTR offers nothing new on this elpees worth of Wrigleys. The fans will lap it up, and the rest of us will remain a tad more circumspect. But at 60 years old and 40 years of music-making, Todd Rundgren remains indestructible. He'll be back with a masterpiece next time....