FAITHFUL

Thanks to Todd's amazing skills at Engineering and Production, with 'Faithful', we have a side of 'faithful' cover versions, where Todd seems to impeccably replicate some 60's classics, from the likes of The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' and the Yardbirds 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago', to a couple of Beatles' tunes with 'Rain' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. This was all done in 1976, and, save for Rundgren's slightly nasally vocals, sound pretty much spot-on to the originals, but at the same time, have possibly aged better than the originals. The players on the album are his UTOPIA pals Roger Powell (Keys), John 'Willie' Wilcox (Drums) and John Siegler (Bass Guitar), all great talents on their respective instruments. The 2nd half of the album consists of a half-dozen Rundgren originals, ranging from Hard-Rockers (Black and White, Boogies (Hamburger Hell)) to touching ballads (Cliche, The Verb 'To Love'). This is more of an album of well performed songs, as opposed to an instrumental extravaganza, but the sheer quality of the execution, the disciplined playing and the song-writing is undeniably top-notch. 3.5 stars.