ADVENTURES IN UTOPIA

Adventures in Utopia was part of a kind of whirlwind of activity for Todd Rundgren in the late 70s and early 80s. He had this, Deface the Music, and Swing to the Right with Utopia; Hermit of Mink Hollow, Healing and The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect as solo works; and production credits for albums like Meat Loaf’s mega-platinum Bat Out of Hell and the Psychedelic Furs Forever Now. He was indeed a very busy man, but his own musical works would consistently fall short of the success of those he produced. Part of the reason, particularly with Utopia, was that the band couldn’t seem to find a purpose and stick with it. It’s one thing to be experimental in progressively developing sounds as a band, but with Utopia the feeling was more like they were trying on other people’s clothes to see which persona they wanted to adapt. Adventures in Utopia, like Deface the Music, reflects this attitude in spades.

“You Make Me Crazy” is a blatant rip-off of Ric Ocasek and the Cars. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times, and it’s still amazing that an innovator like Todd Rundgren would release such a transparent attempt at piggy-backing on someone else’s sound. The guitar riff sounds like it was lifted right off of “Let’s Go” from the Cars 1979 Candy-O album. I guess it’s not surprising that Rundgren has recently replaced Ocasek in the reformed ‘New Cars’ touring lineup.

On “Second Nature”, Rundgren adopts a bit of a falsetto to give this song a feel that’s very much in the vein of some of the earlier disco divas and crooners such as Maxine Nightingale, Chaka Khan, the Sylvers, and the Ohio Players. He adds some spacey keyboards, but these can’t mask the true pop undertone of the song. It’s an okay song and the band is tight in their execution, but this is pure pop all the way, and not particularly original at that.

One of the bright spots on the album is “Set Me Free”, which of course was a pop hit, but a very catchy and original one. The trademark Utopia vocal harmonies, funky keyboards, simple and grooving rhythm will get your toes tapping no matter how hard to try to stop them. Kasim Sultan’s voice is pleading as he begs his girl to let him go and “go find some other man”. Roger Powell adds some trumpet as well, used to good effect.

“Caravan” is actually almost an art rock work, with some very good vocal interplay among all four band members, a mesmerizing synth riff, and some interesting tempo changes as it chugs away toward a climax. One problem though is that there is no climax, as Rundgren takes the easy way out and simply fades the song to black.

The back of the album does get a little more interesting. “Last of the New Wave Riders” is closer to the big psychedelic sound that was so appealing on the band’s debut and Ra albums. I guess this is Utopia’s last blast to the past as the 80s decade began. They wouldn’t generate another throwback like this again. Six or seven other songs like this one would have made for a very good album.

“You Make Me Crazy” starts off like it’s going to be an “Obladee Obladah” kind of tune, and the comparisons to the Beatles are justified (as they are for much of this band’s career). This sounds more like the kind of Beatles clone that would be attributed to someone like Klaatu though – not distinguished in any way.

“The Very Last Time” is another Rundgren ‘girl-done-me-wrong’ song, but a decent one. Musically this is a very simple song – straightforward pop rhythm and simple keyboards, but the strident backing vocals and Rundgren’s own just-left-of-normal voice give this one a little bit of an edgy feel.

The first time I heard “Love Alone” I thought it was Barry Manilow. This kind of reminds me of when Neil Young did his Everybody’s Rockin’ album. I saw this on tour back in 1983 (two days before the rest of the tour was canceled due to lack of interest), and the loafer-light glee club guys in pink tuxedos and doo-wap vocals caused a number of old hippies in the crowd to swear off the hard stuff that night. This one is kind of like that; kind of a “what the f*!k was that?!”. ‘Nuff said.

“Rock Love” is a slightly Motown-tinged pop tune to close out the album. This song has always reminded me of the Gap Band – disco beat, shout-and-response vocals, accentuating brass at all the appropriate places. Very catchy beat and a solid disco work, but ultimately forgettable as anything else.

Adventures and Deface the Music came out about the same time. The latter was a kind of tribute/spoof of the Beatles, and wasn’t particularly well-received. Adventures fared quite a bit better thanks to the hit single “Set Me Free” and the fact that the band spread their style cloning around instead of just parroting the Beatles. But in the end this album would not leave a long-lasting impression, and the band would never again achieve the level of creativity they did with Ra. The band is a tighter unit here, but one of the things that made their debut and Ra work so well was that there was an aura of unpredictability about what was going to come out of them next that is sadly lacking here. There are a few surprises (“Love Alone”, “You Make Me Crazy”), but more of the ‘shocked’ variety than the ‘what a delight’ kind.

I’m going to give this three stars, largely for “Set Me Free”, “Last of the New Wave Riders”, and “Caravan”, but if you are looking to experience Utopia for the first time, don’t make this the album you do it with – try the 1974 debut first, then Ra, then maybe this one if you are still interested.

peace