todd rundgren’s utopia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm assuming you're talking about this record. Yes, it is very good as was most of what Todd did up to that point and immediately after. 

raindance wrote: Defineatly invest in 'RA'. It is criminal this album isn't in the top ten considering some of the rubbish that's in there!!!!

I agree, but I wouldn't say someone who likes the first album will definitely like Ra. They are really by two different bands, with Rundgren being the only link. Whereas it was very much a one man project for the first album, Ra is a much more of a band effort.

Easy Livin wrote: raindance wrote: Defineatly invest in 'RA'. It is criminal this album isn't in the top ten considering some of the rubbish that's in there!!!! I agree, but I wouldn't say someone who likes the first album will definitely like Ra. They are really by two different bands, with Rundgren being the only link. Whereas it was very much a one man project for the first album, Ra is a much more of a band effort.

Agreed. Rundgren's Utopia never produced anything that approached the excellence of the first album with that particular line-up of musicians.

From the second (live) Utopia album onwards, the music was much more of a mixed bag, esp. due to the Kasim Sultan, Roger Wilcox or Roger Powell material. Just listen to Oops Wrong Planet to and any of the others to see what I mean. Even Ra, good as it is, is much lighter fare than the first album.

Utopia, after Ra, released disappointing LPs. They went the pop route; I wanted more.

Indeed he is very talented musician.

I know only "utopia anothere live", (thats the correct name, isnt it?) i hope i'll get to the first album soon. "another live" is a good album, although not all the stuff is at the same level. but there are things like "another live", "mister triscuits" that are great, as the best prog stuff.  i love also thier version to "Something 's Coming", "The wheel" is a great song, Todd performed it beutifully. 

I like all Todd's stuff up to about 1980. I think "Todd" is my personal favorite (after "Utopia") because some stuff on that album is the most mesmerizing psychedelic music I've ever heard.

Dick Heath wrote: XTChuck wrote: I'm assuming you're talking about this record. Yes, it is very good as was most of what Todd did up to that point and immediately after.      On hearing this album when originally released in the UK, I thought at last there were signs America seriously  picking up the prog reins where Touch had left off 5 or 6 years before. On first hearing , thinking, too: hey Rundgren has put a hard nosed American edge to Yes's sound. The subsequent album,  Initiation with its mix of hardish rock (e.g. Death Of Rock 'n'Roll), near brilliant pop (Real Man) and mystic prog (the whole of side two of the LP), is my favourite TR record.

I really love 'Utopia'- one of the few genuine American prog albums in this era. I find this fact odd, considering US bands like The Doors, Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly and Touch laid some of the foundations for the whole genre.

However, I always considered 'Initiation' a step too far- I love 'Real Man', but 'Born To Synthesise' and 'A Treatise On Cosmic Fire' were representative of the worst excesses of prog for me. Yet, as someone once said, one man's ceiling is another man's floor.