Artist: Todd Rundgren
Title: Arena
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Genre: Rock
Bitrate: 185kbit av.
Time: 00:56:59
Size: 79.19 mb
Rip Date: 2008-09-11
Str Date: 2008-09-29
1. Mad 3:37
2. Afraid 4:54
3. Mercenary 4:05
4. Gun 3:56
5. Courage 3:46
6. Weakness 5:17
7. Strike 3:31
8. Pissin 4:41
9. Today 5:24
10. Bardo 6:15
11. Mountaintop 4:20
12. Panic 3:13
13. Manup 4:00
Release Notes:
Back in the early nineties, Todd Rundgren once sang about ⌠the
old rocking chair÷ and how it beckoned him ⌠like a junkie╞s
needle.÷ Well, thank goodness he never succumbed to that
middle-aged temptation. This year, Rundgren has been busier
than ever, touring almost non-stop with his own band as well
as heading up a Beatles╞ Sgt. Peppers tribute tour. He even
managed to find time to record his twentieth solo album,
Arena, which will be making its way to stores by the end of
September. Arena is probably the most accessible sounding
record Rundgren has made since the Nearly Human days. It╞s
essentially the guitar-rock album fans have long been asking
for. You╞ll find no church-bashing (i.e. Fascist Christ,
Mammon), pseudo-rapping (i.e. No World Order, Individualist)
or show tunes (i.e. The Smell of Money) here. You╞ll even
notice simpler chord progressions just by the fact that the
songs are guitar-based rather than keyboard-based. So, those
typical Rundgren-esque tone-clusters which are normally an
integral part of the Rundgren sound aren╞t as plentiful
although they do pop up now and then like in the middle
section of Afraid or the bridge in the song Today. But don╞t
get me wrong when I say ⌠simpler÷ chords. This just means that
the songs will have a more immediate impact on a wider range
of listeners. Hopefully this new accessible version of
Rundgren will allow him to reach a larger audience this time
around which unfortunately didn╞t happen the last go-round
with his critically acclaimed Liars album in 2004.
As with most of his albums, Rundgren focused his material on a
particular concept which, on Arena, is all about conflict and
how we (men in particular) react to them. Rundgren was quoted
in a recent interview that ⌠this record is more about action.
Time for talk is over. Now it╞s time to actually do
something.÷
- Overall Sound - If you╞re familiar with Rundgren╞s output
over the last decade then you basically know how he operates
in terms of recording his albums. Arena was essentially
recorded with protools on his macbook utilizing
programmed/sequenced bass and drum tracks, virtual guitar amp
emulators, etc. Personally I would have preferred real drums
over the ⌠canned÷ drum sounds but that just might be the
drummer side of me talking. Those sampled drum sounds just
don╞t give songs like ⌠Mercenary÷, ⌠Strike÷ and ⌠Mountaintop÷
the visceral power they need to take µem over the top, you
know what I mean? Aside from the guitars, the ⌠virtual band÷
made some of the songs sound a bit more restrained than I
would have liked. Not really sure if it was a time or budget
limitation but I suppose that╞s Todd╞s call and who am I to
argue, right? And I guess, in the overall scheme of things,
the sound of the record isn╞t as important as the songs
themselves. As long as the songs are well written it really
doesn╞t matter how their recorded. Just take the timeless
Beatles catalog as one example of that. And it╞s safe to say
with these 13 songs on Arena, Rundgren delivers! It╞s
definitely the perfect follow up to his 2004 Liars album.