A Wizard, A True Star

Performer: Todd Rundgren
Artist: Rick Derringer; David Sanborn; Randy Brecker; Michael Brecker
Producer: Todd Rundgren...
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Todd Rundgren, Mark Klingman, John Siegler, Ralph Shockett, Tom Cosgrove, "Buffalo" Bill Gelber. Principally recorded at Secret Sound, New York. Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Ken Perry (K-Disc). A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR is not the most humble album title ever, and the album fits it. In the tradition of sprawling pop messes like the Beatles' WHITE ALBUM or Game Theory's LOLITA NATION, a large part of this album's considerable charm is in its "throw it against the wall and see what sticks" construction. After three albums with Philadelphia's psych-pop Nazz and an equal number of exquisitely crafted AM-pop solo records, Rundgren felt the need to stretch. So side one of A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR consists of 12 ultra-brief song fragments and burbling synth solos. From the giggly "Rock and Roll Pussy" to the genuinely experimental finale "La Feel Internationale," variety is the watchword. Side two is only slightly more structured, with a 10-minute medley of '60s R&B hits dominating. Weird but often fascinating.

Record Collector (magazine) (p.97) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] career highpoint....All his influences flowed out in one Technicolor tracking shot, taking in vaudeville, soul and electronica."

Todd Rundgren first surfaced with 1960s psych-pop group the Nazz, but quickly launched a solo career marked by unprecedented eclecticism. Continually straddling the line between experimentalism and pop accessibility, Rundgren's releases dart from pop-rock to blue-eyed soul to art rock. Though much of his mid-period work came under the group banner of Utopia, Rundgren is best known as a multi-instrumentalist/one-man-band studio whiz (he parlayed his studio skills into a lucrative production career, working with everyone from Meat Loaf to the Psychedelic Furs).

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