For my first review after a long hiatus (don’t ask), I thought
\nit would be time to bring back a much-underappreciated band to “The
\nDaily Vault,” since that’s part of what this website is all about.
\nIn the case of Utopia, you’ve got a band with an unmistakable
\nleader \/ songwriter \/ producer \/ genius in Todd Rundgren, who has
\nachieved plenty of success on his own, but who attempted to be part
\nof a democratic band process for over a decade in the midst of his
\nmost creative solo period. Make no mistake about who wore the pants
\nin this band, though.<\/p>\n
So what’s it like? Well, many an ’80s power-rocker would have
\nloved to have crafted such pure pop masterpieces that grace this
\nalbum. Take “Bad Little Actress,” which boasts an infectious,
\nangular melody and weaves as many acting metaphors as possible into
\nthe bitter tale of a love gone bad. “Her performance was outrageous
\n\/ put me through some changes,” “Her delivery \/ don’t come
\nnaturally,” and “so if you see her give her my critique,” for
\nexample. “There Goes My Inspiration” is the painting equivalent of
\n“Actress;” “They say that I’m a master of technique \/ but my style
\nand my sentiment is weak.” This pair of tunes can’t help but bring
\ntears to anyone’s eyes.<\/p>\n
And then there’s the lighter side of breakup, covered in “Feet
\nDon’t Fail Me Now,” which one-ups the Beatle imitations Utopia had
\nrecently done by being as catchy as virtually anything on
\nA Hard Day’s Night<\/i>. No, really. And while lines like “it
\nfeels like my feet have been crazy glued” are a tad clumsy, it’s a
\nnovelty song that’s just serious enough for you to take it as high
\npop art.<\/p>\n
“Call It What You Will” is in a similar vein, with some soaring
\nharmonies and a quintessential early ’80s keyboard-drenched
\narrangement that still manages to rock with genuine intensity –
\nwhen Rundgren sings “Love is not the name for that thaaaang” it
\ndrowns out even the super-dense production in the background.<\/p>\n
“Forgotten But Not Gone” is great too, and features an
\never-persistent guitar break that just won’t relent. How could you
\nnot be moved by a song with the refrain “I’m the invisible
\nman?”<\/p>\n
But
\nUtopia<\/i> isn’t all teenage gloom and doom – “Hammer In My
\nHeart” is a raunchy, danceable anthem of infatuation, containing
\nthe unforgettable line “It’s like a top ten song \/ you hear it all
\nday long \/ you try to turn it off, but the beat goes on.” A
\nhammer-like pounding drum ensues, just in case the point hadn’t
\nalready been made. “Princess Of The Universe” suggests strong
\nFreddie Mercury influence as Rundgren frames himself once again as
\nan unworthy suitor.<\/p>\n
There’s plenty of Rundgren as sensitive-guy on this album too,
\njust to please the old fans. “Neck On Up” proclaims that once “I
\nwas a typical man \/ I had a master plan \/ I thought that heaven
\nbegan from the waist on down,” but goes on to say “But I found my
\nheaven \/ she’s a perfect eleven \/ (from the neck on up).” The
\ncomparatively-subtle “Chapter and Verse” is the most gripping – OK,
\nthe only – song ever to use crossword puzzles and Scrabble letters
\nas a vehicle for a man trying to let his emotional guard down.<\/p>\n
So why wasn’t this album more of a success? Well, that opens up
\nthe larger questions of why Utopia was never quite able to ride on
\nthe heels of Rundgren’s name to a wider audience – one of those
\nclassic unsolved rock and roll mysteries. They certainly tried –
\nevolving from their mid-’70s forays into prog-rock mysticism into a
\nwell-oiled power pop machine by the turn of the ’80s, they tasted
\nbrief top 40 success in early 1980 with “Set Me Free,” but instead
\nof following up the album from which that track hailed (
\nAdventures In Utopia<\/i>) with a similar one, they took some
\nbrilliant but bizarre left turns into mock-Beatle tribute (
\nDeface The Music<\/i>) and anti-Reaganomics preaching (
\nSwing To The Right<\/i>“), effectively squashing their own
\nmomentum before attempting one last time to break into the
\nmainstream.<\/p>\n
This 1982 self-titled album represents that attempt, and had it
\nfollowed Utopia’s 1980 success, I still think it would have been a
\nhit, a guilty generation X pleasure along the lines of Bryan Adams’<\/p>\n
Reckless<\/i> or Journey’s
\nEscape<\/i>. Say what you will about the cheesiness (in fact,
\ncall it what you will!), but that’s not bad company. Be sure to buy
\nthe version of this disc with the extra five songs (“Chapter” and
\n“Princess” among them) that were originally included on a miniature
\n7-inch record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":25735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6517],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36941","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-utopia","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36941"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36941"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}