Arena | Todd Rundgren | Todd Rundgren is Back

Arena | Todd Rundgren | ARENA rocks!!

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Arena

	Arena Todd Rundgren Hi Fi Recordings, 2008 average customer review:based on 51 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Recorded in Todd's current home state of Hawaii, 'Arena' is yet another notable addition to Rundgren's remarkable career as a performer, songwriter, and producer. The album showcases his unique songwriting style and sonically captures the essence and energy of arena rock with bombastic, guitar-driven tunes like 'Mountaintop', 'Strike' and 'Mad', while the anthemic song 'Mercenary', transports you to a stadium with its epic chorus, with 'How Do You Like Me Now?' resounding to every seat in the house.

Todd Rundgren is Back

Todd Rundgren's new CD Utopia illustrates that he once again is thinking out of the box and trying new things. I enjoyed every song! All are very upbeat and well arranged. I would recommend giving it a try.

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ARENA rocks!!

This collection is a testimonial to Todd's durabilitly, longevity, endurance and creativity. It is fresh, energetic and diverse.
A super offering from him. LOVE IT.

Arena is an enjoyable journey...

The latest Todd Rundgren album, Arena, contains well-crafted rock anthems for the beginning of the new millennium. Obviously a Pro Tools creation, the cutting and splicing does not detract from the performances. The brilliant mind of Todd shines through the strong songwriting construction. Solid hooks include: "How do you like me now? How do you like me now that I've done your dirty work?" from the tune "Mercenary"; "I'm young, dumb, and I've got a gun..." from "Gun"; and (my personal favorite) "Time to strike while the iron is hot..." from the epic "Strike". My guitarist thought it was AC-DC's Brian Johnson when he heard it!

The grade of "A" for this project is only being kept from being an "A+" due to the mixes of a couple of the songs seem to allow the lead vocal to be lost in the mix. (Did Todd's ears get tired as he turned up the overall volume level during mix down or did he simply rush the project's completion?) Otherwise, contained herein is an exemplary album of songs for any Rundgren collection.

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He continues to be interesting and inspiring and himself

I was captured by a song, "Marlene," off Something/Anything? back in 1972. Through his every musical incarnation, I have followed Todd's output not so much as a casual fan, but as one would a friend or relative. Now what's my supremely talented eccentric uncle up to in the basement? Once you're in, once you get it, you just go along for the ride, happily. He is utterly and completely beholden to no one but himself. Yet, his message is one of universal truths. Always uniquely Todd--hard to categorize, captivating, original. What an interesting, gratifying, ride it has been, and, with "Arena," continues to be.

Mostly, these songs bring a smile to my face. The sound of my teen years, filtered through the present, with the specific flavor Todd offers. This is a collection of melodic, bluesy rockers which are dense with Todd's take on humanity, his humor and his chops. They kick butt. Two songs, "Today" and "Courage," are more pop oriented than the others and are sublime.

I had the great pleasure of seeing these songs performed live prior to my hearing the cd...and frankly, these numbers explode when played by a band. On the cd, with just Todd at the helm, and the production a little heavy and drum machine driven at times, the songs are merely great.

What a treat, a treasure, a gift, that thirty something years after my introduction to his genius, I still look forward to and enjoy and am surprised and inspired by the art of Todd Rundgren.

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Hello, Cleveland!

Maybe Todd got tired of all the flack tossed at his No World Order and Liars synthy projects, or after his stint with The New Cars, he just wanted to makes some blasters again. Either way, "Arena," his first new album in four years, stands in the middle of a hockey stadium and turns the amps to 11. It's Todd Rundgren's homage to crowd pleasing chord wailing sports chanting rock of the past few decades, and it's not half bad.

Like Todd's other parody/tribute albums, Faithful and Deface the Music, "Arena" is a masterpiece of mimicry. "Strike" comes off as Back in Black AC/DC, "Bardo" like Bridge of Sighs Robin Trower, and "Mad" like an outright threat. These are songs that aim for the listeners in the nose-bleed seats, for better and worse. The guitars are out-sized and loud and the political outrage so omnipresent on "Liars" still burns on "Gun" and "Mercenary," but it's hard to make out the sentiment from under the volume.

What you'll also get is one of Todd's beautiful songs of inspiration, "Courage." In a better world (or in the progressive radio of the 70's), this would be a huge hit. Or England Dan and John Ford Coley would have covered it. After all, every arena rocker needs a power-ballad. What every arena album could have used, though, is a better mix. Todd seems to have fallen victim to the loudness wars here, where every instrument seems to be compressed to within an inch of its life. For a song like "Courage," where a little differentiation between the instruments would have colored the emotional content, it flattens the song like a pancake. For the really loud guitar songs, the lyric sheet becomes an absolute necessity. For an artist like Todd, who was a champion of technology when few embraced it and made the bombastic masterpiece of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell, this is just unacceptable. Three and a half stars.

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