Customer Reviews

The Definitive Rock Collection

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Todd Rundgren's music career has been a difficult one to digest. He's a very talented songwriter, but he also loves to dabble in the latest technology. So, as a result, he releases a great album and then follows it with some half-baked piece of experimentalism.

That's why THE DEFINITIVE ROCK COLLECTION is so good. It's the first-ever Rundgren collection to just focus on his great songs, and not try and paint a complete picture of his career. So, you don't get "Born to Synthesize" or "An Elpee's Worth of Tunes" but what you do get is the best, most melodic songs Rundgren ever wrote.

Whoever put this collection together was obviously a Rundgren fan. The hits are here, but so are many great album tracks. Even on a dud album, there was usually a good song or two, and this collection finds them. Every Rundgren studio album is represented, up until 1993 and his largely tuneless TR-i phase. We do get "Sweet", a nice return to form pop gem off his latest solo album.

Also a pleasant surprise is the inclusion of several tracks from Rundgren's side-project, Utopia. Again, kudos to the compilers, who smartly omit the band's early prog-rock material and concentrate on the band's catchier songs. Several key Utopia tracks are absent ("Set Me Free" the band's biggest chart hit, and "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" their biggest MTV hit), but those songs didn't feature Rundgren on lead vocals and were left off for that reason.

Although some devout Runt fans will undoubtly complain that one of their favorites is missing, it's difficult to argue with the excellent song selection on THE DEFINITIVE ROCK COLLECTION. Thirty Rundgren songs, and all of them are keepers.

Todd Rundgren will always remain a niche player in the history of rock music, which is a shame considering he has created brilliantly catchy and inventive songs for 30+ years. His music changes with the time, although is remarkably original and hard to be copied. I think you are either a Todd fan or you are not. But even a casual fan might really like this collection of major hits by Todd and his band Utopia. These songs are more radio friendly than some of Todd's more challenging (read: questionable smoke in the studio) 70s songs. This group of songs present a good reflection of Todd's work from the 70s to today, and can lead a casual fan onto a more indepth review of the great pop champion in future albums.

It's very hard for me to give this collection only three stars since it's a mostly excellent summary of one of rock's great geniuses, but the fact is it's hard to give it more than that since it leaves a ton of open space at the end of each disc.

The first disc is 59:21 in length, that's about 17 minutes of music that could still safely be fit onto that disc and definite classics from the period it covers including "Black Maria" "The Last Ride" "Freedom Fighters" "Zen Archer" and "Black and White" are nowhere to be found on this collection. Not all of those could be fit on there, but a few of them could and none would be filler, just more killer.

The second disc uses a bit more of its potential, clocking in at 64:00, but there's still a good two or three songs' worth of space left there and again, a lot of classic material from that period that's been passed over. Where's the Utopia song "One World" from Swing to the Right, for example? Or "You Cried Wolf" for that matter, or "Tiny Demons"?

This collection does a lot right, but in this day and age, leaving that much empty space on a disc when an artist has a lot more popular material that would fit and give new fans a better selection, is absolutely inexcusable.

Buy it if you see it on sale, but definitely get all the other songs I mentioned as well via iTunes or some other method then burn yourself an expanded version of this.

Five stars for the music, two subtracted for leaving around 30 minutes of empty space on the disc while skipping essentials.

Nice killer selection from todd's amazing catalog , too bad the warmth is missing & the mastering is over-compressed , better off fidning an older Compilation , or an import , the sound on this compilation is fine for ipods & computers , but if you have a real stereo you probably will not be happy with this as i am not .

this is a collection that truly gets it right from start to finish, one of the truly great songwriters and artists who did his thing, very underrated artist. he is very versatile and never afraid to venture there. if you don't get but one collection from him, then this is the one to own and have. dug his arrangements and his vocals.

I am a huge Rundgren fan. I own most of his albums and cds (only leaving out some of the later period ones that are a little too experimental, for a pleasant listen in my opinion).
This will be a simple review. After listening to the various single disc collections--this is really the best one to buy.
It is 2 cds so it contains all the expected hits, but it also contains the Utopia hits ( a bonus that fills out the discs nicely)
So if you are just starting to build your Todd collection-Start Here.
Obviously, fans will buy the cds from his catalog, but for a 'greatest hits' package this is the best one.

Assembled in 2006, it is a compilation that 'sounds' modern. Not just old LP masters pressed to cd (like the Anthology that was the predecessor).

Until the Box Set hits with everything in one package, all slickly remastered, (it is inevitable)...this will keep you happy. What are you waiting for? Get it.

I'll be honest, I'm a huge fan of Todd and it is a shame he is relatively unheralded because he does some excellent music in a mind-boggling amount of styles. I also fully realize he does some of the worst music you will ever hear. The diversity between Todd's brilliant works and his somewhat half-baked works can easily confuse a casuale fan. And with that in mind, this is definitely THE definitive collection. Although there are many good songs not here, these are probably Todd's thirty best tunes from both solo works and Utopia. It includes Todd's most defining works without dipping into some piece of over-synthesized junk. As I mentioned before, Todd is not always a creator of quality albums but this greatest hits collection stands up to any other seventies band. Trust me, as a lover of almost all seventies music, this is a necessary adition to any music fan's collection.

Wow.....If you are just starting a collection of Todd Rundgren's work, this is the album to select. It has the "Best of the Best"..that Todd has written, played, sung, mixed, and/or produced, within his many years of wonderful musical gifts to all. It touches all genre's of music, with fantastic work, some entirely played and recorded by Todd alone, and with other musicians as well. It also includes some fine work by Utopia, and some work from his "2nd Wind" album.(Which by the way, was recorded live, in front of an audience at
the "Palace of Fine Arts Theatre", in San Francisco.)
It's a superb collection of outstanding musical brilliance, done by-- Todd Rundgren....A--must for all collections!

Love it! Loads of great tunes. Always liked Rundgren, but never really bought an album. Didn't realize all he'd done until I listened to this. Lots of those "Oh, he did this!" moments. I definitely recommend it.