Customer Reviews

[Re]Production

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Todd Rundgren has been doing his thing for over 40 years, and I find it so funny when people are surprised that he isn't the artist they expect him to be. Todd is brilliant. Todd is amazingly innovative. Todd's talent is mind-boggling. But Todd simply does not do what anyone expects him to do. Ever.

I was reading some of the reviews here on Amazon and they made me think about the gnashing of teeth that was heard when he followed Something/Anything with the quirky A Wizard A True Star. How dare Todd do this crazy psychedelic stuff when we want to hear "Hello It's Me" over and over again?

A few years later, Faithful came out with spot-on renditions of influential music of the late '60s. More gnashing of teeth. Then, GASP, Todd did the Beatles-type pop tunes of Deface the Music. Gnash Gnash.

I've loved Todd throughout his career and I purchased ReProductions and I think it's a very cool album. I don't ever want to be so snobbish and elite that I can't enjoy a good dance tune. Personally I prefer Todd's own music over recreations of other people's music he happened to produce, but I'm also not a huge Gilbert & Sullivan fan and Todd loves 'em. Go figure.

The bottom line is that ReProductions is exactly what it is. Todd puts his heart into it, has some fun with it, and best of all, gave his fans an opportunity to partcipate in a few tracks. What's not to love?

I certainly wasn't expecting much from this project, despite my love of and respect for all things Todd. I figured it was a half-hearted throwaway, which might contain one or two interesting tracks but something I'd wind up putting alongside any number of other odd ball Todd projects.

Boy was I surprised!

I hear a very energized Todd, reworking and actually enjoying the process of turning a few of these classics into more modern, Todd-ized versions.

In fact, I hear tracks that could easily fit onto Liars (Chasing Your Ghost, Take it All), as well as elements here that recall AWATS, TEPTAE, and surely more modern efforts such as No World Order and The Individualist.

For me the tracks that work best are those that were well-written in the first place -- I especially love Todd's take on Hall and Oates' Is It a Star or the revelatory version of XTC's Dear God. The Jill Sobule track is also a gem.

The few clunkers are songs I never liked anyways -- Walk Like a Man being the least enjoyable, Personality Crisis a close runner up.

But for those of us who have been on the journey with Todd for so many years, I found an awful lot here to enjoy and most of all I appreciated the care and effort that went into the project.

Interesting album - the more I listen, the more I enjoy it. It took a couple of times of playing to get attached. I just hope that he keeps on making music, new or remakes. I don't understand why he does not get more recognition. He should in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is a living legend for all the years he has been making such diverse music.

The background music is mostly computer-driven (with the exception of a few guitar/bass parts). Heavy FX on Todd's voice makes for a not-pleasant listen on some of the songs. There are a few gems - but only a few.
I would say this album is only for the true Todd Rundgren completist.

After reading through the other reviews, I'm afraid TR fans are separated into 3 distinct camps: the ones who only like his guitar based rock genre CD's, the ones who long for his pop oriented tunes, and the ones who want the "experimental" Todd where anything goes. These 3 groups rarely agree. The majority of the rock based TR fans who loved "Arena" hate "Liars" and they will undoubtedly hate this CD. People who liked Liars will find things to like about this CD. I'm a little dismayed by some people calling this "pure crap" or his worst CD ever. Do I like everything on it?...no. Am I a big fan of auto-tune?....no. Having said that, this CD has merit: there are moments on this CD where Todd reminds us of his enormous talent, even if it's fleeting. He has always had that blue-eyed soul vocal style down...and you hear it here even though the auto-tune waters it down. He is a flat out great arranger and I don't care what genre he's working in. I personally think his production skills are better showcased in this genre and CD rather than a traditional rock setting. I am still waiting for the landmark CD where he really puts it all together, his life-defining artistic statement. That CD would unite everyone in the same way his earlier works were able to do. I don't think we've gotten that from him yet and he surely has it in him. In the meantime, this CD is certainly worth some spins as we wait.

OK, let's get this out of the way immediately. There's a lot of Auto-Tune on this CD. Todd decided to open the Auto-Tune bottle and dump its entire contents into the mix. Why? Because he's Todd Rundgren and he felt like it.

Yes, well, it's a bit more complicated and interesting than that. To quote from the liner notes, written by Todd himself:

"I saw this project as an opportunity to take on music that I hadn't taken seriously before, with the advantage of having better material than most contemporary artists have to work with...During my professorship at Indiana University, I got into a conversation with the kids about the relative value of new vs. old music. The subject of Lady Gaga came up and I realized that the music was only in my periphery. I decided to study up on contemporary hits and discovered that much of it was a return to dance fundamentals with a lot of modern sound philosophy thrown in...Having worked with electronic music as far back as Initiation and as recently as Liars made it easier in some ways. I didn't have to develop a brand new set of techniques and sensibilities." In other words, Todd is no old fogey resting on his laurels. He's ever current, ever learning and ever creating. (And by the way he had a professorship at Indiana University. Cool.)

Todd originally produced these songs for other artists. The eclecticism and breadth of his career are impressive, and it made sense to me that at the age of 63 he might want to take stock of the many musicians whose work he influenced for the better. So he offers covers of such diverse artists as XTC (Dear God), Hall & Oates (Is It A Star), Patti Smith (Dancing Barefoot), Psychedelic Furs (Love My Way), Jill Sobule (Tell Me Your Dreams) and New York Dolls (Personality Crisis). Sometimes the covers stick close to the originals and sometimes they go far afield. Todd again: "You could look at it as an unfaithful version of Faithful..."

If you've been reading the reviews on here you'll note that many of TR's fans are outraged by this project and think it's a bunch of junk. They despise the dance genre and the use of Auto-Tune and think Todd tossed this off in order to make money. Yeah, right. Todd, ever the savvy businessman and merchandiser. LOL.

Seriously, to each their own, of course. But this reviewer is delighted with [Re]Production and finds it to be a worthy addition to the Rundgren catalog. I have played it non-stop for a couple of weeks and it is one of the catchiest, grooviest things I have listened to in a long time. Todd is a genius in the area of electronic music. He interweaves and layers the sound to produce a track that's thick with information yet transparent and lively at the same time. His harmonic choices are sophisticated and colorful. And he pays attention to the story behind the lyrics. Listen to Dear God and hear the ominous, sorrowful way the music supports the rage and disappointment in the lyric. The fantastical nature of dreams compared to waking life is illustrated in the arrangement of Tell Me Your Dreams, where a banjo grounds us "down on the farm" before we reawaken on the Lower East Side -- just like the lyric demands. Todd's take on the Meatloaf track Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad is a toned-down improvement on the original. As a straight dance track, without all the drama, it's easier to hear the tragedy in that overblown song. Speaking of Auto-Tune, Todd uses it to brilliant effect when he overloads the vocal with it on Cheap Trick's I Can't Take It. The lyric expresses the singer's emotional misery upon being rejected by his lover, and that Auto-Tuned vocal sounds like a man on the verge of tears. Truly, he "can't take it."

There are only a few tracks that I don't care for, mainly because I don't like the song itself (Personality Crisis and Walk Like A Man come to mind). The vast majority are winners. Check out Everything, the Rick Derringer track. Beautiful.

If you make no assumptions, keep an open mind and give this CD a chance, I believe you will discover something really enjoyable and at times very special.

Once again, thanks, Todd.

By now it is widely known that Todd Rundgren doesn't follow anyone's musical standards - he continues to explore and refine his own. In [re]Production he takes on the realm of 21st century dance music - (from Rundgren's own liner notes) "a soup of Electronica, Europop and a little R&B" creating "an unfaithful version of Faithful" by revisiting and reimagining songs he originally produced for other artists. One third of the CD - Walk Like A Man, Take It All, Love My Way, Dancing Barefoot, and Prime Time - features musical performances by fans who participated in the Gigatone label's My Record Fantasy recording and concert events in January 2011.

[re]Production is a another chapter, a new testament to Rundgren's creativity - his ability to create music that engages the listener. This is a collection that reveals more detail with each play through.

i have been a huge fan of todd rundgren since the 70's and have everything he ever put out & then some. this thing is a complete waste of my time & money. it is truly AWFUL-- pukeworthy indeed. if you want BAD disco versions of these songs, this is your album. todd can't sing anymore, so the vocals are bad as well. in my opinion this is an unforgivable trick played on his most loyal fans. I WANT MY MONEY BACK! for those of you who posted positive reviews, you need to get your hearing checked. there is a core group of todd fans who think everything he does is wonderful but they are wrong. he has done plenty of bad music over the years and this is the absolute worst. i only gave it one star because i had to. this thing doesn't deserve any stars.

I find that being a TR fan and a Dallas Cowboys fan a very similar situation (please suffer me here). I am both, and it has been my observation over the years that we fans can be the most loyal and at the same time Most Vicious! I guess some of us earn it. But I am more amazed at how some TR releases can really set people off! This little number "Re-Production" is a fine example if you look at the reviews here on Amazon and other sites. But upon listening, I have yet to see what is so terrible about it. As a matter of fact, I like about a third of this on first listen. I know for certain that there'll be about one third I will never enjoy, no matter how many times I listen. So what? I hate to be a TR apologist, but there isn't one single retirement-age rocker out there that I am aware of that has the continuous output of Todd Rundgren, still tours, and still evolves. If you are a TR fan, you should be grateful he still releases anything at all, and if you are a true loyalist, you also know that he'll get around to a release of new original material, sooner or later, and it that will knock your socks off. I'm just grateful that he is Stiil Around to complain about, or...enjoy.

I was intially a bit dubious about this project as it had not been marketed very much or supported with a tour. Todd didn't when mention it when I saw him play in Manchester late last year.
However, I could not have been more wrong. It is a fabulous album full of lots of sparkle and dynamic arrangements. My favourite tracks are Love My Way, Teel me Your Dreams and Walk Like a Man (which could have been on Arena). Most of the tracks have poppy feel to them like the tracks on Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect.
The distinctive Todd sound us very much there despite the songs being compositions by other artists. This is not a tribute album but an original piece of artistry. Great fun!!!