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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Wave Todd, November 29, 2005
Todd went through many phases, both individually and with Utopia. Here he dons the new wave duds, the two-tone attitude, and shows he can do power pop/new wave as well as anybody who's ever attempted it. Too bad poor promotion and releasing this after the brilliant but obtuse Deface the Music pretty much meant Todd, once again, killed the buzz. As another reviewer mentioned, they limped off with two ok but not great albums, never to have reached the summit that seemed quite attainable after the well-received Adventures....
But the three-sided artifact those silly Utopians left is great -- tremendous tight harmonies, crystal clear production and glistening guitar runs, clever lyrics, too-cool melodies -- it's a solid, consistently superior package. It's hard to put this on and not feel the infectious, upbeat, intelligent melodies put you in a better mood - from the clever "Princess of the Universe," to the moody "Bad Little Actress" to the Beatlesque "Chapter and Verse," to the should-have-been hit rock ballad "There Goes My Inspiration." Add to that the hits (for Utopia)"Feet Don't Fail Me Now" and "Hammer in My Heart" and you have an irresistable top notch package. As this will surely go out of print again soon, I recommend this for any serious music collector, and the casual Todd fan as well.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most mainstream pop of Utopia - four-part vocal harmonic bliss!, August 30, 2005
I own Todd and Utopia's complete catalogue, and this particular album is their most mainstream pop rock of them all. This collection is a particular favorite in that after repeated listenings, I learned to appreciate all sixteen tracks, which is very unusual for me.
Lovers of Todd's very early or recent material may find this too bland. However, I have enjoyed each stage of Todd's work.
Vocal harmonies are a favorite of mine, and there is an abundance here on this album. On this CD, I found it very enjoyable to hear all four singers have a turn to lead, and the background vocals are featured loudly enough to where one can make out each particular singer doing their thing, which can be very cool and adds to the relistenability. Each singer is quite competent, and Kaz of course has an excellent voice as always.
This band deserved so much better a fate than the relative obscurity under which it toiled.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It isn't the last one, but it's the last uniformly great one, April 14, 2005
The self titled Utopia LP, originally released in September of 1982 as a 3 sided LP (actually the 4th side repeated the third so, call it what you will) was not Utopia's last LP as someone below stated. They switched to PVC records and recorded 2 more full LPs (POV and Oblivion)and an overview/odds and ends LP (Trivia). However, this was the last really great Utopia LP and it really delivers a diverse set of music with tracks stylistically all over the Rundgren/Utopia map. A lot of the album is in a new wave vien, but still with enough signature Utopia thrown in make it comfortable. It has a little something for everybody (except maybe the fans of the original progressive unit Todd began with). There is hard rock (Princess Of the Universe, and Hammer In My Heart), power pop (Libertine, Neck On Up), Nazz inspired psychedelia (Infrared & Ultraviolet), and material that sounds like it could be Todd solo (Call It What You Will, There Goes My Inspiration). Some new ideas are pulled out of the cannon with Feet Don't Fail Me Now (which had one seriously weird early video that Todd produced--check it out on Utopia's Retrospective DVD, another worthwhile purchase for fans) which runs a bit into Beatles territory while still remaining very much a Utopia song. My personal favorites would be Princess of the Universe which has Willie Wilcox spitting out venomous lyrics to a (possibly potential??)significant other over a garage rock beat and Neck On Up which is sung by Roger and has some highly interesting wordplay. My least favorite songs here tend to be the ones that sound like Todd's solo recordings, and that maybe because the group really gelled on this album and their efforts in that direction are so strong. It's just a shame that the album flew under the radar.Unfortunetly it was the beginning of the end for the band as they just weren't selling that many records anymore and were reduced after this record to the tiny PVC label and made two really worthwhile albums (and one overview record)that most people don't even know about (as I stated at the beginning of this review). Oblivion had the brilliant "Cry Baby" on it that in a perfect world would have been a huge hit and kept the band together.
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