Search - Utopia :: Last of the New Wave Riders

For Rundgren fans who need to replace old bootlegs...

David Sheridan | Fanwood, New Jersey USA | 01/16/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps to counter accusations of being a megalomaniac control freak, Todd Rundgren pared down the original Utopia lineup to a 4-piece by the late 70's and decided it would be a democracy. Nice concept, but it would've worked better had the others in the band been as talented as Rundgren. They weren't: wunderkind bassist Kasim Sultan was a big-piped arena rock wannabe; technogeek keyboardist Roger Powell was probably more at home in a lab inventing instruments than on stage playing them; drummer John Wilcox was a conservatory-trained hack whose previous gig was playing on Broadway with Bette Midler. They could all play just fine, even though their individual styles didn't always blend real well. But instead of letting sidemen be sidemen, Rundgren let them sing and write songs, including Powell and Wilcox, who were suited to neither. The result was often that, despite efforts (or appearances) to be simply one quarter of the band, Rundgren's own material had to save the day.Perhaps inspired by Zappa's series of bootleg-beaters, this set of 7 disks from 4 shows was given official release. Sound quality varies- the 1979 set from Tokyo is nice and clear, while the 1978 Oops! Wrong Planet disks sound like the work of a fan smuggling in a handheld cassette recorder. Rundgren devotees will appreciate this set (many have owned them as taped radio broadcasts, etc), although it could have been edited down a bit. The disks don't cover a long period of time, so there's a lot of repeated material...how many versions of "Love In Action" or "Trapped" does one need? There is no insert, liner notes or much info at all.For me, the most fun is probably the disks from a Halloween 1980 radio broadcast from the Capital Theatre in Passaic, NJ with material from Utopia's Beatles soundalike lp, Deface the Music. A strange idea for a whole album, but Rundgren's strong suit has always been pure pop. The song titles may as well be "I'd Like to Hold Your Hand" or "I Am Almost the Walrus"...pretty much The Rutles minus much of the humor. The rest covers the mostly-good material from LP's like Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet, with a liberal dose of material from Rundgren solo lp's as well. There's a single disk from the weak Oblivion album, skipping over the underrated Swing To the Right.I used to go see Rundgren with and without Utopia a lot during this period, so this box set is a fun trip down memory lane, and I suspect that his fans will enjoy it. I just would have left out about half of it."

Crap

christopher minardi | Roselle, IL. United States | 11/21/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I feel like I wasted 55.00. (I bought mine at Tower). The recordings are all bad quality. The "Oops" disc being the worst. Clearly an audience recording from the '70's recorded on a cheap tape recorder. The rest being taken from radio broadcasts or soundboard, but still bad. Very clear that this mess was just thrown together with no attempt at all to try and remaster or digitally enhance these recordings. This should have been a fantastic live Utopia retrospective document, but instead is a BIG disappointment. I expected more coming from Todd R. who is supposedly such a perfectionist. Too Bad!"

Disappointed!

Random Coolzip | Las Vegas, NEVADA United States | 12/12/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I was pretty happy with this Box set until I put it into the CD player. The Oops! Wrong Planet set sounds just horrible. Foolishly I purchased this on a whim while at Tower Records without checking into it first here at Amazon. The money could have been better spent on their studio albums."