A Wizard, A True Star (1973)

"Zen Archer" From "We Gotta Get You a Woman" to Nearly Human (and maybe beyond, but by then I'd lost interest), Todd Rundgren worked an exhilarating and exasperating ability to mix up achingly beautiful fragments of pop and creditable soul turns with an unfortunate tendency toward prog noodling and rank, pointless mimicry. He's always been a studio wonk, but with talent to burn the flash of melodic and emotional brilliance worked its way even into his album-side workouts with Utopia, making a good deal of his output in the '70s worthwhile. Though there are Something/Anything partisans aplenty, it's an album with which I never connected. I think this is his best, annoying handful of 1:xx throwaways notwithstanding. With sound effects and heavy production everywhere, a 10-minute soul medley, "explicit lyrics" '70s style (the parental warning presumably refers to "Rock and Roll Pussy" and/or "When the Shit Hits the Fans," oh good grief), and any number of coulda woulda shoulda pop smashes ("Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel," "I Don't Want to Tie You Down," "You Don't Have to Camp Around," "Just One Victory"), it's rarely less than perfectly winning.

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