Todd Rundgren - Global

Todd Rundgren's latest musical vision is a contemporary fusion of styles — rock, soul and electronica — that continues the tradition of boundary-breaking works from this visionary genius, and the finely crafted songs on Global once again push the creative envelope. As a songwriter, video pioneer, producer, recording artist, computer software developer, conceptualist, and interactive artist, Rundgren has made a lasting impact on both the form and content of popular music.

Many of Rundgren's adventures in the new millennium were marked by restless flitting about from one idea to the next, but Global finds him more or less adopting the groove he started on 2013's State. Certainly, the one-word title picks up the thread of State, expanding his outlook from the nation to the world at large, and there's an undeniable undercurrent of social protest, or at least discontent, flowing underneath Global. Musing about life on "This Island Earth," Rundgren posits that if "we don't rise, we will fall," one of many vague calls to arms peppered throughout the record. This being Todd, the good intentions are often inextricable from the silliness, reaching some kind of fever pitch on "Earth Mother," where he shouts out to his sisters without ever quite realizing that his call for "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" could be seen as vaguely condescending. Then again, one of the great pleasures of Rundgren is how he'll camouflage his message in sheer absurdity. ... what is compelling about Global: it's perched at a point between the past and the present, protest and satire, and that inscrutability is often where Rundgren does interesting work.

Rundgren's myriad hits have included "Hello It's Me," "I Saw the Light," "Can We Still be Friends," "We Gotta Get You A Woman," "Open My Eyes," and "Bang the Drum," (the latter a mainstay on ESPN and in television commercials). Rundgren's prolific producer's discography includes such classics as "Skylarking" by XTC, "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad, "War Babies" by Hall & Oates, "Wave" by Patti Smith and Meat Loaf's auspicious debut "Bat Out of Hell," (the fifth best selling album of all time with some 42 million sales).

Side 1

1. Everybody

2. Flesh & Blood

3. Rise

4. Holyland

5. Blind

6. Earth Mother

Side 3

7. Global Nation

8. Soothe

9. Terra Firma

10. Fate

11. Skyscraper

12. This Island Earth

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