The two "Sides" areĪpparently from different venues the first is remarkably clear (it almost sounds like the Second side with a few covers and hits from TODD's catalog. Instead focusing on a wonderful new trio of songs on the first side, rounding out the They didn't repeat anything from their first record (thank goodness for small favors), The second album from "Todd Rundgren's Utopia" was, oddly enough, a live record. Posted Tuesday, Janu| Review this album | Report (Review #26481) So, in the end, this is another great Utopia album but if you need to be reminded that they created some of the best prog music ever, go throw on the first album and listen to "The Ikon." Also, The Wheel is actually a very pretty song. Both "Another Life" and "The Seven Rays" are really good too, featuring more excellent guitar playing and synth mania (Seven Rays has a particularly magical synth section). Electric guitar, synths, freaking out - perfect. Ok, so why did this album turn out to be pretty damn good anyway? Well, alot of the credit goes to "Intro/Mister Triscuits," which is an archetypal prog jam as delectable as anything on the other Utopia classics, no question. And then there are some covers, and live Rundgren songs. You also have songs like "The Wheel", which is where you learn whether you can hang with Todd's "Mr. Whereas on the next album John Wilcox comes into his own and is perfect, here he is less than mind-blowing and after Ellman, that definitely takes some getting used to. First off, drummer Kevin Ellman is gone, and that changes everything. But it is still the lame duck of the bunch. Those are two of my favorite albums ever, and this one is just. But who points to music from 1985 and says "I want it to sound like that!" unless they're being ironically retro?I used to hate this album, mostly because I thought it was a joke compared to what came before it (TR's Utopia) and what came after (Ra). To this day, people will look to '60s and '70s mixes when they want to point out good sound. Digital gear could work for (spare sounding) dance music, but often made rock sound claustrophobic. They were so impressed with shiny gadgets and technological advances that they failed to realize the sounds they were getting were often inferior to what the previous generation had gotten. This reminds me of a problem I started to have with musicians around this period. The dazzling computerized gear they thought was freeing them was likely limiting them (no pun intended). The way they recorded, mixed, and EQ'd the bass might be at least partially at fault. I think the problems with sound started before the mastering stage. The Network album came between these two. The keyboard sounds Roger Powell got were harsh and cheap-sounding and the mixes sound cluttered - partially because of that. To my ears, the blame goes to the then-new digital technology. There is a clean, defined sound that Adventures has that Oblivion lacks. I actually think Oblivion sounds muddy - or muddled. My vinyl copies of Oblivion and POV sound just fine, by comparison. So just wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience with this album. Andy Partridge of XTC has been at war with him for 30 years about the original mix of Skylarking, and Cheap Trick’s Next Position Please is similarly Utopia-thin-“Heaven’s Falling” could have appeared on any of the Utopia albums I’ve been rediscovering this week-but even those releases sound conventionally mastered compared to this release.
#Utopia album vinyl side 4 download#
The remastered download has a rich bottom end, and sounds “correct” to me, so what happened with the vinyl? Does anyone else have this vinyl edition, and is yours similarly thin? I know Todd’s production style was treble-heavy during this period. It is a double LP, with side 3 repeated on side 4. Mine is a first-press Network vinyl edition. But I recently came across a download of a remaster, which confirmed what I had always suspected: My vinyl copy was mastered with almost no bottom end. My vinyl copy I found still sealed for a fiver some 10 years ago, and because the vinyl was pristine and the CD rare, I vinyl ripped it and that version has been my go-to ever since. One of my favorites is the 3-sided self-titled Utopia album, which really launches them as a cohesive band rather than a Todd Rundgren side project. Been on a Todd/Utopia kick lately, and in particular rediscovering their mid 80s new-wave/pop releases.
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