Todd Rundgren's Liars Blends Musical Past and Future
Written: Mar 29 '04
Product Rating:
Pros: Five or six excellent songs...
Cons: A few bad tracks, too many synthesizers, some lack of direction...
The Bottom Line: Maybe not the best thing I've heard in a while, but there are still some great pop-meets-electronica songs here. Todd Rundgren's Liars is an interesting animal.
With well over three decades of music recordings under his belt, Todd Rundgren continues to make quirky pop songs. His dozens of albums and hundreds of songs touch on an incredible breadth of topics and sounds, so the release of this year’s Liars could have been just about anything.
Rundgren’s historically highest quality and most popular albums are well in the past. After the wildly successful 1972 Something/Anything?, he consciously chose to leave conventional rock/pop altogether. Many other albums followed, and Rundgren soon gained a dedicated underground following for his music. He’s been musician, writer, producer, singer, and technological guru. In fact, the video for Time Heals was the second ever played on MTV. But despite his many successes, Rundgren spent the majority of the 1980’s focusing his energy on technology (as reflected even on Liars) instead of solely on music. The early 1980’s were the last time that Rundgren had a taste of any level of commercial success.
The Pennsylvania native released a string of albums in the 1990’s for various record companies. Reviews were not good, but he continued plugging away. His work and time was concentrated on the Internet as the decade came to a close even speaking directly to the medium on songs like I Hate My Frickin ISP. Clearly, he wasn’t much for taking himself seriously. In mid-2004, Rundgren returned like clockwork with another album of new material—his first of original songs on the Sanctuary label.
Liars is entirely the work of Rundgren. He sang the songs, he wrote the music, produced the album, mixed the tracks, and played the instruments. This is a concept album—one, in fact, that blends together some of the best elements touched on in his music in the past two decades. First and foremost, Liars presents a distinctly synthesized Rundgren. So, basically, if you want pure guitars and rugged rock n’ roll please look elsewhere. This is a wholly electronic, plugged-in kind of music. Was it not for the variety across the fourteen songs, I too would be unimpressed.
Not necessarily the most contemporary selection of songs, Rundgren’s vision on Liars is mature and interesting. Wavering between cool disassociation and sheer pop, there are moments on Liars that I find myself joining Rundgren in his lazy groove. The opening two songs are both meritorious, but for obviously different reasons. Truth is at first a bit off-putting. The upbeat, chipper sentimentality isn’t necessarily my cup o’ tea but it is still nice enough. Sweet, on the other hand, is a lovely kind of modern blue-eyed soul. It is clearly an album standout.
Happy Anniversary is a cool breeze of a song that carries me away to both the islands (check out the steel drums) and Motown (the melodies are incredible) but what I really like is the arrangement. It is beautiful and adventurous and joins together Rundgren’s musical talents and his vocal style. The Pink Floydian synthesizers could have been omitted in lieu of the guitars, but I am overall very pleased. Another facet of Rundgren is exposed on the gospel, organic, trip-hop laden Soul Brother.
But even as clearly strong the album is to start, it flounders in the middle. The first indication of trouble comes with the nice sounding but not particularly motivational Stand Up. However, a reprieve must be given because of the strange Mammon. Likely my favorite offering of the entire album, it pairs modest and uncomplicated keyboards with a distinctive techno-rock and augmented by Rundgren’s guttural chants. It’s weird, yes, but also very impressive. Before hitting me again with excellent songs however, the songwriter and producer and musician is none too impressive on Future and Past. Sure they have nice enough techno flavors but I just am lost by the direction. Ditto to the mellow, languid Wondering.
Picking up where Wondering leaves off, Flaw injects some energy and direction into the mix. Rundgren’s layered vocals and soul vibe both work well with the made-for-adult-contemporary-charts melody. Regardless of categories and peccadilloes, I can’t help but enjoy Flaw. Speaking of indulgences, Rundgren is particularly indulgent toward the final moments of Liars. Sometimes he succeeds, but often he fails. For example, Afterlife is a mess with badly dated keyboard, tinny vocals, and repetitive melodic idea it is a horrible track.
Speaking of bad tracks, add the droning Living to that list. I mean, I want to like it, but there’s only so many Police synthesizers I can take and Living crosses that line. God Said is also rather Sting-like with the enlightened topic, keen melody, and smooth vocals. I don’t enjoy it one iota, but there are folks who may just like what Rundgren has to say and how he says it. Liars wraps up with the title track, Liar. There are definitely better songs toward the start of the effort (Flaw, Soul Brother, Happy Anniversary, and Sweet being the most obvious).
While I am relatively ignorant to the entirety of Rudgren’s catalogue, I can say that his most recent album Liars is worth checking out. My interest in electronica, 80’s, and for that matter trip-hop is clearly beneficial to my appreciation of this album. But, its easy-going nature and largely nice arrangement make this album a decent effort worth checking out for fans of both Rundgren and for that matter Sting, Ric Ocasek, and even Elton John. Liars is a lengthy and strange, albeit moderately interesting, beast.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars (rounded up)
Track Listing:
01. Truth
02. Sweet
03. Happy Anniversary
04. Soul Brother
05. Stood Up
06. Mammon
07. Future
08. Past
09. Wondering
10. Flaw
11. Afterlife
12. Living
13. God Said
13. Liar
Todd Rundgren kicked off his solo career more than 30 years ago with Something/Anything, which quickly went Gold, having spawned the now classic hits,...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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