Todd Rundgren

It's 1967 and both Hendrix and the Yardbirds are busy evolving the electric guitar, the
Beatles and the Beach Boys are revolutionizing the aesthetics of the studio and Dylan is
burning in creative fever with a rock band and sad-eyed ladies. Todd Rundgren is a kid
with his first band, the Nazz, and he's listening hard. Almost a decade later, he's turned up
with recitations of six of the most important songs of that year -- "Good Vibration... More >

As you probably know by now, one whole side recreates six '60s studio masterpieces note-for-note, from the calculated spontaneity of Bob Dylan to the electronic perfectionism of the Beach Boys and the Beatles. This is impressive and amusing, you can fool your friends, but it's overwhelmed (once you've heard it a few times) by what might be called the Enoch Light (or Your Hit Parade) (or voiceprint) effect. That is, Todd's vocal imitations (a phrase that deserves one of his slurs) sound thin and forced. This is especially notable considering how well his voice works on the other side, his clearest and most interesting set of songs since Something/Anything. It also reinforces the unfortunate impression that even when clearly interesting, Todd is factitious and compulsively secondhand. (Grade: B)