RAVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD: "GLOBAL" TODD RUNDGREN

"GLOBAL"
TODD RUNDGREN

Written, Produced and Performed by Todd Rundgren

with
Bobby Strickland: Saxophone on "Blind"
Rachel Haden, Janet Kirker, Michelle Rundgren, Jill Sobule & Tal Wilkenfeld: Backing Vocals on "Earth Mother"
Kasim Sulton: Backing Vocals on "Skyscraper"

Released April 7, 2015

"Human beings and materialism cannot be separated from each other, but we have to remind ourselves that our existence didn't just happen. This is a unique place, and everything in it is in some sort of relationship and equipoise with everything else. We're never going to get to the root of our issues and our problems if we don't, at a certain point, come to accept the fact that without this particularly unique combination of circumstances, we don't exist. And we can't pretend that we have made ourselves."
-TODD RUNDGREN

I wondering if this is what it may have been like to be a fan of Todd Rundgren back in the day.

By the time I began to discover the musical odyssey of Todd Rundgren in my late teens back in 1987, one aspect (of many) that I found to be so unbelievably impressive about his musical career was the prolific nature of his album releases. Beginning with his band Nazz in 1967, and continuing between 1970 and 1985, it was common for Rundgren to release at least one album per year and often up to two albums per year whether a solo release or one where he functioned as part of his band Utopia. And to that large total, please do feel free to include his equally prolific work during this same time period as a Producer for the likes of The Band, Hall & Oates, Grand Funk Railroad, The Tubes, The Psychedelic Furs, Cheap Trick, New York Dolls, my beloved The Pursuit Of Happiness, and of course, XTC's sublime "Skylarking" (released October 27, 1986) as well as the now classic Meat Loaf rock opera parody "Bat Out Of Hell" (released October 21, 1977). It was a period where it seemed that Rundgren was forever within the creative atmosphere of the recording studio, crafting one musical vision after another and ultimately amassing a body of work that I firmly believe that any artist wished that they had been able to conceive and produce for themselves.

While since 1989, Rundgren has remained quite busy with seemingly endless touring, either for himself or as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, his album releases have slowed down but have remained steady, typically arriving every two or three years apart. Even though new album releases do not arrive as frequently as in the past, for an artist who will reach the age of 67 this coming June, he has proven to have possessed and exhibited far more stamina than individuals half his age and he remains as creatively restless and inventive as ever.

For 2015, I am now getting a taste for how it used to be regarding his album releases and I could not be more thrilled and anxious. This year, we will find two new Todd Rundgren albums and in a scant two month period no less. The second release, arriving this month and which I hope to profile very soon, is "Runddans," a largely instrumental and collaborative effort with electronic music producer/musicians/composers Hans-Peter Lindstrom and Emil Nikolaisen. But first, and actually born from the making of "Ruddans," is the solo release "Global," Todd Rundgren's 25th album, a most worthy addition and deeply resonant and satisfying chapter to his ever evolving musical story.

Sonically building up from the EDM textures and rhythms from his previous release, the rambunctious yet uncharacteristically dark and claustrophobic "State" (released April 9, 2013), Todd Rundgren has functioned "Global" to exist as a concept album concerning the ecology, the environment and the symbiotic role all of humanity possesses with every living organism while set to the propulsive landscape of EDM, with elements of rock, soul, funk and Rundgren's trademark soul searching ballads and socio-political commentary thrown in for great measure. This amalgamation makes the album sound as if Todd Rundgren is presenting a rave for all of humanity at the end of the world, thus ensuring the music is even stronger and more cohesive than its predecessor and for all of the fun, I was left with emotions that were undeniably sobering and at times deeply chilling.

"Global" opens with two songs to get the party started but I felt are indeed more philosophical than they may seem. The intentionally misspelled "Evrybody" sets the stage with a chugging rock and roll groove featuring those cheesy "96 Tears" keyboards to terrific effect. Lyrically, Rundgren rails off a litany of items unattainable to the majority of society, from being able to paint the Mona Lisa, the inability of being a movie star to receiving a "twerk from Miley." But within the final section of the song, he flips the script, when he sings, "Evrybody don't need a mini mansion/Evrybody don't want an 80 foot yacht/Evrybody don't need the latest fashion/Everybody needs what we already got'Because we're all together again." 

While I will never know if this was his intent, to me, "Evrybody" struck me as existing as a variation of an aspect of Zen philosophy, most specifically a quotation from Lao Tzu which states, "Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." "Evrybody" is a rave up, a party anthem that urges us to realize that we are not as separated as we may think and feel ourselves to be simply because we are all existing at this distinct point in time in our collective history and for that, what more can be done than to celebrate in our complete union.

"Flesh And Blood," the album's second track, while seemingly existing solely as an EDM song about EDM music, immediately suggested to me songs from Rundgren's archives that all deal with the ongoing conundrums that exist within our understanding of fate and free will, like "Tiny Demons" from the spiritual odyssey of the album "Healing" (released January 28, 1981) or "Influenza" from the power pop collection "The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect" (released November 15, 1982).

"It's the tom tom tom beat of the medicine man/Driving the evil spirits back to a rhythmless land/Now it's a laptop and a microphone/50,000 watts and still going strong," he begins before hitting the chorus, "You got free will but you're flesh and blood/You can't stand still but you're flesh and blood." Rundgren hits upon the eternal phenomenon that exists as we have the intellect to do and act how we wish yet we still are unable to resist becoming slaves to the rhythm, a quality that contributes greatly to the album's theme of community as it is a trait we all share as human beings.

From this point, "Global" flows powerfully between songs of honor, celebration and unity and some stern and increasingly grim warnings. Where "Skyscraper" jubilantly invites the population of the 1% to "come on down and join the party" alongside the rest of us in the 99%, selections like "Terra Firma" and "Holyland" deftly illustrate the inter-connectivity we all share with the planet, a singular sacred home for everyone and every organism.

The swerving funk of "Earth Mother," on which Rundgren pays homage to all women, including specific nods to both Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai, is an infectious club jam that demands we salute and give "R-E-S-P-E-C-T-for my ladies" and calls for the need for "a little more progesterone" in the atmosphere. The soul ballad "Soothe" arrives late in the album and at just the right stage as it provides precisely the intent contained in the song's title. It is a song of respite, of calm away from the noise of the world. A multi-layered piece that could be viewed as a message from lover to lover, Rundgren to the listener or even the voice of music itself to the spirit, again expressing a common thread of our collective humanity as we all have the need to seek and bask in solace.

The deeply serious core of "Global" begins with the menacing "Rise," the slowed down, moody funk on which Rundgren repeatedly proclaims, "Time's ticking away, time keeps ticking away/If we don't rise, then we will fall," because "We don't need an excess of caution/Doing nothing is not an option." 

On the slow burn caress of "Blind," Rundgren takes all of those horrific Climate Change and Science deniers to task. "Gravity is real," he sings. "Just step off the ledge and you will fall/Summers get hotter/Winters get colder/Writing on the wall." Rundgren also expresses his deep contempt for evangelicals with a sharp tongued, "You say God will handle everything/Seems like he ain't done shit so far." But before any of you atheists out there attempt to claim Rundgren into your ranks, he hits a grand slam by intoning, "You see, God is a scientist," thus broadening the current inane debate between Science and spirituality, which for me, has lost all sense of nuance, complexity and ambiguity in place of self-righteous superiority, by finding the symmetry that is contained in each. But, are we all just too blind to even see the linkage?

"Fate" is one of the album's strongest and most spine tinging warnings, as Rundgren begins with first person narratives of gamblers and addicts and then finds the common ground with our collective callousness against our planet and our own existence.

"Gamble away the moon and stars
The world to be that is not ours
Drunk with the lust for easy wealth 
We'll take the chance, bankrupt ourselves
We bet the farm, no turning back
Even or odd, on red or black
Our future is no longer ours
The outcome rests with higher powers
All bets are down, now spin the wheel
Our fate is sealed"

Compounding those sentiments is the album's stunning, sobering finale "This Island Earth," on which Rundgren pleads with us to understand that Earth is all we have and that miracles from God, the presence of benevolent aliens within the universe or even having the ability to just travel elsewhere in the galaxy will not save us from our own destruction, which is indeed feeling more inevitable. The warm, eerie synths combine themselves with surprising tempo changes which occasionally slow or quicken, signifying the life span of Earth gradually coming to an end and how quickly we are causing our own extinction.

But, rest assured, it is not all doom and gloom as "Global Nation," the album's centerpiece is a swirling, whirling light show of a song, starring a pounding beat, dynamic, percolating synthesizer sequencing patterns reminiscent of classic Rundgren tracks like "Shine," from the aforementioned "Healing" album, and a death defying falsetto vocal where Rundgren professes his wishes to wrap his arms around the world and "dance away the isolation...the separation...the tribulation...on our way to liberation." This is a song so joyous, so inclusive, so spiritually roof raising that for me, it was the example of harmonic convergence, and so it is for the album in its entirety.

In the earliest years of the 21st century, I was beginning (and fearing) to have the feeling that perhaps Todd Rundgren had said all that he had felt the need to say musically. Despite his constant touring, new releases at that time were scant and while finding myself maybe having to face the fact that he perhaps would not offer more material, I also knew that an artist of his unquestionable scope and breadth, he truly had nothing more that he ever needed to prove. And then, he released the albums "Liars" (released April 6, 2004), "Arena" (released September 30, 2008) and the aforementioned "State" all of which stand as tall as anything he recorded and released during the 1970's and 1980's, and "Global" makes for an especially fine addition to his oeuvre.

For an artist that has always existed far ahead of the curve of his contemporaries, it is interesting to hear the musical landscape having caught up to him, regarding more synthetic dance music textures and electronic soundscapes as he exhibited as far back on albums like "Todd" (released February 1974) and "A Cappella" (released September 1985) or songs like "Chant" from "The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect." "Global" seems to find Rundgren reclaiming his own mantle while also providing nods of affectionate recognition to the current artists, musicians and DJs that populate the scene in 2015. And so it should be for an album that extolls the virtues and necessity of communion and communication.

Lyrically, "Global" seems to be built from musical statements Rundgren has expressed throughout his career. In fact, to my ears, it feels as if he took sentiments from 1975's "Fair Warning" in which he stated "I can't let the world die because no one would try," as well as the title track from "No World Order" (released July 6, 1993) on which he rapped (!) "Job number one is gonna be findin' a way/That we can rave all night and meditate all day," and merged them together to create this bold, visionary album.

Yet, are we ready to listen and heed the messages contained within? I sincerely and deeply hope so because if not, and like Rundgren expressed 40 years ago, "I gave you all fair warning/Now it's goodbye."