Back to Philadelphia
4 Out Of 5 Stars
Todd Rundgren went back to his hometown and went for the sound of Philadelphia on "
Nearly Human." There's a delightful abundance of Philly White Guy Soul spread across this poppy return to form, as he decided to eschew the gimmicks and just have his band record the album live in the studio. This resulted in two of his best late 80's songs, "The Want of a Nail" with Bobby Womack and the ballad of despairing "Parallel Lines."
His sense of fun is also back, as his spry cover of Elvis Costello's "Two Little Hitlers" indicates. The Tubes join him for a rocking number called "Feel It" (both Prairie Prince and the late Vince Welnick eventually joined Todd in a few of his touring bands). And finally, there's the stunning "Hawking." Todd sings his heart out on one of his most soulful ballads. As usual, "Nearly Human" shares many of the delights of knowing you're not always going to get a standardized album when Rundgren decides to let one out. This remains one of his better 80's albums.
No comments:
Post a Comment