Something/Anything?
Todd Rundgren
1972
Album Summary
Something/Anything? is the third album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1972. It was his first double album, and was recorded in late 1971 in Los Angeles, New York City and Bearsville Studios, Woodstock. Three quarters of the album was recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals, as well as being the producer. The final quarter contained a number of tracks recorded live in the studio without any overdubs, save for a short snippet of archive recordings from the 1960s. Rundgren had become confident enough at other instruments beyond his standard guitar and keyboards that he had tackled in earlier releases, and this, coupled with a general dissatisfaction with other studio musicians, led him to temporarily relocate to Los Angeles in an attempt to record an entire album single-handedly. After he had created significantly more material than would fit on a standard LP, an earthquake struck LA. He decided to head back to New York for some live sessions, with the help of Moogy Klingman, to lighten the mood. The final sessions were in Bearsville, where the remainder of the recording and mixing took place, and this created enough material for a double album. The album peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold three years after its release. A single taken from the album, "Hello It's Me", was a top-five hit in the US in late 1973, and it contained a further hit, "I Saw the Light". Something/Anything? later attracted critical acclaim as one of the most significant records of the 1970s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 173 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and later ranked at number 396 in the 2020 edition. It was voted number 797 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). After Something/Anything, Rundgren moved away from the straightforward pop ballads present on this album to more experimental territory and progressive rock in later releases, beginning with A Wizard, A True Star.
WikipediaI had only heard "I Saw The Light" and "Hello, It's Me" before (both great songs), but I'm actually surprised by how much I liked this album as a whole. A more diverse collection of styles than the pop ballads I had associated with him. - Fun Fact #1: Todd Rundgren played every instrument on 3/4 of the album himself until he was interrupted by an earthquake and left for New York - Fun Fact #2: The last side of the album was recorded in New York with an assortment of session musicians basically live with no overdubs - Fun Fact #3: Each side of the album has a unique name and personality: Side 1 is "A Bouquet of Ear-catching Melodies", Side 2 is "The Cerebral Side", Side 3 is "The Kid Gets Heavy" and Side 4 is "Baby Needs a New Pair of Snakeskin Boots (A Pop Operetta)" - Fun Fact #4: Todd credits his productivity creating this double album to Ritalin and cannabis. Apparently his sound changed after this album when he began experimenting with mescaline and other psychedelics. - Not So Fun Fact #1: YouTube Music only has the first half of the album, what a disgrace of a service
I don't get it, lame-ass 70s pop. This is album to listen to *after* you die.
What a slog. I had to call it at track 21. Some mix of yacht rock, parade/humor rock, and what? Slut was pretty offensive and I consider myself one. Such a monumental waste of time. God I will never do this again.
Starts off well, tails in the middle and never really recovers. I loved the harmonies and some of the first tunes, but very quickly it became so anonymous...every song a repetitive dirge of the previous. 25 songs too...you taking the piss? Least Oasis crammed 11 and a half into their 90+ minute album!
So opens with an all time classic and then is just indulgent studio wankery with no great melodies? And this guy dissed the Beatles?!
This was pretty blah. Kind of sounded like a very good AI was asked to make non-offensive rock music
Very solid, very diverse album from a multi-instrumentalist virtuoso. Rundgren mixes R&B, soul, rock, and pop into a delightful 90-minute double album that does not wear out its welcome at all. It's astoundingly consistent in its quality despite the wide variety of styles and eclectic influences. Highly recommended.
Absolutely great stuff, so layered and interesting. Loads of music reminds me of this album which i think means this album has influneced loads of people. Def can hear pet sounds influencing it though, also lots of motown in there... I dont know much about the era, and i think the beatles have the jump on him in some production techniques but this must have broken the mold/invented plenty. What a brilliant record.
Todd Rundgren's "Something/Anything?" is a personality-driven pop-rock mixed bag. The record sports a lot of eclectic instrumentation, like the juxtaposition of the gospel vocals and swaggering guitar lines on "Black Maria". The high-energy tracks like Wolfman Jack and Song of the Viking are also a blast, sporting Rundgren's quirky vocals and cute melodies. These qualities aren't present on every track, such as slogging ballads like "I Went to the Mirror" and "Torch Song", and some songs go on for too long for their best attributes to save them (see "The Night the Carousel Burned Down"). There's still great power-ballads and stripped-back cuts like "Dust in the Wind" and "One More Day", along with soul and jazz fusion on "Hello It's Me" and "Slut". While the duds make the 90-minute runtime feel bloated, the sonic range and charm that the record offers largely makes up for it. BEST TRACKS: Wolfman Jack, It Takes Two to Tango (This Is for the Girls), Little Red Lights, Dust in the Wind, Slut WORST TRACKS: The Night the Carousel Burned Down, I Went to the Mirror, Torch Song, Some Folks Is Even Whiter Than Me
Sprawling and wonderfully indulgent. I hear flights of fancy in the instrumentation, arrangements, vocal stylings, and later in the other musicians. The "intro"-lude is a great break. It never quite flies into space, which is a shame, but always comes back to the ground, which is good. The back quarter never jumps the shark, but seems significantly looser than the rest. So far I'm enchanted but not quite in love. Future listens could temper my feelings, but for now this is just what I need.
Close to a 5. Great variety and interesting songwriting with non conventional chord structures
Excellent production. Pleasant enough songs, superbly melodic with a plethora of ear worms, but can tend to lack some tangible substance. Its sheer length meant I couldn’t enjoyably listen to the album in one sitting, it took me a few days to get through which kind of broke up the flow. But honestly by that point my interest had wavered. 3/5 - Some bangers on here worth cherry picking, but probably won’t be listening to the album again any time soon.
This is a strange album to process through. The front six are as the album self-describes "A Bouquet of Ear-catching Melodies" that are very easy listening. The second side is described as "The Cerebral Side" and I'm not quite sure that is the best description. Unless by Cerebral he meant "I've fucked up my cerebral cortex with too much acid" which then yes I agree. There are so many mood swings in these 6 songs but yet it's still enjoyable to sit through. Until you get to the Song of the Viking which just feels like a Ringo song. And then I Went to the Mirror drags you down into the trip with him. "The Kid Gets Heavy" side is the return to rock roots if the first two sides are the weed album and the acid album respectively. It just doesn't really all flow together well. Feels a bit like the songs that couldn't fit on the other sides got thrown together with the hopes that it would work. The back seven, otherwise known as the "Baby Needs a New Pair of Snakeskin Boots (A Pop Operetta)" side was an ummm........experience. Not exactly sure why the 4th side needed to be a Pop Operetta but yet it is anyway. As a standalone album it might actually work really well, but it is just a strange way to end and album. But then again the whole album is all over the place so it is fitting. And to end your album with a song called Slut is a power move. I think the first two sides despite their weirdness sit above a 4/5 for me. But the third side sits at a 2 and the fourth a 2 in this but a 3 or 4 standalone. So I honestly don't know how to grade it.
Surprisingly (sunny why, tho – no idea why I expected what I was expecting) melodic and enjoyable. The outtakes and extras were a bit...extra. Still
It's got a song called 'slut'. However, otherwise pretty generic sounding soft rock. An unexciting 2.5
Enjoyable, middle-of-the-road 70s rock. Not planning to listen to it ever again though. This probably could have been edited down into a really good album, but as a double there's a lot here that's not essential. The awful cover of Money and the smug studio recording gag detract from the good tracks.
Something/Anything? is 65% mediocre/boring pop songs and 35% kick ass rock songs. With it being 90 minutes that makes for an excruciating listen. Feel free to just grab the best tracks and ignore the rest. Favorite Tracks: "I Saw The Light", "Wolfman Jack", "Black Maria", "Couldn't I Just Tell You", "Dust In The Wind", "Piss Aaron", "Hello Its Me", "Slut"
I recognized the first couple of songs but never thought Todd Rundgren did those songs. I always thought he was better than that. Perhaps we can attribute some of the weenieness to a poor attempt to fit in the psychedelic scene at the time. I had the 1 rating locked and loaded and then side 4 started. There are a few good rockers like Couldn’t I Just Tell You. Rick D also lays down some good ‘ole guitar on Dust … The side 4 goodness comes to a screeching halt with the next hit which is a return to hotdog songs.
Wow! Great album. Every song could be a hit! Production is fantastic and the album really flows well. Gotta start listening to more Todd Rundgren I guess
Electric Light Orchestra pero más raro y particular. Todas me gustaron mucho.
A great throw back to 60s psychedelic pop and precursor to 70s pop all in one.
A rock-solid classic!! The album is stylistically diverse which is even more impressive when you know Todd played everything himself for the majority of the tracks on the album.
Vraiment un super album. 1h30 qui se passe bien. Une belle variete de chanson. Le projet es t malade. Reecoute assure. 5
I wasn't excited when I saw that this was a double album from 1972, but it's really good. Rundgren takes the listener on a journey, turning each of the four sides into its own artistic experience. It feels like an "influential" album but it's also a solid work in its own right. I like an artist that isn't afraid to eff with different genres and bring in different styles. The album art is really nice too. Also, I choose to believe that Rundgren is honouring his Swedish heritage by naming the closing track after the Swedish word for end.
Love is infectious and I was a victim The worst case you’d ever see But still I know no doctor or nurse Could cure what you gave to me. - You left me sore
Oh wow this is awesome. I enjoyed it thoroughly! Infectiously catchy and feel-good without being simplistic and trite. It's so solid throughout. A bit bloated in size but there are so many highlights. The voice sounds just like Don McLean, but this music is way better than most Don Mclean stuff
10/10 awesome album my favorite side was probably side 2 where he has you play a game to spot all of the recording/mixing flaws throughout the songs it was genius because not only were the songs bangers I enjoyed listening to but I felt more invested because I wanted to dig deeper into the sounds overall super cool album, kinda had Elton John vibes but with more Queen style rock stuff
rose-tinted nostalgia beats. like montage music for a period movie. pleasant skits and a variety of styles keep this fresh. borderline 5 but this album left a great afterglow
One of those artists I thought I'd like if I gave them some time, and I was right. A great mixture of lovely ballads and enjoyable weirdness. I Saw The Light pips It wouldn't Have Made Any Difference to the coveted best song trophy.
In which Todd Rungdren displays his virtuosity by releasing a quadruple album, each side alone a worthy record and distinct from the others. The first side is undoubtedly the best - I’m going to make some stellar pop records, near parodying Carole King, and in twenty minutes (!) write I Saw the Light, one is the greatest tracks of the era. Second side I’m playing around with form and structure and studio effects; third side I’m making some straight up hard rock power pop classics. Oh and I’m playing all the instruments. Fourth side is live tracks in the studio and some more messing around. The guy is a one man Beatles. A freaking genius. What an achievement. Is this the first Ritalin album?
This strikes me as an album that has a bit of everything. At first I didn't pay much attention with the first few pop and soul songs, but it started to pick up a bit a few songs in, and the spoken word to the listener and the little game explained in Intro got my attention. After that I was pretty sold. Additionally I'm always a sucker for hearing some behind-the-scenes chatter and banter from the band, like what was in some of the later songs. (Shame Todd didn't name the album "Throw Money" in the end!) Some of the songs were weaker and weirder than others, but overall I liked this one a lot. Varied enough to never get old, despite the 88 minute runtime. Good one! Favourite: Breathless
Really liked this one. Kind of radio friendly rock in the vein of Elton John or Billy Joel. A little more mellow than both. But really enjoyable.
Should be 4.5 stars, but just too long for my taste. Great old school pop music
Ranges all over. But these are the guys who did bang a drum all day. So they know how to make a pop song
Odd collection of what seems like love songs and experimental songs. Almost everything and the kitchen sing when it comes to recording.
This is like finding a brand new shiny thing. Montage of many artists in one dude. Pretty good
Una canción sale en My Girl, I Saw the Light. Le doy un 4. Aunque igual no me gusta tanto. Es agradable.
Experimental in the best sense of the word, when new textures and sounds are in the service of great songs. In its best moments (I Saw the Light, It Wouldn't Make Any Difference, Hello It's Me, Black Maria...) takes the form of a masterpiece. A lot of content though, not always at same level, but very compensated and a necessary listening altogether
I never knew this was a double album! Have to say I liked the first two sides way more than the rest but it's still a great body of music. It really lives up to the "catchy" billing and embodies the best of early 70s rock/pop. Will definitely be revisiting chunks of it.
A tale of two halves. The first half is a really enjoyable 70s Pop-Rock album. The second half, starting with the track ‘Intro’ featuring Rundgren explaining the extra background sounds of a recorded album, then proceeds to turn into a more psychedelic rock album with some really experimental sounds. Finishing with the song ‘I Went to the Mirror’ which starts off with Rundgren mumbling most of the lyrics until the song peaks with a George Thoroughgood/ ZZ Top guitar riff to end the track. An interesting overall enjoyable experience to say the least.
This got pretty cool in a few spots, with some hyperpop elements thrown in. Good fun album, even thoigh im suffering a bit of fatigue from albums of this era at the moment.
I only really knew Todd Rungren from Hello - so this was a really nice education for me. I really like the “just stupid enough” lyrics for songs like Piss Aaron and Slut. Even at 90 minutes, the album did t seem to long - quality just about all the way through. Even the other Hello-ish ballads were mostly great. I also really enjoyed all the studio talk before some of the songs - especially the scavenger hunt for hissing and other evidence of “poor engineering” - really fun stuff.
Huh. Todd Rundgren. Like him. It's like the lighter side of 70s music, but with the proficiency of the 70s music I like. The "Intro" track (half way through the record) was a strange choice. And that synth line into "Breathless" is really great. I like this record and will definitely return to it. 4 but it really should be 3.5.
Really cool album. I know Todd Rundgren only for his bang on the drum all day song, but this is a very interesting album. Probably longer than it needs to be, but it meanders through a number of different styles and genres, and I really like that strange interlude (intro but not at the beginning?) of him talking about record static. So many tracks on here that I ended up enjoying, one or two that I recognized, and there are some hilarious track titles on here. Piss Aaron? I don't know, this is wild. I'll be saving a lot from this one. Also looked this up to find that Todd himself sang and played every instrument on at least 75% of the album. I need to know more about this madman. Favorite tracks: It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference, Sweeter Memories, Saving Grace, Dust in the Wind, Hello It's Me. Album art: I like this, like an old floral print couch. It's a nice artistic cover, and much like the album itself, I don't really know what to make of it. But this is really cool. 4/5
Solid, inventive, and with a lightheartedness that is often lacking in big arty magnum opus type productions. A fair minority of it felt like filler to me and I thought the bulk of it more low weight pop than I expected given the critics, but maybe I did not attend to the lyrics well enough based on some of the reviews.
Clever, musically and lyrically. Not sure how well this album has stood the test of time, but I was fully appreciating it
2/4/2022 Today's Album: "Something / Anything?" by Todd Rundgren - This will be a bit harder of an album because it is so long, given it is a double album clocking in at just under 90 minutes. However, I will still give my general opinion, which is that this album is pretty fantastic. There's extremely well crafted melodies, a ton of really great solos, and the vocals are spectacular. There's some interspersed bits of spoken word sections, like the comical track "Intro" which is the 7th track despite it's name and plays around with record sounds. There's a handful of colorful instrumentals and every song either has an excellent backing track or a solid vocal performance. The style is right up my alley with a lot of early 70s psychedelic guitars and tons of really bright, but well mixed instrumentation. I listened to it while doing homework and instantly turned it on again when it finished because it simply a very nice experience to listen to it. There's some well done experimentation with things getting really weird or dark at moments and there's tons of charming chatter and banter from the band members. The album's production is also top notch and sounds just as good as an eagles record, but with imo better playing. Tons of different genre breaking songs make this album sort of hard to pin down, but it's still a fantastically paced record all the way through. I think it could have placed lower than what I am going to rate it just because it still is a pretty typical sound for it's time, but just the sheer amount of great music on this thing, given its a double lp, and the consistency of quality makes it really respectable in my opinion. Give this one a listen if you like 70s soft rock. Also Black Maria and Little Red Lights are straight up awesome tracks. Score: 8.75 Really dang good Highlights: Wolfman Jack, Breathless ,The Night the Carousel Burned Down, Marlene, I Went to the Mirror, Black Maria, Little Red Lights, Dust in the Wind
Quite a strange album but some interesting songs, and the Record Game was funny.
cool fact: on most of these songs Todd Rundgren played all of the instruments. Whether that fact alone affects one's enjoyment of this or not is unclear, but you could make the case that there's something unique and special about an album like this because of the very fact that it is *not* democratic, and all under one person's vision. Contrast that with a lot of pop music today that has up to 10 or more songwriters -which runs the risk of drifting towards "the middle" or whatever might be popular at the time. That risk is nowhere to be heard here - there are some undeniably all-time classic singles that many people will know ("I Saw The Light" and "Hello It's Me"), but amidst the 23 (!!!!!) other tracks the variety and non-commercialism shows; yet at the same time even though many of these couldn't have been singles they're mostly quite accessible. Incredible sense of melody (this guy never met a major 7th chord he didn't love - I approve). "Couldn't I Just Tell You" should have been a bigger hit, that's a great pop-rock song right there. As for the "non-traditional" parts of the album, not only am I not put off by the spoken word parts (e.g. beginning of "Couldn't I Just Tell You" "Hello It's Me" and the entirety of "Intro") it adds to the experience for me (being a studio junkie). It's almost like (well, it essentially was) being there for a home recording yet decidedly NOT low-fi (thank god); you'll hear Todd talking about recording techniques, counting in other musicians (I believe the only songs he used other musicians on are in the final 1/4 of the album). Ok so... the album is long. LONG. Some of my favourite albums are double-albums but they tend to have a theme; maybe it's only that I'm not familiar enough with this one and/or it doesn't have enough cultural touchstones (outside the 2 aforementioned singles) so at some point I get just a little tired of it before it picks up steam again over the last half. But overall: the album sounds amazing; I'm a sucker for these kinds of melodic turns. It's Rundgren's most famous album for a reason and much more accessible than the one to follow... (A Wizard, A True Star) because when at their best, many/most of these songs are cohesive and a great intro to both Rundgren and 70s melodic rock in general. 8/10 4 stars
A whopping ladleful of fun and creative 70's pop, with enough weird to keep it interesting despite its length.
Very varied, very seventies. Proto-prog, and all performed and produced by one guy. I really enjoyed it; it could have handled being a bit shorter, but I'm not sure what I would remove! Saving Grace and Black Maria were my favourites, but it was all pretty good
This is not what I expected from Todd Rundgren - some lovely songs and early power pop! I had to dig on Spotify to find the second LP though.
Something / Anything? is an album that touches on a variety of different sounds. It feels like a sprawling journey, one in which you don't know where you're going but you can sit and enjoy the ride. Overall a really enjoyable listen and one I'll definitely listen to again! Of note is the fact that Spotify and Youtube Music don't carry the full album (both seem to only have the first 13 tracks. Fortunately, there are playlists to be found that contain the full album.
The term "musical genius" gets thrown around a lot, but in Todd Rundgren's case it is well deserved. You can tell by listening to this double album that this was a particularly fertile period for him, with an explosion of ideas. My only complaint about him is that his music leans a little toward the soft rock side of things. 4 stars.
I just love Todd Rundgren. Why has he not been in my life before this year..
+I Saw the Light, Intro, Hello It's Me There's a lot of music here clocking in at nearly 90 minutes of audio. Most of it pretty good! It's psychedelic and soulful, among many other things, it seems like there are a lot of genres crossed here. It also never really takes itself too seriously while it's also apparent that care and pride was taken to produce a quality product. There are various outtakes scattered around making it clear that the artists making this album had fun while doing it. A strong start with "I Saw The Light", a feel-good classic. "Wolfman Jack" sounds like it was lifted right out of Motown. "Intro" takes a lighthearted jab at mastering technicians, usually I don't enjoy non-music tracks, but this one was a fun little detour. Some of the tracks are downright funny (Some Folks..., You Left Me Sore). There is a lot to enjoy here!
The beginning wasn't my type but the Intro is cool and Breathless really made the listening worth it.
Bangers pretty much top to bottom I saw the light is the biggest banger of them all, the great song of the album Solid 4
Bumped up to 4 stars because of the consistent quality throughout a long album
A mellow and good quality easy listening album. Crazy that it's 50 years old, as the production quality belies its age.
Well the title of this album was appropriate. I admit that this album was more or less just background noise today while working, but it did a good job of having tracks throughout that would make me stop and listen. And that is why I am giving this album 4 stars. I enjoyed it and will definitely at some point be going back and listening to it again and maybe check out some of his other work.
One likes the kaleidoscopic, even messianic, pop here; one senses TR’s urgency and immense commitment and that he wants to share. There is a nearly tangible joy and exuberance in the considerable sprawl; one pictures a boy with the run of a fully stocked toy store, a mad scientist in his expertly equipped lab (see silly Studio Sounds spoken word piece and the much better “Breathless - Instrumental” that follows). TR comes off as a solitary visionary than a tortured artist, and it’s quite good fun, if excessively accessorized, too densely layered and obviously show-offy at times. Sameyness is a fair criticism, especially the over-reliance of keyboard manias (some of it sounding quite harpsichordy). Also, it probably didn’t have to be a double album (“Money” doesn’t feel absolutely necessary, e.g., and the studio chatter adds nothing). But there’s a wealth of quality – if not quite an embarrassment of riches: “Couldn't’ I Just Tell You” and “Dust in the Wind” are excellent, while “I Saw the Light” and “Hello It’s Me” are hits for a reason. “It Wouldn’t Have …” “Cold Morning Light” “Marlene” “Carousel Burned Down” and “You Left Me Sore” are all very solid. “Slut” highlights how sexual perceptions and boundaries have changed. Definitely worth knowing, this one.