For all of Todd Rundgren’s recent modernity — he’s been applying synths to everything from his original songs to the blues of Robert Johnson to his own earlier collaborations with the likes of Psychedelic Furs and XTC — his narrative focus has been toward throwback singer-songwriterly things.
Rundgren has actually been far more apt to look inward than outward, something that perhaps connected the work to his best-known music from the 1970s, but seems to have run its course with the aptly titled forthcoming Global.
“Rise,” our first taste of the new project, keeps the keyboards — Rundgren will be touring, starting tonight, by himself as a one-man synth band — but dramatically broadens his vision. Todd Rundgren is ready to talk about the future, about where we might be headed if we continue to take a lackadaisical approach to the things that ail us. Whether that’s spiritually, environmentally or politically is never made entirely clear, but it doesn’t need to be. Todd Rundgren’s message of self-reliant inspiration, of looking beyond our own backyards to larger solutions that might benefit mankind, has perhaps never resonated more fully.
It’s tempting to credit this shift in perspective to Rundgren’s lengthy current stint with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band. After all, the affable Beatles star helped lead a generation of songwriters to these kind of larger ideals, and it’s something that Starr continues to preach today through an oft-repeated mantra of peace-and-love, peace-and-love.
But, as the sweeping, deeply inspiring “Rise” soars toward its anthemic conclusion, it’s clear that this is no proxy message for Todd Rundgren. There’s a depth of emotion that drives his uplifting message home. Global, Rundgren’s 25th solo album, arrives on April 7, 2015 via Cherry Red’s Esoteric Antenna imprint.
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