6. Something/Anything? - Todd Rundgren
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYc_NEBMphU This entrylike the one for T. Rex, belowis to demonstrate that simple music can be grandiose too. Todd Rundgren is a brilliant (although I think under-appreciated) singer-songwriter and a fellow Philly-area native. His best known hits include Hello its Me, I Saw the Light, and Bang the Drum all Day. Something/Anything? is one of his more popular albums, a double album he released in 1972. The songs are simple, well-crafted straight-ahead pop-rock covering a variety of styles. Rundgren sang vocals and played all instruments for most of the album, using a session band on only one side. Despite the simplicity, there is something grandiose about the album. The lyrics are both quirky and sentimental, and lend a cosmic tone to even seemingly-basic love songs. Each of the sides is given a description in the liner notes, such as the cerebral side and the kid gets heavy. And the combination of the length of the album and the shortness of each song makes a full listen a (worthy) endeavor. We still have long albums, singer-songwriters, etc. But theres nothing like Something/Anything?. Is it possible for an album to simultaneously take itself seriously and poke fun at itself, to challenge and entertain us, in this day and age?