Music Review: "Arena" by Todd Rundgren (Updated)

I'd like to tell you about the new CD, titled Arena, from progressive rock pioneer Todd Rundgren.  The trouble is, I'm pretty sure the music on this disc is the kind that you either get or you don't.  Blathering on about it is not likely to change anything.  Yet, I can't help myself.

Rundgren's four decades of making music have been notable for many things, among them his refusal to choose a 'sound' and settle in.  He releases a new batch of material whenever he has something to say, both lyrically and musically.  Each release tends to be quite different from every other in the ideas it explores and the sounds used to express them.

There are common elements throughout them, however.  His lyrics tend to be thoughtful and intellectual.  When he explores a subject, he goes deep.  He doesn't just throw out a bunch of buzzwords and expect the listener to fill them with significance through the power of suggestion and their own imaginations.  His instrumentals tend to also be thematic explorations.  Each release has a sound which is intentional and focused.  On both these counts, Arena is no exception.

With this new batch of material, Rundgren lays out thirteen tracks of pure guitar-driven arena-style rock.  From Todd's “About” section on his MySpace page:

“This is sing-along, guitar-rock kinda stuff,” says Todd Rundgren of his aptly-titled 20th solo album, Arena. True to its name, it’s fist-pumping, anthemic, cerebral, uh, edifying… arena rock. Is that your oxymoron detector bleating like Miley Cyrus? Understandable. Arena rock, by definition, is simple, lowest-common-denominator—but not always bad—music, and Todd Rundgren, while quite handy with a hook and a huge crowd, is anything but simple.”

Todd has stripped down the sound on this music for a reason.  The layers of over-production and obfuscation, which many guitar-rock bands have used to hide the fact that their music lacks substance, are absent.  There is something at the core of this style of music which gives it its genuine value and makes it compelling.  Todd does his best to find that something and put it out in front.

Todd has taken the same approach to the lyrics in this album as he has with the music.  There are messages here.  The subjects of those messages are complex, yet basic and universal to the human experience.  These are issues we struggle with throughout our lives, with the greatest struggle of all being the effort to stay focused.

“...there has always been a thrumming intellectual through-line to his music. This has manifested in progressive rock tendencies and in heady quote-unquote concepts. Its accessible, dare we say party, vibe notwithstanding, so it is with Arena. Rundgren broke a self-imposed 10-year hiatus on concept albums in 2004 with the universally lauded 2004 album Liars, which examined the sincerity-to-deceit ratio in ourselves and our lives. Arena runs parallel to this, scrutinizing courage and cowardice, and how we respond to daily challenges.”

My impression of both the instrumental and lyrical aspects of Arena is that Todd has accomplished a difficult thing.  He has resisted the urge to extrapolate and pontificate.  He has kept it simple in a way few artists can.  He is trying very hard to be clear, and I admire that.  Too often, when we struggle with the basic contradictions of our humanity, we get bogged down and buried under mountains of details.  This discourages us from pushing ahead with the fight to understand ourselves and, thereby, to be better people.

The opening song, “Mad”, illustrates how anger is often the only thing that moves us to act—often belatedly.  When we act out of anger, we are prone to overreact or to take the wrong course.  Give it a listen: