Something/Anything?

iTunes Review

For a brief moment in the early Seventies, a window opened and Todd Rundgren let forth a flood of pitch-perfect pop songs. The result was the double album opus Something/ Anything, which is still regarded as the highlight of Rundgren’s catalogue. Heavily imbued with the soft-rock atmosphere that was beginning to take hold of the industry, Something/Anything is more dated and less edgy than #1 Record, the guitar-driven masterpiece by Memphis group Big Star that has tended to obscure Something/Anything as the reigning power-pop masterpiece of 1972. But if you're willing to indulge Something/Anything in its pooka-bead-and-shag-carpet atmosphere, the album will transport you to a time when listening to a well-executed AM radio rock song on headphones provided an unparalleled musical high. Where Big Star used guitars, Rundgren uses piano, and his Carole King/Laura Nyro obsession blooms on yearning ballads like “Cold Morning Light” and “Torch Song,” and pop-rock pieces like “One More Day” and “Hello It’s Me.” “Black Maria” is spacey stoner-pop, while “The Night the Carousel Burned” is a swirling Seventies sequel to “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds.” The tighter Rundgren’s songwriting, the better the results. The bratty Beatles-influenced bop he introduced on “Little Red Lights” and “Slut” would serve as the basis for Cheap Trick’s hits a few years later, and if nothing else on Something/Anything grabs you, turn to the stone-cold classic rock of “Couldn’t I Just Tell You,” a gem that is in waiting to be rediscovered.