Credits:

Todd Rundgren

Description:

If ever a title explained an album’s intent, it’s Todd Rundgren’s Arena, an explicit return to the extravagantly theatrical guitar rock he abandoned, largely out of boredom, some 25 years ago. During that quarter century, Rundgren touched upon almost all of his other obsessions, spending a considerable amount of time fixated upon technology, but deliberately avoided anything resembling Utopia until he stepped in for an absent Ric Ocasek for the 2005 Cars reunion which followed on the heels of Liars, Todd’s strongest and poppiest album in years. The New Cars — as the reunited band was wittily dubbed — returned Rundgren to arenas and reignited his interest in outsized rock & roll, so he threw himself into a project that gave him an excuse to sing skyscraper hooks and play too much guitar, which is exactly what Arena promises and delivers. Apart from an occasional glimpse of computer-stitched s