Now Utopia Chris Carlsson

"Utopia" is a studio project by Olaf Kübler and Lothar Meid. Because it featured several regular members of AMON DÜÜL II (including Chris Karrer and John Weinzierl), it has usually been regarded as part of the DÜÜL discography, and, indeed, the CD reissue credits the album to AMON DÜÜL II…

Utopia followed Swing to the Right, their first album for Elektra subsidiary Network, a mere six months after, dubbing the new album Utopia. Presumably, an eponymous release signaled a new beginning for the group, which is true to a certain extent. Utopia finally became a true collective here, with each member's contributions sounding remarkably similar, in performance and composition…

The collection features seven of the band's classic albums: 1974's Todd Rundgren's Utopia , 1975's Another Live , 1977's Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet , 1979's Adventures in Utopia , 1980's Deface the Music and 1982's Swing to the Right . It also includes 15 bonus tracks, plus new written commentary from Rundgren, Wilcox, Sultan and Powell.

The collection features seven of the band's classic albums: 1974's Todd Rundgren's Utopia , 1975's Another Live , 1977's Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet , 1979's Adventures in Utopia , 1980's Deface the Music and 1982's Swing to the Right . It also includes 15 bonus tracks, plus new written commentary from Rundgren, Wilcox, Sultan and Powell.

For all their many attributes, Utopia was notoriously uneven on record. They were just as capable of turning out great pop tunes as they were to wander into meandering jams or directionless hard rock – and this applies not only to their earliest art rock records, but also to their mainstream pop/rock albums. That's what makes Rhino's Anthology (1974-1985) such a welcome addition to their catalog…

Easily, 1980 could have gone down as the year that Utopia broke through to the mainstream. With the commercial success achieved with the album Adventures in Utopia and its single, "Set Me Free," it appeared as though Rundgren and company were well on their way with their next release. But instead of issuing another album of new wave-esque pop, the group completely switched gears and released a twisted Beatles parody, Deface the Music. While longtime fans loved it, the release obviously confused and alienated their newfound mainstream following, as it failed to follow its predecessor's strong chart showing (and with John Lennon's death just two months after its release, a Beatles parody wasn't exactly what many rock fans wanted to hear at that point in time). As a result, the group only performed selections from the Deface album during its short supporting tour. Now fans can finally hear what the songs sounded like on the concert stage, with Vol. 6 of Rundgren's bootleg series, Deface the Music Tour.

Despite his efforts to democratize the group, Utopia still feels very much like Rundgren's baby, mainly because the only songs that really work are ones that he writes and sings. And since Utopia is now merely a hard rock band, Rundgren reserves his more ambitious ideas and complex songs for his solo records. The end result of all this is that Oops! Wrong Planet is more consistent than earlier Utopia records, but is not as sporadically brilliant or rewarding as Rundgren's solo albums. Even the bad moments, such as the very silly "Gangrene," aren't particularly unlistenable, yet there are simply too many average, undistinguished songs for the record to actually soar. Nevertheless, Rundgren turns in some fine moments – "Love in Action" is a terrific hard rocker, as is "Trapped," and "Love Is the Answer" is an ideal stadium anthem – that make the record worthwhile for the cult, even if it will sound like little more than a period piece to most listeners.