Comments for Utopia, Oops, Wrong Planet

One of the better Utopia albums, Oops! is the first one whose tracks were all 4 minutes or shorter in duration. "Trapped", "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", "Gangrene", and "Rape of the Young" all rock as hard as anything that this band would do. "Love in Action" and the sing-along "Love is the Answer" would become classics in the Rundgren canon, with the latter cut being strangely out of place here (it would have been more at home on a Todd solo outing). Of the rest, "Back on the Street" and "Abandon City" are of special interest. A highlight of "City" is Roger Powell''s trumpet solo following choruses of "you better run for your lives": it sounds like the walls of Jericho are ready to fall down! The only weak songs are "Windows" and "Crazy Lady Blue". The former''s lyric might be reworded today, with its title and lines like "the web of life connects each of us to each other" having double meaning in our computer-centric era. :-) If you have as many as 3 Utopia albums in your collection, this should be one of them.

This is Utopia`s single greatest master work, and IMHO, one ofthe best albums of all time. The album begins with the powerful, extremely catchy "Trapped", which leaves no doubt that the bandhas expanded its horizons from their previous, very ethereal RA album."Trapped" is perhaps the best track on the album -- which is highpraise, because this album is packed full of outstanding songs.The band does not totally remove itself from the RA sound, though,as Roger Powell`s wonderful "Windows" makes use of the soft vocal harmonies that were a big part of RA. Roger is not knownfor an outstanding vocal range, and "Windows" is absolutelyperfectly suited for his deep, somewhat limited vocal range, and it comes off brilliantly. The album contains two songswhich became staples of their live shows -- the rocking, largelyoverrrated, (but still very good) "Love In Action", and the soft classic, "Love Is The Answer". Other highlights includethe pounding "Back On The Street", "My Angel", in which Kasimand Todd pull off some outstanding vocal performances (and which also includes a brief sax solo by Todd!), Willie`s raunchy "Gangrene",and Todd`s furiously paced "Rape Of The Young". Willie pullsoff an uncharacteristicly smooth vocal performance in the very lovely "Crazy Lady Blue" -- I wish we had gotten to hear that vocal style a little more. If the album has a weak point (a BIGif), it would be the mildly lackluster "The Martyr". But one is forgiving of a single less than spectacular song on an album that has so many strengths. This album is a must have, not only for Utopia and Todd Rundgren fans, but also for anyone wholikes great music. It`s one of my all time favorites.