Utopia "Adventures in Utopia"

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Utopia’s, “Adventures in Utopia”

For those of you that don’t know, Utopia is a band led by Philadelphia native, Todd Rundgren. He was joined by Roger Powell on keys, John ‘Willie’ Wilcox on drums and Kasim Sultan on bass. Everybody sang.

This was their release of 1980. They were just spitting out the music back then. And Todd, well he was at one of his busiest periods between mid 70’s and say, 1983. Some of my favorite music by him was done during that time.

‘Adventures in Utopia’ follows my pattern of, ‘The tour I saw was often my favorite album by that artist.’ But I’m not sure which was the chicken and which was the egg in that statement? Did I love the album so I saw the show? Or did I see the show because I loved the album so much?’ (Granada Theater, Chicago, Illinois)

Some stand out tracks here include, ‘Road to Utopia, Caravan, Set Me Free, Second Nature, Shot in the Dark, You Make Me Crazy, Last of the New Wave Riders, Love Alone’ and ‘Rock Love.’

Yup, if you were counting, that’s the whole album!

Track listing

Side one

1. “The Road to Utopia” – 4:54
2. “You Make Me Crazy” – 3:41
3. “Second Nature” – 2:36
4. “Set Me Free” – 3:09
5. “Caravan” – 7:01

Side two

1. “Last of the New Wave Riders” – 4:22
2. “Shot in the Dark” – 3:41
3. “The Very Last Time” – 3:52
4. “Love Alone” – 3:55
5. “Rock Love” – 5:33

Personnel

• Todd Rundgren – Guitars
• Kasim Sulton – Bass
• Roger Powell – Keyboards
• Willie Wilcox – Drums

Everybody Sings!

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Todd Rundgren Official Website

Kasim Sulton Website