Hermit of the Glass Palace
I dunno. I just donno. My best friend in high school made me listen to Todd Rundgren because I only knew three chords on guitar and he said, "Curtis, your never gonna get anywhere in life if you don't enrich yourself with some brain-smashing rock albums. Okaaaay...So here I am ten years later, still can't tune a guitar or play more than three chords, but I've got a few good CD's that I never would of even of heard of if not for him. My first listen to this album was "puke...this sounds like my older sisters worn out Carol King cassettes!! I mean really. I didn't know what to make of it. Other than the lyrics just seemed a little odd, like you know, this guy is at least TRYING to be different. I always thought a cooler name for this album would of been Hermit of the Mind Theater. To me that would of rocked. It would of gave it more of a Pink Floyd sound or something. The first song is "All the Children Sing." He sounds like on this song he's like me and only knows three chords!! But hey, it rocks a bit. I dunno what the lyrics means, but that's why I said he should of called the album Hermit of the Mind Theater and it would of rocked out even cooler. Oh well. Next is "Can We Still Be Friends." Another simple song wrote on three chords, but heck, its better than the theme song to Friends. Ballad is "Hurting For You." "It's sad but we can't deny it." Five star song because it just seems like something that would be hard to sit down and write if you tried. I'm not even gonna try and spell that song, but its only like what a minute long? He just makes all these funny noises through it- beep churp clang BANG!! "Too Far Gone": again, why did he not call this album something cooler like "Hermit Of The Last Spectre." Or Hermit of the Infinite Wave." Now thats cool. The next half of the album...wow..it gets really difficult. I don't know why he didn't make the WHOLE album sound really difficult but I guess he wanted the first half to be simple and then it would get harder as it goes on. I guess.
Listen to the song "Bread." It rocks and cooks like better than my brother playing drunk in the basement with that guy down the street whose mom through him out of the house for drinking out of the liqor cabinet till all hours of the night.
Then theres "Bag Lady." Its sad. A sad song. Maybe she is the hermit herself. Hermit of the Midnight Garden. Except the garden is just a park. Sad song, but this was a diary of the 70's.
It heats up and cooks like a scorcher on "Totally Outa Control." I couldnt play guitar like this if I tried. It scorchers like Jimi Hendrix. He turned up the volume so loud on this I bet the glass pane in the studio broke into pieces. Yikes!!
Then it all comes to a halt with Fading Away, which sounds like an easy song to play, I dunno why it did not go sooner on the album. It sounds like a Beatles song!! Hermit of Bungalow Bill!! Hep hep.
Call it whatever you want, just call it good. If not for my best friend in high school I still would be thinking Nirvarna was "real" music. But hey, I even like them now. That new posthumsus song is a scorcher- a burning thrash of a rock song!!
Curtis o'neil
A Todd Masterpiece
Don't hesitate to buy this CD. This CD is one of Todd's best. "Determination" is simply one of the best rock songs ever! "All the Children Sing" is wonderful. Hermit of Mink Hollow is a masterpiece. His skill as a songwriter is well known, but on Hermit he's truly inspired. I've been listening to this album since the 70's and it still moves me today. Thanks Todd!
masterpiece
don't judge this album by the song samples. They're good, but the rest of the songs are even better...much better.
Todd recorded all of this album himself, solo, singing every track and playing every instrument.
Rundgren Returns To Pop/Rock
Hermit Of Mink Hollow is the greatest pop/rock solo album he has released in a while. "All The Children Sing" is a good rocker that sounds more like a kids television show theme than pop/rock song. "Can We Still Be Friends" was one of Todd's hits, it is a good ballad seeing he had just gotten out of a realtionship with Bebe Buell. Maybe that this song could be about that. "Too Far Gone", "Onomatopoeia", "Determination", "You Cried Wolf", and "Fade Away" which should have been a hit, make The Hermit Of Mink Hollow rate up there with The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren or even maybe a little bit of Something/Anything. Mostly because this is the most pop orientated album Todd has released in a while.
As perfect as pop gets
How long does this album run? 12 songs at 3 minutes each? It's good to know that some people still believe in pure and simple pop songs, strung together intelligently to a nice and compact album, and who better to write the perfect album than Todd, who can write, sing, and play anything. I picked this album up when it came out, and have bought it twice on vinyl and once on CD. Great songs, imaginatively played, unbelievable vocal arrangements ("Can we still be friends"); the perfect pop record in other words.
