Album of the Day

Todd Rundgren was well established as a hitmaker by 1973 when he decided to take a sharp left turn with his fourth solo album. “I made this crazy record called A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR, in which I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else’s benefit,” recalled the singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist-producer. Its 55+ minute running time and the absence of supporting singles (though “International Feel” and “Just One Victory” could have easily qualified) may have hurt initial sales but over time the hallucinogenically-informed Bearsville set has attracted such admirers as Patti Smith, Trent Reznor and Tame Impala. One of Rundgren's signature works, A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR is coming on vinyl for Record Store Day 2023.