Though many of their American peers interpreted the sounds of the
British Invasion in different ways,
the Nazz's take on jangly guitar pop and nascent heavy
psychedelia turned into a blueprint for the American Anglophile
power pop guitar bands that followed in the '70s. Which is why
the Nazz's eponymous debut album is still a fascinating listen, even if portions of the record haven't dated particularly well. Ironically, one of the songs that hasn't aged well is
"Hello It's Me," a ballad that
Todd Rundgren later turned into a contemporary standard. It fails here because its dirgey arrangement meanders -- something that can't be said for the rest of
Nazz. That's not to say that the bandmembers know exactly where they're going, since it often seems like they don't; they just like to try a lot of different styles, cross-breeding their favorite bands in a blatant act of fanboy worship. At their best, the results of this approach are flat-out stunning, as on the lead cut
"Open My Eyes," which twists
the Who's
"I Can't Explain" around until it winds up in
Roy Wood territory. While that may be the only undisputed classic on the record, almost everything else on the album will be interesting to listeners that are as obsessive about '60s Brit-rock as
the Nazz themselves. It's great to hear
Rundgren and lead vocalist
Stewkey approximate the high-pitched harmonies of
Cream on
"Back of Your Mind," or hearing them swing through London on
"See What You Can Be." It's possible that some pure
pop fans will hear too much
Cream and
Hendrix on the record, but they're exceptional showpieces for
Rundgren's fine guitar. And that's what shines through on
Nazz -- even when the record gets muddled, it's possible to hear the first flowering of
Rundgren's talents. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
