Nominally,
Todd's punningly titled 2011 album
Todd Rundgren's Johnson is a tribute to the legendary
Robert Johnson -- delivered just in time for the great man's 100th birthday -- but
Rundgren has never shown much interest in the blues. He threw away a cover of
Junior Wells' "Messin' with the Kid" on
Something/Anything?, but it was an introduction that played like an afterthought -- but he's always pledged allegiance to British blues. That's the blues he celebrates on
Todd Rundgren's Johnson, the kind powered by overdriven Marshall amps that pumped out heavy riffs and long solos, a sound many miles away from
Johnson's spare, skeletal Delta blues. This being
Rundgren, things aren't quite so simple, of course. Eschewing the basic two-guitar/bass/drums lineup of British blues, he recorded everything but the bass himself -- longtime running mate
Kasim Sulton manned the four strings -- never resisting the opportunity to layer on digital effects, piling on harmonizers and watery choruses at will. All this flair skews
Todd Rundgren's Johnson toward a bizarre mutation of
Faithful,
Arena, and
Nearly Human, a curious concoction of lumbering blooze and shimmering cleanliness that's as bewildering as anything
Todd has releasedâ?¦which is no small feat but not necessarily an interesting one, either. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine