Todd Rundgren: C or D

What a great song that is, hits home more and more every time I hear it.

God Said was #9 on my Todd ballot – #7 was Afterlife (which he also played) but that post-ZTT bass thump of the former gets me right in the feels as well.

Liars is also (gah) twenty years old.

… which might explain why he played so much of it.

Shamefully I haven’t really listened to Liars much, but I do remember that it was perceived a “return to form” after all the rap/electronica stuff/industrial songs about ISPs (even though it opens with what i recall to be a very trance-y song with “truth”, although maybe it has more in common with “shine” from healing or something)

"Truth" is like a Paul Oakenfold track with Daryl Hall singing. I love it but I know it freaked a lot of people out when they heard it. Including, I believe, ILM-er Gerald McBoingBoing when I recommended Liars to him a few weeks ago.

I do agree it's very much like "Shine", it rules despite having that "I dunno if you should be doing this" feel to it. first time I saw him I think he opened with that song and I was pretty floored by it, kinda hoped the rest of his set would be like that but it was not

Liars is probably his best since either Healing or Nearly Human, actually his first real solo album in like a decade, so maybe he just had a lot of good stuff stockpiled up. song for song it's very strong though probably too long as a whole. don't think I'd cut anything but some of the songs could stand to be a little shorter.

FWIW "I Hate My Frickin' ISP" is actually a pretty solid tune

Hah it is, he actually did a damn good hard rock version of it when I saw him on the “Arena” tour

Marcello Carlin wrote very eloquently about Liars at the time, which is what piqued my interest though I would have discovered it eventually. "Future" is just gorgeous, I wish TR would have made an entire ambient drum 'n bass LP while he was on that roll. "Soul Brother", which I think was the single, is the only track I am tempted to skip over.