Initiation (Todd Rundgren album)
| Initiation | ||||
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| Studio album by Todd Rundgren | ||||
| Released | June 14, 1975 | |||
| Recorded | Secret Sound Studio Media Sound Studio Bearsville Sound Studio |
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| Genre | Psychedelic rock, progressive rock | |||
| Length | 67:34 | |||
| Label | Bearsville, Rhino | |||
| Producer | Todd Rundgren | |||
| Todd Rundgren chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Initiation | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | (Not rated) |
Initiation is the sixth solo album by Todd Rundgren, released in the summer of 1975. With this album, Rundgren fully embraced the synthesized prog sound he had begun exploring in more depth in his work with his band Utopia. However, unlike Utopia, in which Rundgren had limited himself to playing guitar, most of the synthesizers on Initiation were played/programmed by Rundgren himself.
Initiation was a concept album that could be broken into two parts corresponding to its two sides, each of which was over 30 minutes long. The first side was made up of Rundgren's songs from various rock genres, similar to previous Rundgren albums such as Todd; all of the members of Utopia appeared, as well as many of Rundgren's friends such as the members of the Edgar Winter Group on "Fair Warning". The second side, however, was entirely made up of the heavily synthesized instrumental work "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", named after a 1930 book of the same name by theosophist Alice Bailey (whose works, influenced by the writings of H.P. Blavatsky, also included the concept of "initiation" and the "seven rays"). Rundgren performs all of the instrumental parts, with an enormous amount of the work being programmed and performed as well as co-written by a (largely uncredited) Roger Powell.
Album opener "Real Man" (which featured all of the original members of Utopia except for M. Frog Labat) and the modulated a capella "Born to Synthesize" have Rundgren acknowledging that he should face himself and follow his dreams of experimenting more with music than creating conventional pop records. "The Death of Rock and Roll", ironically the hardest rocking song on the record, takes a stab at the critics that rejected his previous rock albums A Wizard, a True Star and Todd. At the same time, Rundgren was also experimenting with Eastern religious concepts, exploring these themes on "Eastern Intrigue", as well as forming the basis of "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire". The closing tracks of the first side, the "disco-prog" title track and the soul music-inspired "Fair Warning", cryptically state that Rundgren is ready to push forward and that it is up to the listener to follow along or tune out.
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Wikipedia