Liars

I don't feel like writing a long review right now, but as a life-long fan, I think this album is one of his very best. The musicianship, brilliant lyrics, thematic tone, production values and his over-the-top, passionate singing have made this one we play over and over, and have now for what? 17 years? It's fabulous.

If you're a Rundgren fan, then you'll want to hear this album in the 5.1 Dolby Digital format for two reasons: 1) It's featured in 5.1 Surround Sound and 2) Todd mixed the 5.1 version. Liars is a theme album and I'll refrain from elaborating but the central theme runs through each song and the music is exactly what you'd expect from Todd in that it is somewhat cerebral, comical, experimental, and features digital rhythm tracks, although I prefer when he plays the drums or hires a good drummer to fulfill that role. Overall, it's an excellent musical excursion with the album title being the theme. Enjoy!

This CD "Liars" by Todd Rundgren is a masterpiece. In the coming generations, when the musical body of work is listened to by future generations, people will think Todd Rundgren must have been (7) musical artists rather than (1). His work is so diverse, so full, so varied, he could compose a perfect track in his dreams. "God Said" closes out a interesting, wonderful CD/Album...

This is more pop than rock. I would have liked alot more guitar work. I have been interested in Todd's spiritual side since TR-1 No World Order. Alot of that comes through here in songs about how important truth is. I like the song "God Said" because we can hear His thoughts through Todd's inspiration. We need to get over ourselves and care about others. What is truth? Love wins in the end!

Since I was introduced to Todd Rundgren's work nearly 30 years ago I have closely followed his career through all of its twists and turns, and have purchased most of his material. That makes me favor him a bit, so I won't claim this to be a non-biased review. With that said, I found "Liars" to be yet another solid accomplishment in keeping with "Todd" tradition. The vocals are excellent, the variety of the tunes is interesting, and the social commentary is very powerful indeed. If you have liked Todd's music in the past then you'll most likely enjoy this CD as well. Listening to the sample clips will help you to know for sure of course.

I absolutely love Todd Rundgren! You never know what the man will do and truthfully, some of his stuff borders on unlistenable for me at times. Not true of Liars though. Some very serious commentaries on religion, doubt, anger and relationships, all the while maintaining a sense of humor (Flaw). Not exactly an easy task. Soundtrack plays in my head constantly atm.

This review is mainly for those unfamiliar with Todd. He has been around for 37 years, producing some excellent as well as strange music along the way. This album is special - one of his best, in my opinion. Todd has a way of being very intelligent and soul-searching in an honest and simple way. It's mainly serious, but also clever with a little humor mixed in. Todd's music has an ethereal quality to is and is very original. His harmonies are unique. I recommend this album.

Todd Rundgren should be in the RnR Hall of Fame. His body of work is incredible. Not because the award itself is so important, but because Todd's music is so vital/important, that it needs to be exposed and re-exposed to the masses.He has been largely ignored for far, FAR too long. He has continued to put out great music, and only TRULY die hard fans are aware of it. IT IS CRIMINAL!

This isn't Todd's best album for my money that accolade goes to "Healing" and I've always preffered his work with Utopia to most of his solo stuff. But what we have here is a good album raised to the level of an excellent by one of the best 5.1 surround mixes I've heard. I am a fan of DVD audio discs as when they are done well they are the audio equivalent of going from small screen black and white TV to plasma screen HD T.V. And with "Liars" Todd has turned his undoubted studio talents to giving a mastercalss demonstration on how to do a 5.1 mix. Just listen to "Mammon" and you'll get what I mean . Just beware the bass, it's a room rattler.

Always on the search for hi-res music I spotted this DVD-A at the bargain price of just over a fiver so thought I'd give it a go(the cd version is very highly rated elsewhere).As a person that's never listened to Todd Rundgren previously it was certainly a surprising little album, quite varied in style(ranging from soul, blues, pop, euro-techno & rock), yet at the same time always very distinctive.Bit of a grower this album, first listen I was actually a little disappointed, next time it grew a bit, and now I like it(have a feeling it'll continue to grow on me too). Happy Anniversary, Soulbrother and Stoodup being the standout tracks for me at the moment(lyrics are great, as with most of the tracks, if you like to hear songs with a bit of meaning rather than mindless nonsense there's alot to like here), they are also my favourite in terms of multi-channel surround, although the entire album is decent(certainly in DVD-A, I haven't listened in Dolby Digital which is also present as an option) and makes nice use of the surround speakers.I notice the price has gone up now and only 4 remaining, DVD-A collectors looking for something a little different should definately consider grabbing this album while you can, gives some nice variety to a near dead format(although not quite as dead as my preferred formar, SACD).

This album is very, very different from all of Todd's other works, at the initial hearing. Very 'Apple Garage Band' musically or some other computer-based music generating software in sound.Don't expect guitars and instruments that you usually hear on Todd Rundgren albums of the past. But get over this and focus on the lyrical content and delivery and you'll get to appreciate the album!I was struck by it after hearing the 30-second clips on the Aplle iTunes Music store and went straight out and bought it from Amazon!The first track, 'Truth' begins with a pulsating electronic beat [almost 'dance'-like] and is very synthetic; some Todd fans will not like this, I know. But the lyrics save the day along with Todd's fabulous vocals.'Sweet' follows on with a much more Todd-like beat but still very synthetic. But I would say to those who enjoy Todd's earlier, classic albums like Something/Anything, Wizard and Todd to stick with the lyrics and the vocal quality.'Happy Anniversary', what a gem! Just one thing Todd, why didn't you play the guitar solo? You'd have done it so much better - no offense Ken (Emerson).'Soul Brother' doesn't ring my bells, but it's pleasant enough. Still, 'Stoodup' saves the day and gets us back on course with Todd's great vocals and lyrics.'Mammon' is another three-star song like 'Soul Brothers' and gives you a break from the other excellent four and five-star songs.Again, the moment is saved by another lovely song, 'Future'. It's so true as well (which is the whole theme of the album - truth), we're always being told - by TV shows like 'Tomorrows World' - what to expect in the future (living on Mars, living 200 years and driving flying cars). But it's just another media lie!Next a slow, romantic number 'Past' - very Todd-like. 'Wondering' and 'Flaw' are the next two, which compared to the others are a little weaker in my view, but pleasant enough.'Afterlife' brings us back to the high standards that Todd has set for this album. 'Living' is a fast-paced four-star track on my scoreboard.Then we are lead into (in my opinion) the very best track on the album, 'God Said'. For me it's magical, a lovely tune and great lyrics.Todd completes the album with a very timely and up-to-date song 'Liar', with a very Islamic/Arabic sound to it ...but about Americans.'Liars' certainly gets my vote for one of Todd's best albums. I think that there are six 5-star, five 4-star and three 3-star tracks (the star rating relates to the iTunes/iPod rating system that I now use for all my music.Thanks for a great piece of work Todd!

Excellent sound from the UTOPIA front man This was very good value for money a good long album in surround sound with a clean well produced sound with a lot of sound from behind the head in the back channels a good test disc for what surround sound can do and shows of H.D Audio if you can play back the D.V.D Audio format on your d.v.d. player or blue ray player like me through an H.D,M.I Lead in to a DENON amp this gives the best sound with most stages in digital.Highly recommended.

We have waited a little time for Todd to deliver another classic and this is never off the stereo !This is Todd's blue eyed soul album and I'm in Heaven ! His voice is as good as ever not to mention his songwriting,which concentrates on the heavy subject of the TRUTH (Mr Bush gets a mention here !!)All the tracks blend nicely into a soulful groove and the only track that seems out of place is "Mammon",but what the heck,it's still listenable ! "In "Soulbrother" he mourns the loss of Classic Soul (Otis,James Brown etc)"Liar" the final track rocks along and Todd lets loose with some fine lead guitar.One of the classic guitar mags slagged this off,don't listen to them (they probably didn't like it because there was very little guitar on this recording !!)Final word from Todd... Taken from the sleevenotes "The fact is,we are terrified of the truth" YIKES !