After two albums, Todd Rundgren had one hit and a burgeoning cult following, plus growing respect as a hitmaking record producer. There's no question he was busy, but as it turns out, all this work only scratched the surface of his ambition. He had decided to abandon the Runt pretense and recorded a full double album by himself (save for one side). Others had recorded one-man albums before, most notably Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, but Rundgren -- without borrowing musically from either artist -- captured the homemade ambience of McCartney with the visionary feel of Music of My Mind, adding an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music from Gilbert & Sullivan through Jimi Hendrix, plus the crazed zeal of a pioneer. Listening to Something/Anything? is a mind-altering trip in itself, no matter how many instantly memorable, shamelessly accessible pop songs are scattered throughout the album. Each side of the double album is a concept onto itself. The first side is "a bouquet of ear-catching melodies"; side two is "the cerebral side"; on side three "the kid gets heavy"; side four is his mock pop operetta, recorded with a full band including the Sales brothers. It gallops through everything -- Carole King tributes ("I Saw the Light"), classic ballads ("Hello It's Me," "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference"), Motown ("Wolfman Jack"), blinding power pop ("Couldn't I Just Tell You"), psychedelic hard rock ("Black Maria"), pure weirdness ("I Went to the Mirror"), blue-eyed soul ("Dust in the Wind"), and scores of brilliant songs that don't fall into any particular style ("Cold Morning Light," "It Takes Two to Tango"). It's an amazing journey that's remarkably unpretentious. He may have contributed self-penned liner notes, but Rundgren peppers his writing with self-aware, self-deprecating asides, and he also indulges his bizarre sense of humor with gross-outs ("Piss Aaron") and sheer quirkiness, such as an aural tour of the studio at the beginning of side two. Something/Anything? has a ton of loose ends throughout: plenty of studio tricks, slight songs (but no filler), snippets of dialogue, and purposely botched beginnings, but all these throwaways simply add context -- they're what makes the album into a kaleidoscopic odyssey through the mind of an insanely gifted pop music obsessive. Rundgren occasionally touched on the sheer brilliance of Something/Anything? in his later work, but this extraordinary double album is the one time where his classicist songcraft and messy genius converged to create an utterly unique, glorious record.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

"Best of all is a majestic take on Nick Cave’s ‘Into My Arms’; hushed intimacy making its sorrow all the sweeter." © TiVo

George Clooney's 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck is set in New York City during the '50s, and the director decided the right music to go with the black-and-white cinematography was jazz. More specifically, current recordings from vocalist Dianne Reeves and a small combo featuring some silky smooth tenor and alto sax from Matt Catingub, Peter Martin on piano, and Jeff Hamilton on drums with Robert Hurst and Christoph Luty splitting bass duties. The tunes are mostly classic ballads and smoky standards (all picked by Clooney) that Reeves and the group handle with a satisfyingly light touch. She gives the songs plenty of emotion but never over-sings, lending the recording a very intimate feel. Also helping with that is the sound of the album as it's free from any modern studio trickery or gloss; in fact, much of the music on the soundtrack was recorded live during the shooting of the movie. Had Clooney chosen songs actually recorded in the '50s, the soundtrack may have been more authentic, but Reeves and her group do a commendable job of re-creating the simple and sentimental sound of the era's mainstream vocal jazz.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

This release by countertenor Randall Scotting has a strong program; perhaps no one else has offered a works-on-a-theme set of this kind, and the pieces gain from being grouped together with others of their ilk. The songs are not just of the Dowland melancholy type but include a variety of moods from perhaps misplaced optimism and even humor to the grimmest of the grim, Thomas Ravenscroft's version of the traditional ballad The Three Ravens. There are French and Italian pieces as well as English ones, and the American faux-Scots Black is the color of my true love's hair seems to fit right in. In fact, the music emerges in Scotting's hands as a kind of subgenre, with the various types of piece in dialogue. Scotting has been better known for Baroque opera up to now, and he has a powerful voice that at times somewhat overpowers the material, but he has a feeling for these songs, and several other factors work in the album's favor, one being the presence of veteran lutenist Stephen Stubbs, who gets a few elegant solo turns. Another is the sheer beauty of Scotting's voice, which comes through no matter what the material. The graphics have a sense of fun (and one can say this regardless of the subject matter). Listeners are likely to enjoy this release, which is billed as an anti-Valentine's item. Gift it to someone you don't love!© James Manheim /TiVo

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