You know what an acid trip sounds like? I wouldn't know for sure, but I would guess this album. Not very song-based, but much more like a soundscape where there are no rules, Rundgren followed his pop masterpiece Something/Anything with this. Some tracks are bursts of seemingly random sound effects and tape noises. Sometimes, it seems like a joke, like on "Dogfight giggle." Sometimes it is a joke, such as "Rock and Roll Pussy." It's noise-art at its finest, though, abstract enough to draw you in for the sheer "wtf" factor before it wallops you with the same great pop songwriting of its predecessor. While most of side one is tape experiment weirdness, it does contain "Just Another Onionhead; da da Dali" and "International Feel," songs that challenge you to get them out of your head. The second side is a bit more conventional, but the jerky rhythms of "Does Anybody Love You?" remind you that it's only relative. I'd rate this a masterpiece, though, in the same way that Radiohead's Kid A is a masterpiece. Is it willfully weird for the sake of being weird? Probably, but it's performed by a master capable of pulling off this kind of weirdness in a compelling fashion.
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