Nippon Crown's ninth release in the Todd Archive Series contains a Utopia
concert taken from the Chance, Pughkeepsie, NY on April 8, 1984, being part
of their Oblivion Tour. Compared with other Nippon releases the sound
recording of this 80 minutes long live registration is superb. The concert
is a perfect one in many ways. The songs are powerful and relaxed at the
same time and joyful and vivid all the time (never heard Roger and Willie
sing "Caravan", "Abandon city" and "Princess of the Universe" so soulful and
with so much ease before). The setlist comprises an outbalanced outtake of
their 1977-1983 oeuvre with an inviting accent on songs of the
underestimated Oblivion album. More than half of the album can be heard,
including the Rundgrenesque highlight "If I didn't try" and typical American
'80s rockhits like "Too much water" and "Crybaby". Live these songs show
more to their advantage than on the album production, where they sound quite
"canned".
Really there's only one slight disappointment about this cd: my two most
favorite Oblivion-tracks "I will wait" and "Maybe I could change" don't
appear on the setlist. Anyway, enough reasons remain to put this one on
regularly.
René Bosman, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
