Todd Rundgren - Solo in Clearwater [2LP Clear]

One man, a piano, a couple of guitars and a room full of believers: Solo in Clearwater catches Todd Rundgren alone on stage, pressed as a limited double LP on clear vinyl.

After decades of fronting full bands, Rundgren spent 2003 touring with nobody else beside him, and this concert was captured that year at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. Switching between piano and guitars, he revisits his catalogue with fresh eyes, pulling from every era of his solo work and the prog-leaning world of Utopia.

Stripped of studio gloss, the songs reveal how sturdy they always were. "Hello, It's Me" arrives warm and conversational, "Can We Still Be Friends?" aches a little harder with so little around it, and "Bang the Drum All Day" becomes a full-room singalong. He even slips in a fond reading of the Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away".

Between songs he is chatty, funny and a little mischievous, the kind of host who makes a big theatre feel like a living room. Twenty songs across four sides leave plenty of space for deep cuts alongside the hits.

For followers of Rundgren's restless career, this is a rare chance to hear the songwriter without any scaffolding, and clear vinyl makes a fitting home for a performance this transparent.