Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? (Bearsville 2006)

YOU COULD reasonably put Something/Anything? anywhere on the scale between mere self-indulgence and full blown egomania, but that would be missing the point. If you shoot and miss, that's the time to examine your motivation for taking such a tough shot in the first place. But if it goes in, then it was a good shot, no matter how difficult. Todd may have had to use the backboard on this one, but that counts just as much as a swish. (Oddly enough, it's the one accompanied side that comes off as self-indulgent, not the three solo sides; the one-take casualness of Side Four seems flippant after all that custom tailoring.)