A very, very odd disc.
Jerry Kindall | Seattle, WA USA | 09/26/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Nobody who's heard No World Order will be too surprised that Rundgren's still full of surprises even now, but this one takes the cake. Most of the actual Rundgren noises on it are decades old (the most recent vocal track is from A Cappella, which must be at least fifteen years old now); everything but the vocal tracks were composed by various remix artists, who typically take the songs in a techno or house direction. Some of Rundgren's songs are just too melodic to work with this treatment. I found myself laughing out loud at how bad some of them were, I'm afraid. Others are better, but I can't quite tell whether they only look good in comparison to the rest. I liked the Mission U.K. mix of "Tiny Demons," and "Bang the Drum All Day" gets two very different remixes, and they're both pretty good, although I like the Latin-tinged Skip Heller y Sus Orquestra sin Pagar (heh) mix more. "Something to Fall Back On" and "Time Heals" aren't that terrible. There are also two remixes of "Hello It's Me" that both struck me as lousy, and Todd's G&S cover ("Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song") gets turned into a train wreck -- I don't know what possessed anyone to think THAT would work. This is definitely for die-hard Todd fans only, but at least it has more good songs on it than One Long Year."
Strange but true...
Don MacGillivray | 02/08/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Anyone who's a big Todd fan, but not familiar with the Cleopatra artists involved must be very confused by this CD. Oddly enough, I am fan of both. Cleo did a "hits" remix disc for Gary Numan a few years back that was absolutely brilliant (especially the synth work). This disc, Reconstructed, is much in the same vein, but far more challenging due to the different nature of Todd's songs from those of the Cleo/Synth world. I'm not going to say that every track here is brilliant -- a few of the remixes are downright awful -- but the ones that do work, work so well. My favorites include "Love Is the Answer [Fredco Mix]", which builds up fantastically, and "Drive [Chemical Groove Mix]". Reconstructed is definitely a unique combination of talents."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1