''No World Order'' is the fourteenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Ut ...

(credited to TR-i). It was released on July 6, 1993, for the

Philips CD-i The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM and specified in the '' Green B ...

, making it the first interactive album in history. Its music was heavily influenced by

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

and

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

Interactive release

This CD-only recording was available in an interactive version on Philips' short-lived

CD-i The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of Compact Disc Di ...

format, as well as the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

operating systems. The interactive version included the ability to alter the playback of the music by selecting a pre-determined sequence by either Rundgren or one of his four guest producers -

Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced s ...

Jerry Harrison Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American songwriter, musician, producer, and entrepreneur. He began his professional music career as a member of the cult band the Modern Lovers before becoming keyboardist and guitarist ...

Hal Willner Hal Willner (April 6, 1956 – April 7, 2020) was an American music producer working in recording, films, television, and live events. He was best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical sty ...

and

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a very ...

. The interface allowed the listener to control various aspects of music playback. If the user did nothing, the Rundgren mix would start and play through to the end. The interactive interface presented standard playback controls and the following major functions, plus a help function: * Program :(TR-i, Hal Willner, Bob Clearmountain, Jerry Harrison, Don Was) * Direction :(Very Fast Forward, Fast Forward, Forward, Hold, Reverse) * Form :(Creative, Standard, Conservative) * Tempo :(Fastest 132 BPM, Faster 126 BPM, Fast 120 BPM, Medium 110 BPM, Slow 100 BPM, Slower 92 BPM, Slowest 96 BPM) * Mood :(Bright, Happy, Thoughtful, Sad, Dark) * Mix :(Karaoke, Thick, Natural, Spacious, Sparse) * Video :(Blank, Warp, Swarm, Title, Editor) The material on the disc was 933 4-

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

musical segments. Each was a portion of one of the songs, accompanied by metadata describing the character of the segment - tempo in BPM, mood, chorus or verse, etc. Each segment was available in multiple mixes as well, from instrumental to

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

. As the listener adjusted parameters, the currently playing segment would finish before starting a new segment, ensuring a seamless listening experience. The interface had the unique (at the time) property of allowing the user to select a range rather than a single value when adjusting a parameter. One could select a fast tempo, reducing the range so only that fast tempo segments were played, or increase the range so medium to fast were played, weighting towards fast. Rundgren demonstrated No World Order and the Philips CD-i system at record stores and electronics retailers after the release of the disc, and can be found on YouTube
Part 1
an
Part 2
The tour for the album was designed to maximize interactivity with the audience, allowing members to dance on a raised portion of the stage, and even to guest solo on guitar. Rundgren was the only performer on this tour apart from three female dancers. The interactive program received "Best Composition/Arrangement" from the ''Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences'', and the "Best Interactive Disc of the Year" Award from ''Video'' magazine. The editors of ''

Electronic Entertainment Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

'' presented it with their 1993 "Breakthrough Multimedia Title" award, and praised it as "a preview of a new kind of musical medium."

Standard CD release

A non-interactive, audio-only CD was released simultaneously with Rundgren's preferred sequence. Even this version, however, played on the theme of interactivity and lack of order: its nearly continuous flow supported random play, and its paper insert could be refolded and reinserted so as to display any of 16 alternate versions of the cover art. Another version of the album, ''No World Order Lite'', was released the following year, presenting the same material in a more song-oriented format. In Japan a promotional disc, ''NWO (Version 1.01)'', was released that contains alternate versions of "Fascist Christ," "Property," "Day Job," and "Fever Broke." An "expanded edition" reissue compiling all of the previous versions, plus four bonus tracks, was released by Esoteric/Cherry Red Records on November 8, 2011. On digital platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify, "Day Job lub Version is missing from this reissue even though its title is included in the track listing; ten tracks on "disc two" are mislabeled, starting with "Proactivity," which is actually "Time Stood Still," and ending with "Day Job lub Version" which is "Property ost Version" A limited-edition DVD of the 1993-'94 "World (No Order) Tour" was issued by Toddstore in 2014. It includes a range of bonus video from the era, including footage of a CD-i demonstration by Rundgren at Tower Records in Chicago and two interviews from the period with Indianapolis TV journalist Ken Owen.

Track listing

All songs by Todd Rundgren

''No World Order''

#"Worldwide Epiphany" #"No World Order" #"Worldwide Epiphany" #"Day Job" #"Property" #"Fascist Christ" #"Love Thing" #"Time Stood Still" #"Proactivity" #"No World Order" #"Worldwide Epiphany" #"Time Stood Still" #"Love Thing" #"Time Stood Still" #"Word Made Flesh" #"Fever Broke"

''NWO (Version 1.01)'' (1993)

#"Fascist Christ (Fax Version)" #"Property (Video Version)" #"Day Job (Radio Version)" #"Fascist Christ (Radio Version)" #"Fever Broke (Xaos Version)" #"Property (Lost Version)" #"Day Job (Club Version)" #"Fascist Christ (Broken Version)"

''No World Order Lite''

#"Worldwide Epiphany" #"Love Thing" #"Property" #"Day Job" #"Fascist Christ" #"No World Order" #"Time Stood Still" #"Proactivity" #"Word Made Flesh" #"Fever Broke"

''No World Order: Expanded Edition ''

Disc 1 #"Worldwide Epiphany" 1.0 #"No World Order" 1.0 #"Worldwide Epiphany" 1.1 #"Day Job" 1.0 #"Property" 1.0 #"Fascist Christ" 1.0 #"Love Thing" 1.0 #"Time Stood Still" 1.0 #"Proactivity" 1.0 #"No World Order" 1.1 #"Worldwide Epiphany" 1.2 #"Time Stood Still" 1.1 #"Love Thing" 1.1 #"Time Stood Still" 1.2 #"Word Made Flesh" 1.0 #"Fever Broke" 1.0 #"Day Job" (US Club Version) #"No World Order" (Yokohama Morning Version) #"Day Job" (US Radio Version) Disc 2: #"Worldwide Epiphany" #"Love Thing" #"Property" #"Day Job" #"Fascist Christ" #"No World Order" #"Time Stood Still" #"Proactivity" #"Word Made Flesh" #"Fever Broke" #"Fascist Christ" (Fax Version) #"Property" (Video Version) #"Day Job" (Radio Version) #"Fascist Christ" (Radio Version) #"Fever Broke" (Xaos Version) #"Property" (Lost Version) #"Day Job" (Club Version) #"Fascist Christ" (Broken Version) #"No World Order" (Yokohama Night Version)

Personnel

* Todd Rundgren - all vocals and instruments, producer

References

{{Authority control Todd Rundgren albums 1993 albums Albums produced by Todd Rundgren CD-i games