Тодд Рандгрен: Жаңа студия, шығармашылық ізденістер және музыкалық эволюция

The album was well received by critics and fans, who viewed the record as a "return to form" and his most immediately accessible since Something/Anything? (1972). In the US, the album peaked at number 36, while single "Can We Still Be Friends" reached number 29. The song became Rundgren's most covered, with versions by Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart, Colin Blunstone, and Mandy Moore.

Following the completion of Faithful (1976), Rundgren spent two months on an eastern spiritual retreat, visiting Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bali, Thailand, Japan, and Hawaii. He also opened Utopia Sound Studios in Lake Hill, New York, just outside of Woodstock, and bought a home nearby, as well as an adjoining property to be taken over as accommodation for artists who used the studio. The Lake Hill complex on Mink Hollow Road remained Rundgren's base for the next six years. Between Faithful and Hermit of Mink Hollow, Rundgren also recorded three albums with his band Utopia. The first, Disco Jets, was a tongue in cheek collection of instrumental disco tracks left unreleased until 2001. Ra (February 1977) was a concept album based on Egyptian mythology, which prefaced a lavish tour involving an extravagant stage set with a giant pyramid and Sphynx head. Oops! Wrong Planet (September 1977), recorded immediately after the tour, signaled the start of a more pop oriented direction for the group. Rundgren intended the songs on the album to be performed on piano with minimal arrangements, apart from the bass, drums and voices. In that sense, he stated that the songwriting process appeared to be "fairly conventional". Most of the songs on the record did not have lyrics until completed. The writing process typically started with a rhythm track. For individual parts, he said he adopted different "personas" to suit the playing styles, such as Paul McCartney on "Determination", "where I do some of that squiggly McCartney 'Paperback Writer' stuff in the outro." He stated that whatever concept behind the album's sound was limited to showcasing both his piano based compositions and his newly refined singing ability. Daryl Hall claimed credit for influencing Rundgren's singing style after the sessions for War Babies (1974), a view supported by Utopia's Ralph Schuckett, who said: "On our tour before that [record], he never could quite cut it as a live singer. I think Daryl's whole thing just rubbed off on him." Rundgren disagreed of the extent of Hall's influence, explaining "We're both still trying to emulate our common influences, the great soul singers who, in our mind, are better singers than either of us." Mink Hollow was divided into "The Easy Side" and "The Difficult Side" because a Bearsville executive felt that the original proposed running order lacked balance. Rundgren commented in a contemporary interview: "I don't know what the fuck they were talking about. So I did it, figuring it was their particular wank and they can think what they want." Although Mink Hollow is often compared to "confessional" works such as Joni Mitchell's Blue (1971) or Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (1975), Rundgren reflected that the album's songs were not necessarily autobiographical: "I wouldn't make that close a connection to my real life. Like 'Too Far Gone' wasn't directly about me leaving home as a teenager. Like most of my songs, they're only biographical to the point that other people can identify with them." The song "Onomotoapoiea" served as comic relief for the album, being a music hall number in a similar vein to Rundgren's "Just Another Onionhead" from A Wizard, a True Star (1972) and "An Elpee's Worth of Toons" from Todd (1974).

Hermit of Mink Hollow was released in May 1978 with a cover that depicts a blue tinted video screen image of Rundgren alone in his garden. In the US, the LP peaked at number 36, Popularly viewed as his most immediately accessible work since Something/Anything?, it received more public attention and radio airplay than most of Rundgren's efforts since A Wizard, a True Star Conversely, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote a single sentence review that stated: "Only a weight as willfully light as Todd can be trusted to put his smartest song ('Onomatopeia') on 'the easy side' and his dumbest ('Bag Lady') on 'the difficult side.'" Retrospectively, Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork wrote that the album was the only record in Rundgren's discography that comes close to the "moments of enlightenment" heard on Something/Anything? or A Wizard, a True Star. He wrote: "The ballads [on Hermit of Mink Hollow] were heavier, and the moments of levity felt more compulsive, like a man punching himself in the head to get out of a funk. Rundgren understood all along that things would never be the same. There’s a reason why he sang 'I Saw the Light' in the past tense: his life’s work depended on knowing you can never get that first high again." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic reviewed that Hermit of Mink Hollow was Rundgren's "most emotional record", and in comparison to Something/Anything? is "more cohesive. It also feels less brilliant, even if it is, in many ways, nearly as excellent as Rundgren's masterwork, mainly because it doesn't have such a wide scope."