Bon Jovi - What About Now

Bon Jovi - What About Now - 2013

I know, I know...I never reviewed The Circle. I just couldn't bring myself to find it. To buy it. To borrow it...anything. And, yes, I've had a "Bon Jovi - The Circle" playlist on Spotify for over a year. Sue me.

I will, I promise. (I'm not promising you, whoever you are. It's a promise to myself.)

So, why give this a spin? I have no answer, truly. I'm kind of in the mood for big, dumb stadium rock. And BJ can usually satisfy that need for MOR toe tapping.

From the start, What About Now fulfills my craving. "Because We Can" is as a Jovi-esque opener as I've heard, although as I write this, the title track has come on, the third on the record, and I'm dumbstruck at what I'm hearing: Bon Jovi seems to have listened to Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball a lot this year and decided to just ape it. ("Pictures of You" is a leading offender here) Why not? They're both from Jersey and BJ has never had an original thought. It's not that "What About Now" is bad, per se. It's just something that sounds like it was written by committee. Or a machine. The Bon Jovi-Stadium ready-Rock Song Conveyor belt.
Tracks like "What's Left of Me" has that midtempo Springsteen contrapuntal music to theme ratio. But it works.

 Once you settle into that aesthetic it's easy(er) to accept the record. It's Bon Jovi with a helping of Bon Jovi in a Bon Jovi simmer sauce.
You know what you're getting here. We've been getting it. for 30 years. That said, it's listenable. If you want this stuff. Fortunately, it hit the spot.

Grade: B
ASide: Because We Can, What's Left of Me
BlindSide: Pictures of You, That's What the Water Made Me
DownSide: Room at the End of the World

The Cars - Move Like This

The Cars - Move Like This - 2011

And ironic title, considering that when The Cars played live they were like watching a Disney animatronic band.
Move Like This is exactly what one would expect from The Cars. Driving mid tempo, synth driven songs that could have been recorded in 1983.
Where Door to Door showed a band that was clearly ready to be done, Move is the opposite. There's nothing to lose for the guys. Egos are dispensed with. It's just time to make another, template cut, album.
Some tracks sparkle, "Blue Tip", "Too Late", "Sad Song", and the ballads find their way without being obnoxiously "inventive".
In fact, "Sad Song" is a near perfect rip of "My Best Friend's Girl". Handclaps, driving bass, provided by Jacknife Lee, swirling synths, aural space. It's a welcome old friend. As is "Free", which continues to mine the same Carsian tropes. Considering how often the band has let me down for their love of Ocasek's more experimental, arty pursuits, this is welcome. (Much like the recent Devo reunion album was)

Ocasek actually channels Orr's softer, higher register on "Soon" and, he creates a nice blend of the two of them. It's a sweet and gentle piece that evokes a gentler, less controlling aspect of the band. But it is unfortunate that the most sludgy piece is called "Drag on Forever". Cuz it does. (And it sounds a lot like a Cars version of a Monster-era R.E.M. song.....) As does the middling, "Take Another Look" which is covered in the stench of the 80s, like it's a song desperately seeking a soundtrack over whose credits it's crying to be played.

For the most part, Move Like This fits nicely in the catalog. Not as great as Heartbeat City, Candy-O or The Cars, but so so so much better than Door to Door and superior even to Shake it Up, although without that album's massive single.

Grade: B
ASide: Blue Tip, Sad Song
BlindSide: Soon
DownSide: Drag on Forever, Take Another Look

The New Cars - It's Alive [File Under: The Cars]

The New Cars - It's Alive - 2006

Okay, so this is a one off. But, I had to include it.
First off, Rundgren has Ocasek's nervous, forced, paranoia voice down.
The backing harmonies, spot on.
Easton's Roy Thomas Baker/Brian May inspired solo.....
The pulsating, driving beat...Hawkes' layering synths.....the snarky lyrics......

THIS is what I have been waiting for since Heartbeat City.

I'll leave the live portion of the album to you. I couldn't care less. The three studio tracks are all i cared about.

The New Cars was really just Easton and Hawkes. Prairie Prince of The Tubes played drums. The aforementioned Rundgren on Rhythm and vox.

The irony here is that The Cars, a band I saw perform live at Madison Square Garden in 1980, was one of the most boring live acts EVER. I remember it vividly because there was no reason to see them. They sounded JUST like the album and nobody on stage moved. At MSG! And yet, the record they put out was 3 studio tracks and the rest was a live album. Hilarious.

"Not Tonight" is the lead single. And it's one of my favorite Cars tracks...ever.
"Warm" is the "Drive" of the album. Mediocre but spot on.
"More" is the would-be second single. Fun and stupid. And makes me wish there had been a whole album.

Grade: B+

Ric Ocasek - Nexterday [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Nexterday - 2005

It took about 27 years but Ric Ocasek finally made his dream come true: An album of songs written by him, sung by him, produced by him and, most importantly, featuring instruments played by him. Well, not all. He didn't play bass. And he didn't play guitar on ONE song. Or keys on TWO. And he had help with the rudimentary drum programming. But, hey, this is as close as he's been able to get.

Some of the songs, like "Bottom Dollar" &"Don't Lose Me" would probably actually sound pretty good if they didn't just sound like demos recorded in someone's spare bedroom on a laptop. And there's something so inviting and relaxed about "A Little Bit" that I like. Or maybe I've been beaten down after 2.5 decades of this guy's music.

"Silver" is Ric's song for the late Ben Orr. I've never found Ocasek to be very emotionally engaging. An ominous bass leads off, a two note throb takes over and then...lyrically, knowing what the song is about...it's heart wrenching. "You were my right hand. You were my friend. You were always strong until the end." It's easy to forget that they started the Cars together and had known each other since the early 70s in Boston. They were in a folk band called "Milkwood" who released one record in 1972. Obviously, Orr meant more to Ric than I ever imagined. Right up to the end. "You were my good time. You were my rave. You're the one that always set the stage......"
Devastating.

Nexterday demands very little from the listener. It's easy and comfortable, like an old slipper. Ocasek is a rich, elder statesman rock star with children and a wife and none of the trappings. So, he's got no one to impress, he just wants to make music. And that's what he does.

Grade: B-
ASide: Bottom Dollar, Silver
BlindSide: Don't Lose Me
DownSide: I'm Thinking

Ric Ocasek - Troublizing [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Troublizing - 1997

four tracks produced by....

Billy Corgan?

Really?

The first thing I noticed on the very first track is that this sounds like a heavy, 90s era Cars tribute band. "The Next Right Moment" would have fit perfectly on Shake it Up, albeit without the gritty, fuzzboxed guitars. It doesn't take too long, the next song, "Hang On Tight", actually, to get back to that minimalist Cars basics, but something else happens between the notes: Edge. With that bass pushed way up front and the floating guitar/key work dancing in the background, Ocasek's voice and paranoiac sound is given time to shine. The same happens later on the fun but slightly pedestrian "Not Shocked".
I think the heart of the album is the title track. A creeping and moody piece that, put in a minor key, might have appealed to Black Album era Metallica. Then again, maybe not. But, when the guitars and drums and, well, real instruments don't just take backseat on an Ocasek track but, rather, sit side by side and flesh out the song together, you know Ric has had a change of his synth-loving heart. Perhaps Weezer's influence was showing. After all, this album comes out 3 years after he produced the blue album and brought that band it's first success, galvanizing and helping shape the burgeoning Alternative movement. So, it's not really a surprise that "Situation" sounds like an outtake from the Brian Bell chord progression songbook.
Of course, the beat poet in Ocasek can't just stop himself and rears his ugly head on the Cormac McCarthy world "Society Trance", which is just...ugly.
Just as weird, the last track, "Asia Minor" is not by Ric, rather it was written by Billy Corgan. So...Smashing Pumpkins version of The Cars, I guess.

All told, Troublizing shows growth on Ocasek's part and, more importantly, a willingness to relinquish control. It's no Quick Change World or Fireball Zone, though.


Grade: C
ASide: The Next Right Moment, Hang On Tight
BlindSide: Troublizing
DownSide: Here We Go, Society Trance, Asia Minor

Ric Ocasek - Quick Change World [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Quick Change World - 1993

The familiar bass line peeks through the first real cut, "Don't Let Go", a song at once so familiar and yet, sort of fresh that, after the spoken word Laurie Anderson-esque opener fills me with hope, that this album might actually build on the promise of Fireball Zone.
Good news. It does. The sound is bigger and less cluttered. The songs are tighter and not without the requisite Ocasek paranoia.
Just like the first side starts with a spoken word against a post-apocalyptic soundscape, so does side two, only this time exploding into the galloping "Come Alive", one of the most energetic in the man's repertoire. Later on the same energy can be found on "Hopped Up" and it's not a moment too soon.
The first time I find myself not like the album comes late, with the title track, a lame attempt at a funky dance rhythm. And the spoken word experiment continues on "What's On Tv", but that one doesn't fare as well. It's well intentioned. And a bit hypnotic, if pretentious. Ric wants to be a relevant poet and I give him props for that, but it's not exactly the kind of stuff I want peppered throughout the album.
However, it really works as a bookend and the last track, "Help Me Find America" is one of the most human he's concocted, even though it features more electronics than any other he's put out.
I do wish the album hadn't been cut apart. Originally it was intended to be two separate pieces, a song cycle and a poetry cycle. But, the label left him in the dirt and had other ideas. But, it's sort of always been Ocasek's way to put the more difficult material on the second side/half of his albums. The first half really pops, however. So, it's worth a quick spin on the old SpotiWheel.

(Oh, yeah, since it's the 90s, there's a hidden track. Another mood piece. Not awful, but I'm really glad that trend is over.)


Grade: B
ASide: Don't Let Go, Hard Times
BlindSide: Come Alive, Hopped Up, Help me Find America
DownSide: Quick Change World

Ric Ocasek - Fireball Zone [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Fireball Zone - 1991

The first sign of life from Mr. Ocasek in ages. Co-produced by...Nile Rodgers of all people, Fireball Zone opens with the scorching "Rockaway" and really just keeps cruising for a while.
Easily much more accessible than his previous solo records, he seems to have kissed goodbye to The Cars and embraced his own muse. No longer trying to distance himself from his devotion to Bowie/Numan, he comes into his own in many places (also gets a little funky at times) and scores. It's sort of strange to hear Ocasek try so hard to sound like Bryan Ferry meets Spandau Ballet on "The Way You Look Tonight", but, then again, it's not surprising, listening back to the direction he was always taking The Cars and his solo work.
So, it is surprising when he comes up with something like "Flowers of Evil", which, for lack of a more imaginative description, sounds like it fell off Adam Ant's Manners & Physique. Which is also to say that it's the most alive anything Ocasek has put out...in years.  And something has heavy as "Balance" seems out of place in the rest of Ric's catalog but, on FZ it's perfectly fine. In fact, I want more.

There's a lot to like on Fireball Zone. It doesn't sound like The Cars. And that's a good thing. Because I think I've heard enough of that for a while.

Grade: B+
ASide: Rockaway
BlindSide: Over and Over, Flowers of Evil, They Tried, Balance, Fireball Zone

The Cars - Door to Door

The Cars - Door to Door - 1987

Remember that muddy, cloudy, dense production that was smeared all over Panorama? It's back. "Leave or Stay" might have actually been good had anyone thought to put some air between the instruments. Fortunately, the sparsity of arrangement on "You Are the Girl" can overcome the shoddy production.
Door to Door is one of the most maligned albums in any band's catalog. It's not that this is the record that ended the band. It's that The Cars were done by this time. 9 years from that first, perfect release and, well, they just had nothing else to say. They were always basically a one trick pony. That trick worked for a handful of singles. But, it was always going to run out of steam at some point. That point was just before Door to Door.
This album is turgid and worse, anonymous. It could be any synth band of the era. Devoid of ideas, heart, emotion, or fun.
Avoid it.

Grade: D
ASide: You Are the Girl
BlindSide:
DownSide: Fine Line, Double Trouble, Ta Ta Wayo Wayo

Benjamin Orr - The Lace [File Under: The Cars]

Benjamin Orr - The Lace - 1986

Do you like "Drive"? Oh, good. Then you would like 60% of this album. Wait, what? You say you don't need to hear mid-tempo, synth driven, electric drum driven 2nd rate Cars songs?
Oh. Then skip it.

It's not that The Lace is BAD. It's that it's inconsequential. It aims for the middle. Except for the opening track, "Too Hot to Stop" and the burning "That's the Way" there's no there there. There's some promise on the title track, but, in the end, it's much ado about the same old same old. Definitely superior to anything Ocasek had put out on his own, not as much fun as some of Easton's effort, but definitely in the wheelhouse of mid-80s Cars. I do have a warm feeling for "This Time Around", the album's closer. It's pretty honest about what it is. Sort of "Drive" part 2 but with more of an eye on being on the soundtrack to some 80s rom-com like "About Last Night".

I always like Orr. He was my favorite Car. He was the best looking, the most androgynous and he sang lead on so many of their hits. His was a solid 80s voice, he wasn't the creepy club crawler that Ocasek's voice was. He could have probably sang anything. Especially of that era.
I wish his only solo record was better.

Grade: C+
ASide: Too Hot to Stop
BlindSide: The Lace, That's the Way, This Time Around.
DownSide: There's nothing unlistenable here.

Ric Ocasek - This Side of Paradise [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - This Side of Paradise - 1986

Opening with an abstract, paranoid soundscape, "Keep on Laughing" suggests that it might be Ocasek's Low or Lodger but, in no time, those familiar Cars tropes kick in, the steady, mechanical beat, the airless, futuristic, spacey environs, this time buttressed up against glam metal guitar solos and we know that not much is going to change. The sound might be a hair heavier, but Ocasek, who never really had much to say beyond cliche and never met a refrain he couldn't repeat ad nauseum, offers no surprises.
I'm not sure why Ric fails on his own so utterly and completely. It's not like The Cars were a democracy, he was always in charge.
But, if you listen to This Side of Paradise as though it was a Cars record, it's fine. If you told someone it was a Cars record they might respond with, "Really? But it's so much heavier....oh, well, maybe they changed their sound. A bit."
And they wouldn't be wrong. See, Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays on the entire record. Ben Orr sings backup on a bunch of songs, and that harder rocker I wrote about, "True to You"?. Features them and Elliot Easton's guitar. So....save David Robinson (who I'm convinced Ric just didn't care for), it is a Cars song.
It's not until the end of side one that the promise of the very first few moments are made manifest. "Coming for You" is an ominous, dark, dangerous track sidelined only by Hawkes' needless filigree. Other than that, it's as close to what Ocasek's been pretending to be about as anything else.
Like Beatitude before it, Paradise is a near waste of your time. Slow, meandering, uninspired and dull.

Grade: D+
ASide: Coming for You
BlindSide: True to You
DownSide: Mystery, True Love, PFJ

Elliot Easton - Change No Change [File Under: The Cars]

Who knew Elliot Easton could sing? Or even warble? I certainly didn't think he would be the first non-Ocasek Car out of the garage with a solo album.

Co-written with Jules Shear, I'll say this for it, it tries. The entire MO seems to be to let Easton out of his shackles. And, it almost works on that front. He's downright blistering on "Wearing Down Like a Wheel" a song that couldn't fit anywhere in the Cars' catalog but is better than a goodly portion of their output, at least on the 3rd and 4th albums.
This is generic Power Pop. But that's what it is. In the tradition of Raspberries & Bay City Rollers & The Andersons...just without the songs.
Side Two is where the shit hits the needle and you start to wish you'd never heard this. But, you can't unhear the faux R&B, white boy soul and semi-rap of "I Want You". Which sounds like the Theme to Sanford & Son if written and recorded by Dee Dee Ramone.
But the album tries to right itself with the Country Rock, "The Hard Way", a song that suffers from mediocre lyrics & bad singing but has an easy, truck down the highway, big country sound, but is ultimately a failure.
The record fumbles around but finds it's energy towards the end. "Change" is a rocker, the kind we hope would come from the fingers of the legendary southpaw axeman.

Grade: C
ASide: Wearing Down Like a Wheel, Wide Awake
BlindSide: Tools of Your Labor, Help Me, Change
DownSide: I Want You

The Cars - Heartbeat City [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Heartbeat City - 1984



Hello.
Hello Again.

Dumping their longtime producer, The Cars hooked up with hitmaker Mutt Lange, got back to what made them great in the first place, namely, catchy songs, became the darlings of MTV, had Andy Warhol direct and co-star in a video and scored their best album since their debut.
They haven't abandoned their futurism, their love of all things antiseptically controlled, but they are a band again...of sorts.
Robinson is still programming more than playing and Hawkes' keys are...well...they're everywhere.
The hits are snappy and hit the target dead on. But, even the secondary tracks, "Looking for Love", for instance, are stellar. In the case of "Looking", the band seems to be embracing their power pop roots, with nearly treacly sweet backing harmonies, which gets back to what they were about in the first place: bridging the past with the future. They were always basically a 1-4-5 rock group dressed up in skinny ties and slotted shades.
Lange puts his magic touch on tracks like...well...."Magic" and "You Might Think" and the lovely superhit, "Drive" and comes up with winners on each. I can't say enough about "Drive". Not only was the video a winner, but this is the first time in a long time that Orr takes vocal lead and push a song just that much higher. His is a non-descript, bland 80's one, but that makes it perfect for the track. And the wall to wall synth sound that Lange produced is everything that The Cars have been trying to come up with on their own for a couple years, since Panorama, really, and weren't successful. His is such a milestone of 80s sound but, listening today, it sounds nostalgic and fresh.
Even on the inevitable Hawkes/Ocasek collaboration, "It's Not the Night", the band sounds alive and excited. It's a rocker and, truth be told, I didn't think Hawkes had it in him. I still don't. I credit Lange and Orr, who performed the vocals. Weird that this album would have the most cohesive and shiny backing vocals when RTB was Queen's producer. It should have been the other way around, no?

The Cars never wrote anything more than passable piffle. Pop Roc Candy. Earworms. As far as that kind of music goes, it doesn't get better than this.

Grade A+
ASide: Hello Again, Magic, Drive, You Might Think, Why Can't I Have You
BlindSide: Looking for Love, Stranger Eyes, It's Not the Night, Heartbeat City

Ric Ocasek - Beatitude [File Under: The Cars]

Why does this exist? At the height of The Cars' fame, just after they cracked the top 10 with their single, "Shake It Up", their lead singer, lead song writer, control freak who, according to stories at the time, dictated what each member would play, forcing the drummer to program his drums rather than play, does....a solo album?

The Cars might as well BE the Ric Ocasek solo show.

Was it money? Did he want a bigger slice of the pie? I mean, besides the lion's share from writing and publishing that he was already getting? Was he not given enough artistic freedom? Panorama wasn't enough?

Why does this exist?

After the first two very Carsian tracks, the record takes a left turn into weirdville. "Prove"'s synth-funk, "I Can't Wait"'s 80's teen movie soundtrack sound,  and "Connect to Me"'s frenetic, disjointed and schizoid meandering for SEVEN MINUTES close out side one.
Side Two is more of the same and still begs the question: Why does this exist? It's not like you can sing along to anything here, it's not like you wanna learn to play this stuff, and it doesn't really make for dinner music or background music, for that matter.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse than the (co-written by Greg Hawkes) "Out of Control" comes the pulsating nocturnal percussion of "Take a Walk". A song where Ocasek channels his inner beat poet (hence the title) and talks his lyrics. He so wants to be Bowie. That said, the closer, "Time Bomb" is the most ominous thing to come from Otcasek's pen. I really love it.

There's nothing he does here that he couldn't have done with the band.

Unless....

These songs were summarily dismissed by the rest of the band and he decided to prove 'em wrong and used his clout to put this out as a solo record.

Please O Please, be the reason.....


Grade: D
ASide: Something to Grab For
BlindSide: Time Bomb
DownSide: Jimmy Jimmy, Out of Control, Take a Walk, Sneak Attack

The Cars - Shake It Up [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Shake It Up - 1981

More of the same.
Better production, though.

The muddled sounds of early 80's cocaine induced production are gone. I'm not saying they were doing anything, this band seems like the last one to partake in anything mind altering save keyboards. But, that's what the production of the last album sounded like.

Actually, Shake starts off sort of promising.
"Since Your Gone" is a prelude to the album, of sorts. Easton's guitar sounds like it's being played on an e-bow to sound more synth-like (or it's a synth....) adds to the mourn-pop that adorns Ocasek's Bowie-lite persona.
And the album really takes off with the smash hit, "Shake It Up", an infectious calliope of New Wave sounds.

But, after that....more mournful ballading in "I'm Not the One", and the lazy, euro-trashy, "Victim of Love" take their toll. It's not until the Side One closer, "Cruiser" that I realized what was missing from this record: guitars. Easton may play one lick throughout with some crunchy bar chords but it's a welcome respite from the banal music we've come to expect. Things take a turn for the worse on Side Two, "Dream Away" suggests that Ocasek is more in love with Hawkes' sound than being in a rock band. Pilfering a synth line from Laurie Anderson's Big Science album, "Dream Away" wants to be something so much more than what it is, but what it is is an arty pop, studio creation. And it's dull.
Slowing further, "This Could Be Love" really tested my patience and made me remember what we did with this cassette: Listen to the first two tracks, turn it over and fast forward. Because the penultimate track, "Think It Over" is an attempt to return to a quarter note driven, guitar rock, hand clap riddled sound of yore. And the giant percussion of "Maybe Baby" seems to be a response to my imagined complaints on David Robinson's part of having...NOTHING TO DO.

You might remember Shake It Up fondly but that's because of the hit song that came with it. It's not very good in the overall and all you need from it you can get on compilation albums.

Grade: C
ASide: Shake It Up, Since You're Gone, Cruiser
BlindSide: Maybe Baby, Think It Over,
DownSide: Dream Away, Victim of Love

The Cars - Panorama [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Panorama - 1980

Otherwise known as "what happens when a pop rock band with arty ambitions abandons the pop and much of the rock in favor of the arty?"
Panorama is a mess. The song. The album. It's a droning, muzzled, over controlled mess.
Ocasek seems to be overly concerned with the band having any freedome so the reins have been pulled tight. In fact, there's no semblance of a real group working together until the fourth song, "Don't Tell Me No", where David Robinson sounds like he's actually playing his instrument instead of programming a Casio. That still doesn't redeem the song. And Easton isn't really given much to do until "Getting Through".
No, this is the Ocasek & Hawkes show. And by becoming ever more dependent on the keyboards for the sound tapestry The Cars have actually managed something that seems almost impossible: They went from being the vanguards of the New Wave movement and created something of it's time AND simultaneously timeless to being the representatives of all that was wrong with the movement and created something of it's time, yes but also something that could be shoved in a time machine for 1980. In less than 2 years they did that.
If you take the album for what it is, though, it's not entirely unlistenable. It's just a disappointment. The poppy sheen and pure craft of the last two records gives way to the New Wave Underground.
That said, the hypnotic effect of "Panorama" and the decidedly uber-New Wave-y-ness of "Misfit Kid" represent the era precisely and I can't deny that. And the rocker, "Down Boys" reminds me of what The Tubes were also doing at exactly the same time, in fact, it could be the dirtier, muddier cousin of "Sushi Girl". It's also one of the few places where the band sounds like a...band. But, it's obvious by now that Ocasek's in control.
I really can't imagine that they thought this album sounded good, however. It's so muddy. Compared to the sounds on the previous two.
Oh, and Rik's a bad lyricist here, too. ;)

Grade: C-
ASide: Touch and Go,
BlindSide: Getting Through, Misfit Kid
DownSide: You Wear Those Eyes, Up & Down

The Cars - Candy-O [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Candy-O - 1979

When you know how to do one thing and you do can do that thing perfectly, why change your formula?
That seems to be The Cars' motto on this album, following one year after their debut. Now, I've said it many times that if this was a cd that came out 10 years later it would have been one 60 minute record and we would have all been bored earlier.
Instead, it's like a refreshing visit from a cousin that you love to have around. not all the time, but, when he's around, the food is just a bit tastier, the drinks crisper, life is just a little...better. There's the same amount of frustration and heartache, but it's under such a pretty sheen and welcoming style that you don't notice just how lonely you really are.
That's Candy-O. The Cars Part II.
It explodes with "Let's Go", a rallying cry of sorts, but it settles in to what it knows best, mid tempo electro-pop, rather quickly. Tracks like "Double Life", pulsating rhythms and replete with oohs and ahhs we've come to love, beings to wear out its welcome earlier than one would hope based on the last album.
And, I have no idea what "Shoo-Be-Doo" is supposed to be. Some kind of Americanized Kraftwerk, it serves better as the influence for Xex. Thankfully, it doesn't last too long and crashes into the classic "Candy-O". Just what you needed, just in time.
The vacuum sealed soundtrack to a Cafe Fleshian society continues on Side Two, with "Nightspots", a song that truly takes the band's name and makes it aural. It's more soundscape than song at times, and it's great. After the somnabulous, droning of "Lust for Kicks" it's awfully nice for to hear the band kick out the jams with "Got a Lot on My Head".
The album ends on the high note, the classic radio staple, "Dangerous Type" which is also, I think, a harbinger of what's to come.....

Candy-O won't let you down. But it won't make you want to get in your car and drive.

Grade: B
ASide: Let's Go, It's All I Can Do, Got a Lot on My Head, Dangerous Type
BlindSide: Double Life, Nightspots
DownSide: Lust For Kicks

The Cars - The Cars [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - The Cars - 1978

Thirty plus years after it was one of the most spun records of my youth I'm struck by something listening to The Cars' eponymous debut again: "Let the Good Times Roll" is a weird opener, a near laconic, stoner rocker. The kind of song that would and should play on the beach during a weekend beer fest. The "Good Times" are lazy. But also tightly controlled. There's little air and you don't want it, you don't miss it. The airless, nothing left to chance, hyper controlled arrangement of the classic doo wop by way of New Wave "My Best Friend's Girl" is just what the doctor ordered during an era of endless jams and classic rock tropes that included bloat like drum solos.
No room for that here. The Cars are economical at best. But it's that economy that really wins the listener over.
One of the most stellar debuts in history, Ocasek, Orr, Hawkes, Easton & Robinson rewrite the rules on rock by taking it wayyyyy back to it's roots and moving wayyyy forward at the same time. The result is something timeless.
Can anyone NOT air drum to ""Just What I Needed"? Can anyone resist the herky jerky vocal nervosa of Ocasek that calls to mind Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison & seasickness at the same time?
Hawkes' synth keys, the American version of Gary Numan's early stuff (which happened at the same time, believe it or not), never sound dated. Which is really incredible. And Easton's guitar is like a laser. Precise when applied.
Queen's over the top producer Roy Thomas Baker fleshes out the sound, which, without him, might have come off weak as just about every instrument and voice is fighting for prominence but, because of him, each one shines. He puts Ocasek's vocals way back on "I'm in Touch With Your World" and pushes the drums right up front on the side one rave up, "Don't Cha Stop". And the elixir is delicious.
The real hero of The Cars isn't any one individual but, lost in the hoopla of Ocasek's voice/songs, Orr's looks & Hawkes' futuristic keys is the brilliant guitar work of Easton. I can not praise him enough. His solos are worthy of any band of the era and yet, while he could have been the star, he's satisfied with just laying in what's needed.
The closest the album gets to a ballad is the slow tempo, spacey, sci fi, "Moving in Stereo", which works as a new wave, geek sex romp backing track. It's hard not to picture images from Fast Times at Ridgemont High when it's on, although there's I wonder if it's the images that enhance the song or vice versa. I go with the latter.

The Cars is one of the 1000 albums you need to hear before you die.

Grade: A
ASide: Good Times Roll, My Best Friend's Girl, Just What I Needed, Don't Cha Stop
BlindSide: I'm in Touch with Your World, You're All I've Got Tonight, Bye Bye Love
DownSide: Nothing. A great debut.

Reflecting Pool - Green Day - Uno! Dos! Tre!

From their big label smash release, Dookie, in 1994, to 2003, Green Day released an goodly amount of music, most of it excellent.
Dookie in 94, Insomniac in 95, Nimrod in 97, Warning in 2000, plus the b-side album Shenanigans in 2002, not to mention The Network's Money Money 2020 in 2003.
From 2004 to 2013 they raised the stakes, releasing less music but growing as artists from punk upstarts to stadium rockers ascending to the throne left vacant by The Who.
American Idiot in 2004, Foxboro Hot Tubs in 2008 & 21st Century Breakdown in 2009 were varied and spectacular and each different than the other.
It's been 3 years since the band put out any music and, in the interim, they went on to even more mainstream success with a Broadway show based on their music. Which is sort of ridiculous.

Now, just taking a look at that output over 15 years I am struck by something. That's roughly 125 songs written by one guy. Yes, he doesn't write everyone's parts, otherwise they would be The Cars. But, he writes the melodies, structures and lyrics. For the most part. That's a crazy amount of music for one guy. And if you click on those links you'll find that most of them are, well, great.

How many rock groups were doing that after 15 years of being in the business? The Beatles? Not one guy and by 1978 few were buying the individual members' music. I'm not comparing the two in any way except to illustrate the longevity and difficulty in putting out that amount of good, sellable music by any one group, let alone one person.
Queen? 4 guys wrote songs and including them on the albums. And by 1989 they were toast in the big markets.
Kiss? The less said the better. But, really, they haven't written anything for mass appeal in decades.
Nobody sticks around this long.

So, this fall Green Day decided to move forward by moving backward. Tight punk songs, about love and rebellion and, well, killing a DJ near as I can figure, and offering them on 3 groupings in the span of 3 months. It was a disaster of sorts and a success of other sorts.

Uno came out first and if you waited a month you could've bought it for the steep discount to $5 on Amazon. In fact, I paid $5 for the next one and $6 for the third. So, for $16, less than the cost of new CD in the 90s and 00s, I got 37 new songs by Green Day.

I don't really know how to review them so I'll take a look at eat record. The sad thing is I've been listening to the entire album while writing this and I haven't been compelled to stop and listen, nor have I been compelled to move to the next song. "(I even find "Kill The DJ" catchy. Sure it sounds like Franz Ferdinand, but FF opened for Green Day when I saw them and I think that's the best way to pay homage. It's not great, but it's catchy). And there

Uno is a punk record. It's fast and it delivers. It all sounds like Green Day, but it should. What else would it sound like? You don't read Jonathan Franzen hoping he'll suddenly have changed his style to be more like Dave Eggers. You don't watch Aaron Sorkin pieces and complain that everyone talks like they are in an Aaron Sorkin piece. That's crazy. Artists have a certain cadence, certain rhythms and you either like it or you don't.

Billie Joe Armstrong, for better or worse, is an amazing filter for everything he's ever heard. And he's apparently heard a LOT. I don't know how he would have the time to listen to everything that seems to influence him, from Queen to the Kinks, to The Zombies, to The Who to Franz Ferdinand and on and on, but it's all there.

Sure, songs like "Oh Love" sound familiar, hell, "Nuclear Family" calls to ming Modern English, for god's sake. Troublemaker feels like a leftover from the excellent Foxboro Hot Tubs record. You could do worse. Sweet 16 could be a Fieger/Averre track but they never could quite get it as right as Billie Joe.

All musicians and artists take what they love and recraft them into their own voices. So, I'm done defending Bille Joe and Green Day. You either love them or you don't. They do what they do very well and there it is.

Those who know me know that I love to look for patterns and clues, raison d'etres, if you will. Like Paul's bare feet on Abbey Road.

The third album isn't called "Tres". That would be three in Spanish. It's called Tre. And Tre Cool is on the cover.

Uno features Billie. Why not? He's the driving force behind the music. Makes sense. And Dirnt is...well, Dirnt is the second guy. BJ's wing man. His buddy since they were teens. The boys could call it a day after this release and go out proud.

It's difficult to review these one album at a time. They aren't three different records. They are a collection. And that's how they should be heard.

UNO!



Grade: A
ASide: Nuclear Family, Oh Love, Let Yourself Go, Sweet 16, Rusty James
BSide: Stay the Night, Carpe Diem, Troublemaker, Angel Blue
DownSide: It's just a good ol, Green Day rekkid.

DOS!

Dos is a bit of a different animal. Opening with the faux 70s acoustic bit, "See You Tonight" it moves into one of their catchier tracks with the laziest lyrics ever. I really wish "Fuck Time" was better written. It had a lot of potential. It's hooky as hell rockabilly snark and the music is dynamite, but the lyrics leave a lot to be desired. Oh, what the hell, I'll listen again. (Update: After more research I've learned that Fuck Time was originally called, "It's Fuck Time" and the Foxboro Hot Tubs played it in concert as recently as 2010. No wonder it sounds like a FHT song.) "Lazy Bones" could easily be a song by The Network but I'm pretty sure Billie Joe is beyond the prankish fun of creating a fake band and writing an entire record for them. So, if we're never getting a FHT album or a Network record, this'll do. "Stray Heart" is his "Beat Surrender". Good thing we get that, too.

The whole album isn't retro tropes, though. Well, they are but punk tropes so that's the band's natural idiom. "Ashley" and "Stop When the Red Lights Flash", "Baby Eyes" & "Makeout Party" fit that bill and fit it just fine.

Where the album falls down and falls hard is the atrocious "Nightlife". Rap? Really? What decade is this? It barely worked on Springsteen's "Rocky Ground" but there it was sparse, this is...bad Missy Elliot wanna be rapping. I'm sure they wrestled with it. I wish that someone else had won that wrestling match.

Billie Joe's self-transformation into Paul Weller is on the tacked on final track, "Amy", a paean to the late Amy Winehouse. It's a simple, single guitar, acoustic bit, the way "Time of Your Life" stood out on Nimrod, but this time it sounds less like The Jam and more like The Style Council.

Billie, your influences are showing.

Grade: B
ASide: Fuck Time, Lazy Bones, Stray Heart,
BlindSide:  Ashley, Baby Eyes, Amy
DownSide: Nightlife

TRE!



"Brutal Love" is the real honorary Foxboro Hot Tubs track. It's dripping with Lieber & Stoller and latter day Elvis. The slutty Vegas by N'Orleans horns give it even more weight and gravitas. I love it.

From there the album decides it's time to be epic and fill the stadiums. "Missing You" is a classic downstroke rocker. and followed by 8th Avenue Serenade, a song that reminds me a lot of what Armstrong was trying to do on Warning, push forward, stay true to the band's roots (it hints at Insomniac) but moves along with assuredness, echoing some of the songs on American Idiot. It would have fit on either of those albums.

It's "Drama Queen" that is this album's trainwreck. "Everyone's drama queen is old enough to bleed now". It's sort of nauseating. And amateurish.

Fortunately, we get back to early era stylings with the 1-2 punch of "X-Kid" and "Sex, Drugs & Violence", catchy, angry, hooky and deserving.

Surely the weirdest track on the album is "Dirty Rotten Bastards". Stealing from The Marines Hymn, as well as other familiar pieces, it's reworked into the "Jesus of Suburbia" template. A mini-opera. I like it. But it's weird, man.

I'd've been happy if the album found a way to end after "99 Revolutions", but I guess somewhere, someone wants a Green Day Ballad. I think that's always been satisfied by the heartbreaking ode to his father "Wake me When September Ends". "The Forgotten" is just that. Forgettable.

Tre is the album they didn't need to put out. It's a collection of leftovers. In fact I think there's a dynamite 15-17 track record in this three album set. Stick to that.

Tre
Grade: C+
ASide: Brutal Love, Missing You, Sex Drugs & Violence
BlindSide: 8th Ave Serenade, X-Kid, Dirty Rotten Bastards, 99 Revolutions
DownSide: Drama Queen, A Boy Named Train, Amanda, The Forgotten