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