Ric Ocasek Albums (7)
What The Critics Say
Last time around, Ric Ocasek went for a big sound in an attempt at a big comeback, enlisting Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan as a co-producer for about half the album and using such alt-rock luminaries as Bad Relgion guitarist Brian Baker and Hole/Smashing Pumpkin alumna Melissa Auf der Maur as bassist. The record may have worked but it wasn't a hit, and Ocasek retreated back to his lucrative career as a producer, taking a full eight years to deliver his next solo album, 2005's Nexterday. This is pretty much the opposite of 1997's Troublizing: Ocasek plays nearly every instrument himself and maintains an appealingly relaxed vibe for the entirety of this 11-track album. While he doesn't necessarily stretch himself here, he doesn't sound as if he's resting on his laurels, either. The songs are lean and well constructed, the production is uncluttered yet with enough subtle details to keep things from sounding samey, and every once in a while he'll throw in a curveball -- as in how "Don't Lose Me" shares the same light yet tightly wound feel as Lindsey Buckingham's frenzied work on Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, or how "I'm Thinking" reworks the riff from Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men" -- that keeps the record from being predictable. There's no denying that Nexterday was deliberately made on a small scale: not only was it essentially homemade, but the songs are minimalist pop -- they're catchy, but the clean lines and quiet nature of the production requires active participation from the listener. At this point, some 20 years after the peak of the Cars' popularity, Ocasek's audience is small and faithful, willing to take the effort to get to know a new record, and once they spend some time with Nexterday, they'll find this is another charming, ingratiating, low-key record from an artist whose solo career has pretty much been devoted to charming, ingratiating, low-key records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Perhaps inspired by the alternative bands he produced (Weezer, Bad Religion, Hole, Nada Surf), Ric Ocasek decided to return to guitar pop with Troublizing. In many ways, its angular riffs, pulsating rhythms and catchy pop hooks echo Ocasek's days with the Cars, but co-producer Billy Corgan gives the album a heavier sound that relies on guitars. Backed with a band that features former Car Greg Hawkes, Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur, Bad Religion's Brian Baker and Corgan, Ocasek sounds more energetic than he has in years. Troublizing doesn't have too many memorable songs, but its consistency and tough sound make it his best collection of songs since Heartbeat City and his best solo album since This Side of Paradise. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Quick Change World, Ric Ocasek's fourth solo album, is a perfect example of a botched effort on behalf of the record company. Initially, Quick Change World was supposed to be a double CD, including one disc (entitled the "Right Side") of Cars-like pop/rock, one disc of experimental music (appropriately titled "Left Side"), and also a book of poetry. When Ocasek's third release Fireball Zone failed to move many units, his label backing also began to erode and the label was unwilling to release this massive and far-reaching project. It was trimmed back heavily, and what resulted was one disc (and no book of poetry) that was split evenly between tracks from the "Right" and "Left" sides of the original cut of the album. Luckily, what was released is actually quite top-notch. Quick Change World does feature some of the shiniest and most full-frontal production of Ocasek's career, but many of the tracks only thrive in this environment. The album's real highs are in the "Right Side" tracks, which include the excellent riff-heavy pop of "She's On," the stadium-ready power chords of "Hard Times" (a song that was initially recorded by the Cars and was cut from Heartbeat City), and the ballad "Feeling's Got to Stay." The "Left Side" tracks are decidedly more uneven; while the title track is enjoyable and some of the heavier numbers, such as "Come Alive" and "Hopped Up" are intriguing curiosities, several of them fall flat on their faces. Several spoken word compositions are sprinkled around the disc, and they foreshadow Ocasek's next project, the entirely poetry-based Getchertiktz. Not surprisingly, Quick Change World was another commercial failure, even though there was a lot included in the album's final cut to please an Ocasek fan. Luckily, for real die-hard fans who are curious to see what the original version of this album might have been like, the entire "Left Side" was released in some European nations under the title Negative Theater, also in 1993. ~ Jason Damas, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Fireball Zone marked the beginning of the second half of Ric Ocasek's solo career. His first two releases, 1983's Beatitude and 1986's This Side of Paradise, were really extensions of Ocasek's work with The Cars; instead of sounding like grand statements made by solo albums, they both sounded like extensions of what The Cars were doing at the time. This was especially true of the latter album, which even featured a handful of hit singles that were more popular than any that The Cars would score in the remainder of their career. After the demise of that band in 1987, Ocasek went on hiatus and returned to recording in 1991 with Fireball Zone, his first post-Cars solo album. Surprisingly, however, it isn't as much of a departure as one might imagine. The same elements that made The Cars music so accessible and enjoyable is still all in place, and Ocasek wrote a much stronger batch of songs this time around than was featured on the final Cars collaboration, the dismal Door to Door. Fireball Zone is also easily the sunniest Ocasek solo collaboration; much of the material is relatively sprightly and colorful, and the disc includes some musical experiments that Ocasek would never have touched when he was still with The Cars. The album is led by the uptempo "Rockaway" (one of the album's first singles) and the first 8 tracks are nearly infallible; "Touch Down Easy" and "Come Back" are easily two of the most Cars-ish songs that Ocasek ever released, and "All We Need Is Love" has a light reggae vibe. Many of the songs feature a choir of female background singers, something that is a surprising and major departure for Ocasek; and unfortunately one that only works part of the time. Unfortunately, towards the end of the album, things begin to fall apart: Ocasek throws in a bunch of metallic, bottom-heavy numbers that almost completely lack hooks, and they keep Fireball Zone from truly being a great album. While this disc was a major commercial disappointment, failing to produce any real hit singles, the Heartbeat City-era sounding ballad "The Way You Look Tonight" has become a staple on in-store play lists of fast food restaurants and discount department stores nationwide. ~ Jason Damas, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Ric Ocasek's Beatitude is an intriguing exercise in developing the artier side of the Cars, the one that owed a great deal to Roxy Music and synthesized Bowie. While the album lacks pop songs as strong as Ocasek's work for the Cars, it showcases an eerie side that is occasionally as compelling as his more accessible works. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
