According to Wikipedia, what happened next seems weird. After his third album, “Fireball zone”, Ocasek was supposed to release “Negative theater” as his fourth, but for reasons unexplained his new record company refused to release the album in the US, taking only seven tracks from it and getting him to record a further eight, and releasing the result under the title “Quick change world” in the US, the same year as “Negative theater” came out in Europe, which is the only territory in which it was released. I guess artistic control over his project was not in Ric's hands!
Negative theater --- 1993 (Warner)
So here is where we pick up on Ric Ocasek's solo career again. The year is 1993, seven years after “This side of Paradise”, and we can see a big change in Ric's music. The opener, “I still believe”, is a short, keyboard-led intro really, less than two minutes long, and leads into “Come alive”, a heavy, fast, almost punk-like track that hurtles along, and would be reprised stylistically by him on the Cars' original last album (before they got back together again last year), “Door to door”. Ocasek seems to have dispensed with the “guest stars” that populated “This side of Paradise”, though it does seem as if longstanding contributor and Cars member Greg Hawkes is still on board.
The sound is definitely heavier, rockier, more urgent, relying rather more heavily on guitar sounds where his last two albums (at least, the first two, the ones covered above) were more or less saturated with keyboard and synth. Things go poppy, almost dancey for “Quick change world”, the title given by the record company to his previous album, I guess you could say the alternative or US version of this one. It's funky, boppy and somewhat in the mould of Bowie, with good guitar and handclap drums. Pretty damn catchy, to be honest.
“Ride with Duce” is more in the heavy rock mould, a good mid-paced rocker, guitar again leading the way, whereas “What's on TV” is pretty experimental, almost Porcupine Tree in its use of samples, recordings and snippets, but ultimately it comes across as a little laboured. “Shake a little nervous” is more funk, “Hopped up” is a sort of dance/rock crossover, a good fast beat and a decent melody, and “Take me silver” is general pop/rock with some nice guitar and keys.
A short track then based on nice echoey guitar, “Telephone again” lasts less than a minute, and is followed by “Race to nowhere”, the longest track on the album, and a new contender for longest solo Ocasek song, at just over nine minutes long. It's something of an opus, containing several different styles and themes, and coming close to standout track on the album. More keyboard and piano-oriented than previous tracks, there's still some very good guitar going on there. Weird Tom Waitsesque monologue near the end, too. Odd, quirky and very different.
“Help me find America” comes in on some beautiful synth and slide guitar, with a breathy vocal from Ocasek. A slow, majestic, entrancing song. Another contender for top spot. Sort of a cross between Woodie Guthrie and Michael Moore... It's followed by “What is time”, a sort of post-progressive industrial rock/pop track, if you can imagine such a thing, driven by a really funky bass line and some seriously cool organ. Closer “Fade away” is a nice atmospheric ballad with lovely violins and an understated vocal, taking the album out on a gentle note, similar to the way it began.
As a solo album then, this one stands far more apart from Ocasek's previous work, marked definitively as his own output: there's very little, if anything, here that I could see on any Cars album. I suppose in some ways a lot of it is quite experimental, for him, and perhaps that's why Reprise blocked his release of it in the USA. Still seems a strange thing to do. I'm glad he managed to get it released here though, and if you're from the US and haven't been able to obtain this album, I can tell you it is worth it.
TRACKLISTING
1. I still believe
2. Come alive
3. Quick change world
4. Ride with Duce
5. What's on TV
6. Shake a little nervous
7. Hopped up
8. Take me silver
9. Telephone again
10. Race to nowhere
11. Help me find America
12. Who do I pay
13. Wait for fate
14. What is time
15. Fade away
Our last look at his solo career is via his last album, released in 2005. There are of course eight albums in his catalogue, but I wouldn't have the space or patience or time to go through each one individually, so we're taking something of a cross-section of his output to give us an idea of where he is musically as a solo artist. This, then, is his latest.
Nexterday --- 2005 (Sanctuary)
After his disagreements and problems with Reprise records, detailed above, on his fourth album, Ric seems to have gone through a succession of labels for his next three albums, four if you include the Europe-only release, which was on the Warner label. This, his last and so far current album, released six years ago now, is on the Sanctuary label. What this constant changing of labels signifies I don't know: perhaps a dissatisfaction with some aspect of each one as he recorded for them, or maybe he's a hard artist to work with? Could be a number of things, I guess.
At any rate, “Nexterday” opens with “Crackpot”, a low-key mid-paced rocker, with again another “borrowed” riff, this time from Dylan's (well, Hendrix's, really) “All along the watchtower”. Greg Hawkes is once again on board, as is his guitarist from the debut album, Roger Greenawalt, though Ocasek himself as usual plays guitars and keys, and sings, and this time he writes every track himself. A much rockier track than some of the more pseudo-pop/electronica material that has characterised his previous albums, “Crackpot” is a good opener and something of a change of style for Ric, that rocky element retained for “Bottom dollar”, a more Cars-ish song, very in the mould of “My best friend's girl”, while “Don't lose me” kicks the tempo up a gear with a song in a sort of fifties vein, but yet modern enough.
Things get all reggae then for “In a little bit”, reminding me of nothing more than 10CC's “Dreadlock holiday”. Hey, I know I'm noting a lot of comparisons here, but take my word for it, Ocasek and indeed Benjamin Orr on
his solo album, is not averse to borrowing the odd melody, chord structure, riff etc. They're usually used well --- they don't rip off full songs, they're rearranged and reused --- but it does unfortunately point to a certain lack of originality. This is a good song all the same, as is “Silver”, a slower, more introspective song with a certain Nick Cave vibe to it.
“Come on” gets things moving again, another Cars-type song, and “Carousel”'s ok too, but the problem I'm having with this album is that, so far, nothing has stood out, nothing has leaped out and grabbed me. The tracks are all good, none great and certainly none that I expect to remember later, unlike the other three albums I've so far reviewed for this section. Running out of steam? Too many changes of labels? Boredom? Ideas drying up? Who knows, but “Please don't let me down” is at least a nice little ballad, but again it could feature on any Cars album. As indeed could the closer, the boppy “It gets crazy”.
As a solo album, from what I've heard of Ric Ocasek's catalogue, this would be the most disappointing in my opinion. It's just basic Cars with a few bells and whistles (and sometimes not even that) --- there are no epic tracks, no quirky pieces, and frankly nothing that grabs the attention or stands out as anything special. Basically, this is as close as Ocasek has come to recording another Cars album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Crackpot
2. Bottom dollar
3. Don't lose me
4. In a little bit
5. Silver
6. Come on
7. I'm thinking
8. Carousel
9. Heard about you
10. Please don't let me down
11. It gets crazy
So, the conclusion then. There's no doubting Ric Ocasek's talent: he is after all the driving force (sorry!) behind the Cars. The trouble seems to be that a lot of the time he seems to be unable to separate his work with the band from his own solo material, and make his own stuff stand out on its own merits. There are of course exceptions, moments where his brilliance and innovation shine through: the title track to “This side of Paradise”, “Help me find America” and “Race to nowhere” on “Negative theater”, and “Connect up to me” from “Beatitude”, but the instances are too few and far between.
Of course, I
have only sampled half his repertoire for this article, and there are four albums I haven't touched, but it seems rather unlikely that they are going to reveal anything these four have not, and “Quick change world” is, as mentioned, basically half of “Negative theater”, with the other half admitted Cars-styled songs, so I don't anticipate any huge surprises from that album at least.
There's nothing wrong, of course, with a solo artist carrying his band work into his own material: plenty have done so and very successfully. Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore and Fish from Marillion to name but a few, but then there are those who have forged a totally separate identity through their solo work than that which they presented when with their band. I'm thinking in particular of Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and yes, already-covered Phil Lynott. Listening to their solo albums is generally not the same as listening to them in the band, whether they're still with them or not.
Sometimes we buy solo albums to hear something different, sometimes in the hope of hearing “new material” from the band, as was basically the case with Fish's early albums, and indeed Roger Waters doesn't stray all that far from his work with Pink Floyd on his solo efforts. So there's nothing wrong with it at all. But it would certainly seem that, although he is capable of quite startling musical insights and expressions from time to time, the bulk of Ric Ocasek's solo work appears to be treading the same ground as his material with the Cars.
It's not a bad thing, especially if you're a fan of the band, but then, it's also fair to say that it's less than original.
Next time, we'll be looking at the work of Debbie Harry, and comparing her solo output to that practiced by her within Blondie.