Ric Ocasek
Fireball Zone

The first review of my tumultuous existence is dedicated to the CD that cost me the least to purchase.
For the sum of 3900 Italian lire, I brought home this CD by the leader of the already disbanded Cars, a group known in Italy to most for the superballad "Drive", but recognized in the USA as one of the most influential, most covered bands to whose legacy nowadays swarms of youngsters and not aspire.
After all, it seems but is not easy to place one superhit after another, then convert to an electro-beat without losing the rock'n'roll band identity, and hit big again! And it's even harder to disband (by the will of just one, namely Ocasek) rather than replicate indefinitely...

That said, the Ocasek who is here in this work, is a rocker a bit undecided whether to take a "singer-songwriter" path (having always been the sole author of his songs as well as those of the Cars) in the sense of "pop-rock craftsman" or take on a bolder, harder role, as he often has to do as a producer (bands like Nada Surf, No Doubt, Weezer, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Black 47 and who knows how many and which others). But let's proceed with the tracks:

1. "Rockaway" is an example of how one can still compose good rock pieces with two chords. It has everything: crescendos, choruses with female gospel harmonies (supporting for almost the entire album the faint voice of the whimsical Ric), little guitar solo, guitar-drums-chorus moments as if it were "Paradise City" by the Guns. Ocasek sings still a bit sobbingly, but the 80s are a bad beast, especially for those who in that decade procured money and glories. Rating 7 + 1/2
2. In "Touch Down Easy" the keyboards return, though delicate. He sings the verse an octave lower and the chorus an octave higher, guitars arpeggiate and refine throughout the track, little solo and then it starts again... An octave lower, chorus an octave higher... Pure 80s... I wouldn't say. Rather, I'd say 80s at 80%. Rating 6
3. "Come Back" is the perfect Ocasek song. Rhythmic and fun little voice, little keyboards, slides easy, easy. All utterly simple and enjoyable. 6 +
4. If it was fun until here, with "The Way You Look Tonight" one plunges back into New York nights, dazzled by the "Bright Lights of New York," searching for Michael J. Fox and Kiefer Sutherland. I say "plunges back" because "Heartbeat City" of the eponymous album and other tracks like "Go Away" in Door To Door, "Hello Darkness" in This Side Of Paradise had already given the idea, and they did it with better results. Oh, I forgot, the idea is this: Ric Ocasek is a western animal, precisely a western city animal, more precisely a western city nocturnal animal, more precisely a minimalist western city nocturnal animal, much like the author of "Bright Lights, Big City"... He obviously lives in New York, actually I'd say he's a NewYorkaholic (like the more famous Lou Reed) even though he's from Boston, and artistically grew up with beatniks and pop art. Moreover, Ocasek is obsessed with a theme: the loneliness within us, inside a car speeding along the boulevards, like inside the most crowded venue in the most crowded metropolis of the half of the world termed "the prosperous." But the song isn't much, if you compare it to the dreamy "Heartbeat City." Rating 5
5. "All We Need Is Love" is a more than predictable title for a reggae, don't you think? And so Ocasek, who as we've said nurtures a huge passion for the supermelody, puts out this all-keyboard reggae. A singing that should have been care-free, almost Neapolitan, and instead, it's fair to say, is awful. Luckily, there's the female touch in the choruses. If it was composed during the times of the first Cars albums, it would have been a superhit. But it’s 1990 and the kids wanna rock!!! 5
6. "Over And Over". Typical ballad in his style. Slow, "precise," 4 words counted, long arpeggios between one verse and another, filled by the "oohs" of the choristers. The little solo and the little keyboard rising before the chorus starts to create some pathos are nice. 6 - -
7. "Flowers Of Evil". I would leave Baudelaire alone. He mentions him and thanks him moreover, besides his wife Paulina, his friend Alan Vega, and others I don't know. I'd leave him alone, especially for an almost funky, spoken word piece, with just one chord, that if you listen closely seems like a (rejected) theme for a 70s police TV show like Starsky & Hutch. Horn solo and veiled social criticism on the decline of the stars and stripes vessel. Baudelaire would deserve a bit more, don't you think? 4
8. "They Tried". What's happening? Ocasek with an acoustic guitar? When he titles a song "They Tried" it means this "They Tried" will be repeated at great length. In fact, he repeats it, out of 38 verses overall, a good 39 times. Other statistics? Of the 38 verses only 17 do not start with "They Tried". Of these 17 verses, 16 begin with "They". Of all 38 verses, there isn’t one that doesn’t start with a word that has a "T" as the first letter. In fact, besides the 20 that start with "they tried" and the 17 that start with "they," there's one left (the final one) that begins with "to". Also noteworthy is how the lyrics in the booklet show huge differences from what's sung, in this track more than others, a typical anomaly in Cars tracks and beyond. Do you have any theories as to why this? Song rating 7 (I like it)
9. "Keep That Dream" is the fulcrum point of the album. It shows characteristics of the song form of the tracks in the first 2/3 of this CD and other topics of the remaining 1/3. In summary: more aggressive singing, more martial rhythm guitar, high in volume and insistent, in the calm before the storm-chorus, muffled female harmonies, and then chorus indeed rich in horns... The emblem of the duality of this album is the guitar solo, which begins at the end of a chorus, discreet, bluesy, and then explodes and becomes metallic. Thus begins a "hard" album, an album that better represents the cover with this dude with sunglasses even when swimming underwater who strikes a great thinker pose amidst fiery orange balls. Rating 8
10. "Balance". All guitars, still martial, marking time this time, and a brazen Ocasek who seems to insinuate rather than sing. This is the third-to-last track. Let's compare it with the third ("Come Back")... A bit disjointed work, don’t you find? And the trumpets, where did they end up?
11. "Mister Meaner". Synth rock in the Ocasek interstellar voyager of a spaceship that perhaps doesn’t want to take off anymore style. Since 1989, year of Fiat Tipo Digit entry into the market, the world community hasn't felt the need to be on board a spaceship, and so nobody misses this music genre anymore. Yet the track is "cute," airy, so to speak. Rating 5 + 1/2
12. "Fireball Zone". Ocasek speaks and shouts on a rhythm once again neo-nazi. Horn solo by Nile Rodgers and a super-keyboards solo, fiery ending. 6 +

This could have been an anachronistic CD of Ocasek pop-rock songs with a couple of (gospel and soul) experiments more to "spice" everything up; it could have also been a darned rock-CD as expressly requested by any 18-year-old who was 18 in 1990 (I was a 14yo).

And if Ocasek had been a genius, it would have been a hard-rock-soul album as in the best track, "Keep That Dream," which is, a genuinely different album, a masterpiece.

But I content myself with a Ric Ocasek, intellectual and artist, one simply who knows how to write some good songs. In other albums, maybe, with better results.

3900 Italian lire well spent, one would say