7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She's On!, May 22, 2002
This review is from: Quick Change World (Audio CD)
This has got to be the best solo work of Ric Ocasek ever released. WOW! If this album was released back in 80s this would be a number #1 album with She's On, Hopped Up, Feelings to got to stay, and Riding Shotgun. Definetly Cars material here and some Ocasek.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some Ocasek / Some Cars, January 12, 2001
This review is from: Quick Change World (Audio CD)
Pick this one up, because you won't be able to find it for long. This CD is a great mix of styles from the Cars to Ric's offshoot style of darker tunes. Perhaps the strongest songs on the release are "A Little Closer", "Don't Let Go" and the title cut "Quick Change World". The style on this album is most closely analagous to one part "This Side of Paradise" (Ocasek solo) and one part "Door to Door" (the Cars final release).
In my opinion, this is the most under-rated of Ric's solo efforts since it went out-of-print so fast. Of all his solo efforts, I would say this runs a close second to "This Side of Paradise" as his best apart from the Cars.
Probably the three weakest tracks are "The Big Picture" (sounds like a prelude to Ocasek's joint venture release of "Getchertikitz"), "What's on TV" (repetitive lyrics) and "Help Me Find America".
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Too Late, Just More Of What You Needed, May 4, 2002
This review is from: Quick Change World (Audio CD)
I don't write many reviews, but this one is a favored underdog of mine that deserves far more affection than it got.
This CD gives you a real sense for what's at stake for an artist: The record has two parts, right and left, better described as "tried and true" and "experimental." It's refreshing to find an artist-- especially a pop artist -- trying new things, not pandering to popular taste. In this release, the first seven tracks display what Cars fans most want -- more of the same. The remaining tracks - with the exception perhaps of "Come Alive" and "Hopped Up" (which I still enjoy on occasion) -- don't really succeed as music, yet give you a more direct sense of Ric's "politics."
Ric does best when he cribs the Cars debut and exercises some restaint, and the first tracks on this album would really be right at home on any Cars CD. "She's On," "Feeling's Got To Stay," and "Don't Let Go," would have been out-and-out hits in the 80s, and they will forever be very fine pop music -- the kind of popular composing that is in TERRIBLY short supply these days. Frankly, I enjoy the mood of everything Ric puts out, but for sheer musical value, this CD has to be rated among the best stuff Ric Ocasek ever wrote as a solo-artist.
"Pop" being what it is, it hasn't been kool to like this kind of material for a long time now. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and good music is just good music. And quite a bit of "Quick Change World" is very good music indeed.
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