Customer Reviews

This Side of Paradise

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After a bad start, Ric rebounds with his second cd, THIS SIDE OF PARADISE. And with a little help from his CARS' band mates, and some other friends, he as made a cd that is his best todate, and as good as any CARS" cd. Keep On Laughin, and Coming to You, are excellent rockers. True to You, True Love, and just about any other song on this cd, would feel at home on a CARS disk. Emotion in Motion, is a well done slow song. Ric's white boy funk and slick production, plus clever writing, make for a good listen.

I've had this CD for more than...well more than I wish to say. But, this CD is the cornerstone of my Cars (and solo) collection. Ric Ocasek is just a master of pop with the strong background melodies sending each song along a pleasurable flow or the dark tonal modes that still haven't become stale in years.

"Mystery" gets my vote of best all time song. Yes, Emotion in Motion is the song which most people buy this CD for, but pay attention to the way "Mystery" lifts your emotions and lets you float on some excellent keyboard work. Add a few hard hitting drums and guitars and it's beautiful.

The other songs on the CD vary greatly from the dark sounding "Hello Darkness" and "Coming for You" to the high spirited "True to You" and airy "This Side of Paradise."

If you love the Cars or have any other Ocasek album, this is a MUST HAVE. It would be the last one I'd give up.

Forget everything the boobs who slammed this CD said and treat yourself to an excellent exercise in pop rock genius. If you are a Cars fan this is the best of his solo efforts and you can tell who was the creative engine behind the Cars sound. This CD sounds just like the genuine article, flawlessly played and produced, one of my personal favorite albums from the 80's not a bad song on it. Ric Ocasek Rules!!!!

"This Side Of Paradise" provides a sampling of the classic Cars sound, and why not? Some of Ric Ocasek's Cars mates help him out on his second solo release, although Ocasek breathes a somewhat different life in a few of the songs here. Take, for instance, "Emotion In Motion", with its slowed-down rhythms and unique lyrics, which don't sound like the typical Cars record. The same can be said for the title track, along with "Emotion In Motion". which lack the new wave appeal and sound The Cars helped define. The other tracks, such as "Hello Darkness" and "p.f.j.", have that Cars sensibility written all over them. Even though the music and songs featured on this CD are very similar to that of Ocasek's group, The Cars, "This Side Of Paradise" is still an enjoyable CD to listen to. The reduced price is a sure sign it won't be around forever, which is why any die-hard Cars/Ric Ocasek fan should have this title in their collection.

This is classic Ric Ocasek music. Less Pop sounding then the Cars and great for crusing, running or just enjoying. If you lived through the eighties, this is a must have CD.

This is one of my all-time favorite CDs. There is not a track on this CD that I don't like. The biggest release on this CD is "Emotion in Motion", but my favorites are "Pink Flag Joe", "Look in Your Eyes", "Mystery" and "This Side of Paradise". I think this a must for any Cars fan even if you don't buy any of his other solo projects. Ocasek teams up with Greg Hawkes (also with the Cars) on many of the songs on this CD. This CD goes in the direction I wish the Cars had gone, musically.

When I first started listening to the Cars, I really didn't pay much attention to the solo efforts that any of the band members had attempted. Let's face it, for the most part solo efforts are an attempt by a band member to try some stuff that the rest of the guys would not let them play. This is not the case with Ric Ocasek's "This Side of Paradise." It has the feel of both "Shake it Up", as well as the perfectly composed sounds of "Heartbeat City." With such artists helping in this effort such as former Saturday Night Live band leader G.E. Smith and the rest of The Cars making cameo appearances on most of the track, it is in all respects the "Lost Cars Album." I recommend it to anyone who just wanted one last album and unfortunately, got "Door to Door."

When I first heard "Emotion in Motion", I thought that it was a Cars song. Of course, that was thirteen years ago and I was just a kid. Indeed, the first four songs of this album are definately "Car-ish" if anything. Not until I bought the CD reciently did I realise that the six others are certainly not...being a more introspective solo creation by Ric Ocasek.The first song sounds OK except for that weird intro. The rest of it seems more like a soundtrack piece for an B-rate 80's adventure movie. The next song is the most Car-ish of all, and seems to fit in on their last albums Door to Door or Heartbeat City than all else. "Emotion in Motion" however is a very fantastic yet under-rated song, for it is so catchy and beautiful. The forth song is OK...like the first.The other songs seem far different however. Although dreary, "Coming for You" seems to point to the future...for it has more in common with Ric's most recent album Troubleizing. It's the most starkly contrasting song on this album instrumentally. The sixth and seventh songs have a lot of frustrating emotion in them. "Pink Flag Joe" is very weird yet darkly funny, reminds me of how pathetic some people can be. Hello Darkness is like the fifth track but less harsh but more deeper. The last track is very good and seems more like the sixth and seventh tracks but also much deeper.Overall, this album is very good, yet only for the matured Cars fan. If you like the upbeat Car-ish sound, stay on the first four tracks..."Emotion in Motion" more than makes up for it's price! But it's the other six that also makes it special as well.

Overall competent but not outstanding. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE came between HEARTBEAT CITY and DOOR TO DOOR and sounds like it; heavy on mechanical drum beats and synthesizers, thin on quirky and inventive. You won't find the marvelously complex meter of "Touch And Go", the mysterious moodiness of "Shoo-Be-Doo", the wry not-quite-love songs like "Tonight She Comes". Steve Stevens plays on most of these songs (especially the nice acoustic in "True Love"), but it's mostly the same wailing guitar over and over, bludgeoning to death what should have been a killer track ("Coming For You").

Including musicians from both Billy Idol and Tears For Fears means it also sounds like generic over-produced mid-80s pop -- which, to be fair, The Cars had helped shape.

I suspect TSOP appeals best to the many online commenters who regard PANORAMA or HEARTBEAT CITY as the peak Cars albums, or know the band primarily by airplay. Fans who prefer the earlier years may regard this on par with all the Cars albums which came after -- comp fodder for three or songs, minimally helped by the rare appearance of Easton on guitar or Ben Orr's background vocals. Key songs: "True To You", "Mystery", "True Love", "This Side of Paradise"

Ric Ocasek's second solo album, "This Side of Paradise", came out in 1986, prior to The Cars final album and disbandment.

It should come as no surprise that, on the whole, "This Side Of Paradise" is just slightly removed from the sound of The Cars. Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes is all over this album, credited for playing all of the keyboards on 9 of the 10 songs (Ric chips in on the title track), and man, there sure are a lot of keyboards here. The late Benjamin Orr chips in with background vocals on several songs, and even Elliot Easton appears on one song. Hawkes gets his usual one co-write ("Hello Darkness") with the rest of the tracks being written by Ocasek alone.

From start to finish, this is NOT a stellar effort, and could have really benefited from some careful editing. "Mystery" is a reasonably good Ocasek pop-rocker, though pretty rote and forgettable. "True Love" is a listenable-but-middling composition, lifted up by some nice acoustic lead guitarwork from Steve Stevens (of Billy Idol fame), but weighed down by bleary keyboard chords and corny synthesized trumpet. The quasi-'experimental' "P.F.J." (aka "Pink Flag Joe") is perhaps supposed to be humorous, but ends up being a cutesy, hookless bore. And the title track, which is actually quite moving, gets carried away with co-producer Chris Hughes' drum bashing, and then ends with a pointless reprise of "True Love".

However, the first three tracks all hit the nail squarely on the head.

The album-opening "Keep On Laughin'" in particular is one of my absolute personal favorite songs ever. There's a brief intro section that uses the same chord sequence as the album's 4th song, "Look In Your Eyes", and it kind of sets the scene, if you will. Once the intro passes, it gives way to an absolutely astonishingly great uptempo song that comes together in such a way that is simply beyond belief. As usual, the lyrics are a bit allusive, but it seems to be about a woman clutching to the strains of a dying relationship, and it's extremely moving, with deftly-executed and tension-building chord changes, a driving beat, vocals from Ocasek that are pure inspiration, masterfully-placed power chords on the chorus, loads of brilliant keyboard textures from Hawkes (including a "Heartbeat City"-style looping riff), plus lots of great guitar stuff going on in the background (courtesy of Ocasek and Stevens). To say it all adds up to more than the sum of its parts is virtually pointless--what a hauntingly powerful song that compels you to listen again and again. And again.

The following track, "True To You", is so upbeat that it feels downright jolting appearing so suddenly on the heels of "Keep On Laughin'", but getting past that, it's a wonderfully catchy, sunny pop-rocker in its own right.

The top 20 US hit "Emotion In Motion" is also wonderful, a really lovely ballad (it features guitar from Tears For Fears' Roland Orzabel). Ocasek uses his unique and instantly identifiable 'quivering' vocals to wring a lot of emotion from the tender lyric and melody. I can think of almost no one else who might be able to sing this song so movingly.

"Look In Your Eyes" is pretty damn great too--the vocals are a bit frustratingly buried in the mix, but it's got effectively pulsating bass, David Gilmour-style echoing guitarwork, an ominously yearning atmosphere, and an irresistible chorus featuring layered backing vocals from Ben Orr. I also love the thudding, doom-laden metallic rocker "Coming For You". And "Hello Darkness" sounds much like "Keep On Laughin'", yet without being a mere carbon copy of it--irresistible stuff.

Overall, "This Side Of Paradise" is sort of a frustrating, choppy listen. Like I said before, this album could really use some editing and fine-tuning here and there, because there are lots of quality ideas floating around. For all the complaining, the only tune that's really outright skippable is "P.F.J.". Add to this the low list price, the presence of the extraordinary "Keep On Laughin'", and the other great material, you really can't go wrong getting this album.

(P.S. Ric also wrote and sang a wonderful song called "I Still Want You" that didn't make it onto the "This Side of Paradise" album. Actually, Ric may have not even written the song quite yet--it turned up on the 1987 "Made In Heaven" soundtrack.)