Candy-O

Performer: The Cars
Producer: Roy Thomas Baker
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The Cars: Ric Ocasek (vocals, guitar); Ben Orr (vocals, bass); Elliot Easton (guitar, background vocals); Greg Hawkes (keyboards, background vocals); David Robinson (drums). Digitally remastered by Joe Gastwirt. On their second album, the Cars take a small step to the left. While remaining a solidly mainstream new wave band (as they would throughout their career), the group gets a bit artier on CANDY-O, with impressive results. Like many of their peers, the band began to accentuate the angular, electronic/futuristic aspect of their sound, exploiting its inorganic quality for maximum irony and detachment. On "Got a Lot on My Head" and "Double Life," Ric Ocasek seems ever more the alienated geek content to crack wise in a world he made from a do-it-yourself science kit. Ben Orr lends a slightly more emotive (but no less ominous) feel to the glossy, metallic surface of the title tune and the infectious "Let's Go." Ocasek's hipness quotient is displayed in the unconventional "Shoo Be Doo," a short, strange homage to his heroes/pals Suicide.

CMJ (1/5/04, p.6) - Ranked #5 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1979".

Debuting in 1978, the Boston-based Cars managed to achieve both massive commercial success and New Wave credibility with their mix of power pop, Roxy Music-influenced art-rock, and melodic synth hooks. Despite his fame, leader Ric Ocasek proved to be a champion of the underground, producing albums by Suicide, Bad Brains, and Peter Dayton (later he produced hit records by Weezer and No Doubt). The band dissolved in the mid-'80s, and hopes of a reunion were complicated when singer/bassist Ben Orr passed away in 2000. Yet in 2005 the remaining members, sans Ocasek, enlisted the talents of pop guru Todd Rundgren and became The New Cars.

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