On his first solo LP, 1983's 'Beatitude,' Ric Ocasek rounded up some of the offbeat rockers whose records he'd produced and came up with a set of arty oddities. The record felt surprisingly tentative and uneven – the work of an ambitious bandleader uncertain about which direction to take on his own. Beatitude was met by a collective shrug from the record-buying public, and perhaps that's why...

It comes as no surprise that Ric Ocasek's new album, Fireball Zone, offers few surprises. He has shown an unwavering consistency throughout his long career as leader of the Cars, whose success derived in large measure from Ocasek's ability to set alienated, overwrought lyrics to extremely palatable pop melodies. But the generally happy, radio-friendly music made you wonder if Ocasek could possibly...

It's like 1979 all over again. With its clenched-distortion guitar hook and airy come-hither chorus, "The Next Right Moment" – the first song on the new solo album by the Cars' main-wheel man, Ric Ocasek – is the spitting, turn-of-the-'80s image of that band's black-pearl melodic polish and cat's-purr locomotion. And that's no bad thing. Ocasek's biggest hits with the Cars were always...

After four albums with the Cars, Ric Ocasek's solo debut is – surprisingly–very much what you might expect: artful electronics, discreet riffs, fat dance beats and semidetached vocals with that trademark twist of torment to them. Since some of the ten tunes here are more than vaguely familiar ("Jimmy Jimmy" strongly recalls "Shake It Up." and the choogly "Something to Grab For" harks...