Candy-O

About

With 1979’s <i>Candy-O</i>, The Cars didn’t change the New Wave sound that had made the band’s debut album so successful. After all, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? For <i>Candy-O</i>, the members of the Boston quintet once again turned to Roy Thomas Baker, who’d guided the first four Queen albums, as well as acts like Free, Hawkwind, and Journey. Baker knew how to build thickly-layered tracks full of harmonies, while also keeping a song moving forward. As a result, there’s a chilly efficiency to <i>Candy-O</i>, one that suits singer Ric Ocasek, whose lyrics are heavy on quips and curdled romance (“When I was crazy, I thought you were great”). Ocasek had a gift for concise lines that summarize big ideas or feelings: “Alienation is the craze,” he sings in “Double Life”—and there’s no better way to describe life in late-1970s America. Throughout <i>Candy-O</i>, keyboardist Greg Hawkes devises great, quirky hooks on tracks like “Let’s Go”—the band’s biggest single at the time—and “Lust for Kicks.” And while drummer David Robinson isn’t fancy or showy, he plays with a firm snap that roots the lively arrangements, and his work on “It’s All I Can Do,” sung by bassist Benjamin Orr, shows how much can be accomplished with just a snare, hi-hat, bass drum, and some sure-handed syncopation. There are a few hints here as to where The Cars were heading with their music: On “Double Life,” Robinson plays alongside a drum machine, and “Shoo Be Doo” is a dissonant and forbidding hellscape that lasts less than two minutes, functioning as a bridge out of “Double Life” and into the title track. More importantly, “Shoo Be Doo” is a bridge to the next Cars album, which would be darker, weirder, and more electronic than any of the group’s previous efforts.

via Apple Music

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