Life Beyond Bubblegum

 

Perhaps it is curious that I own this album by seventies teen favorite Shaun Cassidy, but this one album Wasp is beyond Shaun’s usual bubblegum. Shaun Cassidy's last album is not a brilliant work, it's just unexpected. This album is what the stuffy music collector wants out of pop music artists; it's not about feeding the mainstream, but rather about stepping out of the box. This is the one album you pull out to surprise your friends who might recoil at the sight of this bubblegum star. Wasp is just interesting enough and perhaps just good enough to be beyond a closet favorite in my collection.

I believe I learned about this record via college radio close its release in 1980. For years I had the record on vinyl and just recently found it reissued on CD. At the time of it's release Shaun’s core audience of teenaged girls were entering early adulthood. His previous album Room Service didn’t chart and so in an effort to hang onto his music career he needed to change his image to a more grown up and perhaps edger style. With a new direction in mind he employed music veteran Todd Rundgren and his band Utopia.  I have considered that Cassidy with this album wished to end his then current record contract by doing whatever he wanted, but actually Rundgren as a producer couldn’t have been cheap. Basically, what Cassidy and Utopia created was a new wave record much in keeping with other 1980 crossovers that hinted at new wave styles. Punk and New Wave pushed a “back to basics” mindset in music and a few major rock artists took notice. Billy Joel in 1980 had done the edger Glass Houses, Paul McCartney released his sparse McCartney II album, and Linda Ronstadt stepped away from her usual by covering three Elvis Costello songs her album Mad Love. Wasp never dented Billboard’s Top 200 and Cassidy soon moved on and into a successful business career in television. Shaun did have one last stab at music in 1989 dropping the musical adventure of Wasp and releasing instead a slick European only single called "Memory Girl'' before retreating back to the TV biz.  

One way to describe Wasp is to note that any production work by Todd Rundgren often makes an artist sound like Todd himself; though I'll say XTC’s Skylarking didn’t fall into that trap, but Rundgren’s production of the band the Pursuit of Happiness is a case in point of duplicating Rundgren's Utopia. One person’s review of Wasp wished for Utopia to rerecord the record only with Rundgren’s vocals, but actually Shaun’s singing is fine. Reviews noted that for most part the album is a remake of Rundgren’s Faithful album which like Wasp is a mix of covers and originals. 

If any of Shaun Cassidy’s teenybopper fans had hung on long enough to make it to Wasp in 1980, after his main success between 1977-1978, I personally would’ve loved to have seen their reaction to this work. The opening track, a cover of David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel “ might be announcing  a hybrid of bubblegum and new wave. Here Cassidy’s voice is the lower register while a high pitched almost Bee Gees sounding second vocal moves over a steady synthesized beat mixing with a guitar sound much like the original David Bowie version.

Now with Wasp in mind let me bring up the ridiculous idea where we get Justin Bieber to record Radiohead covers, then co-write songs with Elvis Costello, and get Mitch Easter to produce it. Is that a dream or a nightmare? I do find records where popular artists move out of their comfort zones to be very interesting. Sometimes the change is simply a desperate career move or other times it is true art. In recent times teen star Mandy Moore dared record XTC's “Senses Working Overtime" on her album Coverage; she has since widened her range even further. Think about when the Monkees brilliantly poked fun at their own teen stardom in the film Head; Shaun isn’t really mocking himself on Wasp or is he? Once artistic development and progression was once more the fashion, consider how the Beatles went from teenyboppers screaming for "She Loves You" to recording an album like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. For Cassidy perhaps Wasp was progression, but of course he didn't take it any further.

Let me note that Curb Records has done something here that I haven't seen done by a label in this day and age of digital downloads, they released this album as a CD-R .For the money you get a printed cover, CD label ,copyright information and the songwriting credits.

New Beach Boys

I have listened to enough of the Beach Boys catalog to get the contradiction between the cheese factor, the song 'Kokomo' is the usual target in this category, and pure musical brilliance as heard in their singles like 'Warmth of the Sun' and on albums such as Today, Pet Sounds, Sunflower, and Smile. With this band you end up forgiving flaws because there are so many treasures to pull from. And so I bought the first Beach Boys release containing new material in 16 years, That’s Why God Made the Radio. Current interviews reveal Mike Love’s continued desire for commercial success and this record occasionally shows that he and Brian Wilson have a hard time understanding that quality might sell over trying too hard to make a radio friendly music that radio won’t actually play, but as always quality is subjective . Now, despite the debate about the title track “That’s Why God Made the Radio” the first single from the album, I note there was one critic that called it "miserable" then another “their best single in 35 years”, I happen to love it. Hearing that song takes me back to the awesome show they gave in Atlanta under a starry sky in early June. There are tracks on this record which show Brian Wilson understands that music that is deep and complex in conjunction lighter themed material is half of the appeal of the Beach Boys and here he gives the people what they want; listen to the last three tracks. 

Listening to the peppy yet dated sounding tracks like 'Spring Vacation' makes me realize that I certainly get those songs and I see the appeal, but then it's a hard sell to the those who favor intellectually the music on Pet Sounds and Smile. I am comfortable pointing these folks to the more baroque pop like the word free intro 'Think About The Days', and the suite of music which closes the album 'From There To Back Again' , 'Pacific Coast Highway' and 'Summers Gone'. Little of Brian's solo work has been as engaging as these tracks and I believe he has been saving them for the chance to have the Beach Boys record them.  

I am still digesting this new one since it came out yesterday. I know there are better releases for the money, but these are the guys who influenced some of the better artist recording now, the Shins, Fleet Foxes and Beach House come to mind, and new material by the “Boys”, is relevant entertainment if even just for pleasant moment in the day.