Fireball Zone

Fireball Zone is the third solo album by the American musician Ric Ocasek, frontman and songwriter of the Cars. The first single from the 1991 release was "Rockaway".

Production
The album was produced by Nile Rodgers and Ric Ocasek. Its title is a reference to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. "Over and Over" and "The Way You Look Tonight" are ballads. In contrast to his Cars days, Ocasek recorded the album live, with his band, rather than part by part.

Critical reception
The Ottawa Citizen wrote that "the main thrust of Fireball Zone is to emphasize a funk element within what has always been Ocasek's music style—cold, lean, electronic pop with a tortured bottom end." The Chicago Tribune opined that Fireball Zone "may not be a masterpiece, but it's better than any album by the repetitive Cars, easily one of the most overrated bands of the '80s." The St. Petersburg Times determined that the album finds Ocasek's "rubber-band voice crawling over indistinguishable over-synthesized tunes set to a maddeningly tedious beat."

Personnel

 * Ric Ocasek - vocals, guitar, keyboards
 * Nile Rodgers - guitar
 * Larry Mitchell - lead guitar
 * Dann Huff - guitar on "Balance" and "Mister Meaner"
 * Steve Elson - horns
 * Stan Harrison - horns
 * Matt Collehon - horns
 * Richard Hilton - keyboards
 * Al Berry - bass guitar
 * Larry Aberman - drums
 * Mickey Curry - drums on "Balance" and "Mister Meaner"
 * Tawatha Agee - backing vocals
 * Fonzi Thornton - backing vocals
 * Curtis King Jr. - backing vocals
 * Dennis Collins - backing vocals
 * Katherine Miller - engineer
 * Hiro Ishihara - engineer
 * Dave Schiffman - engineer
 * Justin Luchter - engineer
 * Jon Goldberger - engineer