A simple matter of curiosity got me to pick up this long forgotten relic of Shaun Cassidy's musical career (he is currently involved "behind the scenes" in television production). The sticker affixed to the cover of this album declares "Produced by Todd Rundgren Featuring Utopia" and the fact that it includes songs by Pete Townshend ("So Sad ABout Us"), David Bowie ("Rebel Rebel"), Ian Hunter ("Once Bitten Twice Shy") and David Byrne ("The Book I Read"). Okay, so he's crying out for credibility and trying to break away from the Teenyboper ghetto (much like his older half-brother David did to little avail!). That I kinda' need to hear! Of course, after I saw it I remembered reading about a long time ago when it was released (in late 1980) but never getting past the "oooh, Shaun Cassidy...YUCK!" factor. It's not like anyone was fooled by the makeover attempt. The album was a huge flop that effectively ended his recording career, and Warner Bros. never tried to cross-market it (knowing better than to put something from it on their current "Loss Leaders" compilation 'Troublemakers' which tread it pretty close putting Robin Lane & the Chartbusters next to the Gang of 4!) as anything other than a Shaun Cassidy record. There's a really desperate air of edginess to the project, from the covers placement of a large wasp on a photo of Shaun to the actual choosing of the material covered. The choice of Rundgren as producer was a poor one in regards to the results, but it must've seemed daring on paper at the time. Todd was in a rather commercial phase, after abandoning the riskier prog-rock of the early Utopia for more fertile power-pop. He produced Meatloaf's transitional album into mega-stardom so it's not inconceivable that he might do the same for Cassidy if you leave out the fact that Cassidy was already a billion seller as a teen-beat pop star heart-throb...but he was so heavy-handed about it that he sort of pisses over any real chance of Cassidy's pulling it off. The version of "Rebel Rebel" is virtually sabotaged by placing a simultaneous high pitched co-vocal with Shaun's fully capable vocals, and slowing down the Animal's hit "It's My Life" into a bluesy dirge was just a serious misjudgment in what was tasteful and good. There are the surprisingly decent tracks, however, like his version of the Talking Head's "Book I Read" and a typically upbeat version of Hunter's tune that sounds prophetically like the late 80s hair band nugget. The end result, however, is about as predictable as you can guess. Even someone as masterful as Rundgren can't can't fool the public into believing that Cassidy was something that the public didn't know him as, and so whatever fans who hadn't grown up and changed over to "real music" were left hated it and the possible fans of new wave music certainly weren't going to check it out. It was pretty much doomed from "go!" if you're asking me.