Wasp

Being a longtime Todd Rundgren fan and completist, I bought the vinyl release of this when it came out. It was odd and got shelved for awhile. After a few years, I came back to it and discovered how truly weird and great this piece of work is. Granted, this CD issue seems to be a CDR, the sound quality is excellent. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when this was presented to Warner Bros./Curb as a finished product. I'm guessing that the money was spent on Todd Rundgren's expertise for making an album full of chartworthy pop anthems that Todd is so good at doing. The results were quite the opposite.As a Utopia album w/ a guest singer, it is a hilarious snapshot of the times and worthy of much more attention than it received. There are some great Todd originals, especially "Pretending" and "Selfless Love". I can hear Kasim singging the latter in my head w/ beautiful results. The title track is pure TR w/ his comments on the punk movement in all its plasticity and money driven angst.For my money, this has the best version of "Once Bitten Twice Shy" ever recorded.Thanks to whomever took the time to get this back to the public. Any TR/ Utopia fans will have fun pointing out the Toddisms throughout. It is not the reinvention of the wheel or anything on that level, but it is a thoughtful piece of work w/ great songs and wonderful musicians, all with tongues firmly planted in cheeks.

Amongst all the records in my collection perhaps it's curious that I own this album by a former heartthrob of teen girls and frequent Tiger Beat magazine cover star Shaun Cassidy. After hearing Wasp via college radio, for years I owned the vinyl version and recently purchased this reissued CD. This is the one you pull out to surprise your friends!Shaun's teenybopper music career was coming to a close in 1980 and in an effort to change his image he employed Todd Rundgren and Utopia to create basically a new wave record. I am not sure what the plan was on Cassidy's part; a future as a progressive artist or maybe just to have fun on the way out by throwing caution to the wind ? The album never dented Billboard's Top 200 Album chart, but neither did the slicker album before it, and Cassidy soon moved on from the music business into an expanding television career; thus the last Cassidy record minus one slick European single "Memory Girl" released in 1989.Often Todd Rundgren's production work seems to make whoever he works with sound like a lot like Todd Rundgren himself and with Utopia as the backing band that is the case here. The record is a mix of covers of artists such as David Bowie, Ian Hunter, and the Talking Heads along with originals co-written with Rundgren and Utopia members. It is a very intriguing release at the least. Some list this record as a "cult favorite".To address an earlier review- this is indeed a CD-R that Curb has reissued.Beyond downloading it yourself, a CD purchase gets you a case, a printed cover and information about the tracks. The disc is not re-mastered, however it sounds fine.

I looked around for this on CD for years - and then kinda gave up - luckily I happened to check out the Wiki page for this album and saw the CD was released in 2012... how did I miss this for 5 years? - This album makes me feel 17 again - wow wow wow - The cover of Shake Me Wake Me is a classic - and Shaun really gives his everything on Rundgren pinned Selfless Love and WASP. This is a new wave classic - and everyone who loves the genre will love this record. The band is comprised of the members of Utopia - but Cassidy makes this his own record.Covers - Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" - The Talking Head's "The Book I Read" - The Four Tops' "Shake Me Wake Me" - The Animals' "It's My Life" - Pete Townshend's "So Sad About Us" - and Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy."The rest were written by Rundgren.

I had this album on vinyl MANY years ago and enjoyed it at the time. Maybe it was considered a bit of a novely record, but the song choices were fun ones. Looking for a trip down memory lane, I ordered the CD version recently and listened to the album again for the first time in about 30 years. The first track, a cover of Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" sounded positively ... awful. And what's with that affected vocal? Urrgghh! Definitely not as good as I remembered. The biggest problem with this album is Shaun's vocals. He doesn't possess a particularly striking voice to begin with, and many of the song choices on here don't suit him at all. Also, he appears to copy the vocal style of the original singer on almost every tune. But where this technique works best is on the tunes penned by album producer Todd Rundgren. It's on those songs that I think Shaun sounds halfway decent. And actually, the cover of "Shake Me, Wake Me" is still pretty cool too.If you are fan of Rundgren and Utopia (as other reviewers have noted, Utopia really leaves their distinctive musical mark on these songs) and keep an open mind, you might like this album, or at least find it amusing. All these years later, it doesn't hold up as well as I had hoped, but it's still an entertaining disc.

Yes, I am showing my age here, but I simply LOVE LOVE LOVE Shaun Cassidy, I have every vinyl album from Shaun from back in the late 70's! Then I had every cassette of his, then of course when CD's came around I got every one of them. Now I have them on mp3 for my iPod! :-)Excellent album!

Not what anyone would expect, this Todd Rundgren produced album is fantastic, completely unlike Shaun,or his brother David's, pop albums. Do yourself a favor and check this one out!

awesome

Product as described.