The 1981 Listening Post - The Cars - Shake It Up

 The Cars - Shake It Up

#541

November 6 1981

By Lori Alley

The Cars 

Shake It Up

Genre: New Wave 

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Rating 3 ish out of 5

Highlights: 

Since You’re Gone 

I’m Not the One 

A Dream Away 

Clunker: Cruiser 

I’m kind of bossy so I’m going to tell you the optimum way to fall in love with this album: Imagine you’re in the fall of your senior year, and you’ve pretty much had just about enough of high school, and your damn parents. You might spend most mornings trying to decide what to wear (while listening to the The Cars on vinyl) and lamenting the fact that nothing looks very good because your thighs are just WRONG (did I HAVE to eat the whole bag of salt n’ vinegar chips? And what’s that on my face????). Your uncle went to Florida on vacation and he left his beater shift stick Subaru in your driveway. Yeah, it has a cassette player. Yeah, you can’t really drive a stick shift. But there’s NO WAY you can handle taking the bus again. You choose, maybe Bowie, no….Shake It Up for the cassette player and head off to school, stripping the gears in this car and starting to feel better since, hey, it’s THE CARS AND YOU’RE DRIVING YOURSELF TO SCHOOL!!!!! Once you pull into the high school parking lot, you’re feeling better than your usual low-grade moderate depression that nobody ever really notices and head into Algebra class with Since You’re Gone in your head. 

I mean, that’s not the ONLY way to listen but I recommend it because I’m listening to it now and it doesn’t quite have the same punch. STILL! What was it about The Cars that was so appealing back then? Honestly, I’d like to write them a love letter, they way you might to your first love who sort of just faded away. “Dear The Cars, thanks for all of the memories. You were more important to me than you know.” Something like that. I think this is the answer: They manage to make catchy love songs sound somehow dark, dour, dangerous. Look, you wouldn’t think a song called “Shoo Be Doo” (from Candy-O) would sound foreboding, but you’d be wrong. That’s quite an appeal for a teenager, this is music that was edgy for it’s time, it had a new dark, VERY DREAMY sound but the lyrics and the romance and the catchiness of the hook combined for something that was really upbeat at the same time. Just like teenager-ness feels. When one Cars song has a dirgelike beginning, don’t give up! Before you know it there’s a super catchy fun turnaround of attitude and all of a sudden it’s fun! Want to dance? It’s like they say about the weather in Maine, “if you don’t like it just wait a few minutes.” ( A Dream Away is a great example of this). 

This album seems like it might be a contract obligation, although I can’t prove this. It’s produced by the ultra-prolific Roy Thomas Baker (no, not the guy in Hud). He practically produced every single album in the world. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but from Cheap Trick to Devo, he’s your guy. It’s the 4th studio album and doesn’t really have the energy of the first two. It’s ALMOST lounge -esque. But that’s okay, they didn’t sell their souls or anything. The radio hit was of course, Shake It Up with the unfortunate choice of Cruiser for the B side. Was this a cry for help? Why do they always do that?????? 

No matter what you think of The Cars you have to admit they were the essential 80’s band. They had the look, the dark guy (Ocasek who marries the beautiful model), the blonde guy (Orr) and the nerdy guy (Elliot something…) . Hey, wait a minute, am I describing Wayne’s World? To sum this album up, it’s well produced, great lyrics, songs all together so-so. Some gems in the mix, mostly parts of songs that are good. I wouldn’t say this is their most consistent album, but I still consider it good driving music- not too challenging, not too distracting but interesting enough. And with all the choices out there, I guess that’s saying something.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4lDlCfyIhAXwP3hO2GVUaw?si=q71w6OBIScuOEUhzu4U1Yg

The 1980 Listening Post - The Cars - Panorama

 The Cars - Panorama

#318

by Robbie Rist

The Cars

Panorama

Genre: Neu Wave Rawk

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Robbie’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Allen’s Highlights:

Panorama

Touch & Go

Gimme Some Slack

Don’t All Me No

Getting Through

Best Song (which you know is bad sign when its the single): Touch and Go.

So, Ali and I are about halfway through listening to this and she says, ‘Sounds like a contractual obligation record’.

She’s right.

I mean, not sure if they HAD to put a record out that year and this was the result.

But it sure sounds like it.

If this was a debut record by an untested entity, I would think it bodes well for a very creative future.

Unfortunately, this organization put out arguably on of the best debut/sophomore records in pop history.

This feels pretty phoned in.

Is there goodness? Sure there is. Every song has a perfectly serviceable hook (when all is said and done, Ocasek was a pretty serious song craftsman who, at his worst is pleasantly, quirkily listenable. Also, drop the needle on any guitar solo and you will be handsomely rewarded (although there aren’t as many as I would like....). Easton is the Clem Burke of this band. Perfectly fine without him but not even remotely as good.

But the whole affair feels like a place keeper. Like a band taking a collective breath while trying to figure out what do do next.

Or maybe they were tired that year.

Even the production feels murky and lackluster.

Its decent background music but hardly a listening experience one would go back to visit over and over.

Your mileage may vary.

https://open.spotify.com/album/56eHYN6Y02evhG49RjZL2V?si=jlxBhqKxSvO0XsgOrIXSHw

The 1986 Listening Post - Benjamin Orr - The Lace

Benjamin Orr - The Lace

#423/2102

October 6 1986

Benjamin Orr

The Lace

Genre: New Wave

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Too Hot to Stop

In Circles

The Cars.

They were so simple and catchy and perfect. Like chewing Bubble Yum. The only gum that didn’t immediately lose their flavor after 20 chews. And they had something mysterious in them that people tried to pretend were spider eggs to scare kids from consuming them by the truckload. 

There’s no simile between spider eggs and The Cars or this album, which sounds so much like a Cars album it makes me wonder who was the actual brains behind the Boston band.

In the end, The Lace sounds more like a middling Rick Springfield record. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-lace/272506975

The 1986 Listening Post - Ric Ocasek - This Side of Paradise

Ric Ocasek - This Side of Paradise

#383/2063

September 15 1986

Ric Ocasek

This Side of Paradise

Genre: New Wave

2.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Coming for You

Lowlights:

True Love

P.F.J.

One of my favorite episodes of Star Trek is called, “This Side of Paradise”. There are spores. Jill Ireland. 🖖 falls in love. Kirk declares his love his ship. It’s tense. 

Emotional. This album is not. 

It’s a Cars album without the drummer. Instead, Chris Hughes of Adam and the Ants fame drums on it. But Elliot Easton is on here, along with Roland Orzibal and GE Smith. And Greg Hawkes, my least favorite part of The Cars, is all over it on bass and keys. 

So, it’s basically a Cars record. 

Only not nearly as crisply produced, which is weird considering Ric’s later successes. 

Just 2 years earlier this sound was the top of the pops. 

Now it just sounds old.

“Not Tonight”, the single by The New Cars, featuring Todd Rundgren, is better than anything on this record.

Fact.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/this-side-of-paradise/1444121547

The 1985 Listening Post - Elliot Easton - Change No Change

Elliot Easton - Change No Change

#82

March 25 1985

Elliot Easton

Change No Change

3 out of 5

Highlights:

Help Me

Wide Awake

I listened to this once before, during my Cars retrospective, about 10 years ago. And then I forgot about it. 

Listening to it outside of the Ocasek catalog it’s not as terrible in comparison. 

But that’s the problem. I keep comparing it to the more famous band that he was in instead of just listening to it in it’s own right. And, were I to do that, I would have to say he’s a less interesting/less talented Rick Springfield. 

This is Power Pop. In the tradition of Raspberries & Bay City Rollers and The Spongetones & Shoes & The Romantics & &&…just that the hooks aren’t there, just listen to “Help Me”. 

It’s a record out of time. It’s not of 1985. It belongs in 1975.

Side Two is where the shit hits the needle and you start to wish you'd never heard this. But, you can't unhear the faux R&B, white boy soul and semi-rap of "I Want You". Which sounds like the Theme to Sanford & Son if written and recorded by Dee Dee Ramone.

But the album tries to right itself with the Country Rock, "The Hard Way", a song that suffers from mediocre lyrics & bad singing but has an easy, truck down the highway, big country sound, but is ultimately a failure.

The record fumbles around but finds it's energy towards the end. "Change" is a rocker, the kind we hope would come from the fingers of the legendary southpaw axeman.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/change-no-change/74721060

The 1984 Listening Post - The Cars - Heartbeat City

The Cars - Heartbeat City

#56

March 13 1984

The Cars

Heartbeat City

5 out of 5

Highlights:

Hello Again

Magic

Drive

Stranger Eyes

You Might Think

Why Can’t I Have You

This album was massive. I never owned it, however. For some reason, even though I had Shake It Up on cassette (and possibly because of that) I just passed on buying this, even though it shouted to me at Tower Records in the Village every time I went in there. 

The Cars and Candy-O are two parts of a great story that went sort of off the rails with Panorama and then was half a great album on Shake. 

So, even though I’ve heard all the hits here (who hasn’t?) I’ve never heard the album as one whole. Time to change that.

Interesting that they changed from Roy Thomas Baker, who had a hand in each of their first 4 records and switched to the hitmaker-of-the-80s, Mutt Lange to take them into the stratosphere. However, I don’t think it’s Lange that takes this record to the heights it reaches. I think Ocasek finally figured out how to hit the pop notes that had eluded him on his journey of art rock exploration. Based on his successful production of Weezer a few years later, I think I’m correct here. That said, if you crank this one and wear headphones it will blow your brains out. Mutt really understood how to run a mix. 

“Drive” is a master lesson is New Wave ominous balladeering while the Side One closer “Stranger Eyes” outdoes all the pretenders to the synth pop throne. Even the lesser tunes, like “It’s Not the Night” and “I Refuse” bring something hook-laden and worthwhile to the table. The album plays like a greatest hits because it virtually is. This is the sound of a New Wave band at the height of it’s powers. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/heartbeat-city/1088528654

The Cars - Move Like This

The Cars - Move Like This - 2011

And ironic title, considering that when The Cars played live they were like watching a Disney animatronic band.
Move Like This is exactly what one would expect from The Cars. Driving mid tempo, synth driven songs that could have been recorded in 1983.
Where Door to Door showed a band that was clearly ready to be done, Move is the opposite. There's nothing to lose for the guys. Egos are dispensed with. It's just time to make another, template cut, album.
Some tracks sparkle, "Blue Tip", "Too Late", "Sad Song", and the ballads find their way without being obnoxiously "inventive".
In fact, "Sad Song" is a near perfect rip of "My Best Friend's Girl". Handclaps, driving bass, provided by Jacknife Lee, swirling synths, aural space. It's a welcome old friend. As is "Free", which continues to mine the same Carsian tropes. Considering how often the band has let me down for their love of Ocasek's more experimental, arty pursuits, this is welcome. (Much like the recent Devo reunion album was)

Ocasek actually channels Orr's softer, higher register on "Soon" and, he creates a nice blend of the two of them. It's a sweet and gentle piece that evokes a gentler, less controlling aspect of the band. But it is unfortunate that the most sludgy piece is called "Drag on Forever". Cuz it does. (And it sounds a lot like a Cars version of a Monster-era R.E.M. song.....) As does the middling, "Take Another Look" which is covered in the stench of the 80s, like it's a song desperately seeking a soundtrack over whose credits it's crying to be played.

For the most part, Move Like This fits nicely in the catalog. Not as great as Heartbeat City, Candy-O or The Cars, but so so so much better than Door to Door and superior even to Shake it Up, although without that album's massive single.

Grade: B
ASide: Blue Tip, Sad Song
BlindSide: Soon
DownSide: Drag on Forever, Take Another Look

The New Cars - It's Alive [File Under: The Cars]

The New Cars - It's Alive - 2006

Okay, so this is a one off. But, I had to include it.
First off, Rundgren has Ocasek's nervous, forced, paranoia voice down.
The backing harmonies, spot on.
Easton's Roy Thomas Baker/Brian May inspired solo.....
The pulsating, driving beat...Hawkes' layering synths.....the snarky lyrics......

THIS is what I have been waiting for since Heartbeat City.

I'll leave the live portion of the album to you. I couldn't care less. The three studio tracks are all i cared about.

The New Cars was really just Easton and Hawkes. Prairie Prince of The Tubes played drums. The aforementioned Rundgren on Rhythm and vox.

The irony here is that The Cars, a band I saw perform live at Madison Square Garden in 1980, was one of the most boring live acts EVER. I remember it vividly because there was no reason to see them. They sounded JUST like the album and nobody on stage moved. At MSG! And yet, the record they put out was 3 studio tracks and the rest was a live album. Hilarious.

"Not Tonight" is the lead single. And it's one of my favorite Cars tracks...ever.
"Warm" is the "Drive" of the album. Mediocre but spot on.
"More" is the would-be second single. Fun and stupid. And makes me wish there had been a whole album.

Grade: B+

Ric Ocasek - Nexterday [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Nexterday - 2005

It took about 27 years but Ric Ocasek finally made his dream come true: An album of songs written by him, sung by him, produced by him and, most importantly, featuring instruments played by him. Well, not all. He didn't play bass. And he didn't play guitar on ONE song. Or keys on TWO. And he had help with the rudimentary drum programming. But, hey, this is as close as he's been able to get.

Some of the songs, like "Bottom Dollar" &"Don't Lose Me" would probably actually sound pretty good if they didn't just sound like demos recorded in someone's spare bedroom on a laptop. And there's something so inviting and relaxed about "A Little Bit" that I like. Or maybe I've been beaten down after 2.5 decades of this guy's music.

"Silver" is Ric's song for the late Ben Orr. I've never found Ocasek to be very emotionally engaging. An ominous bass leads off, a two note throb takes over and then...lyrically, knowing what the song is about...it's heart wrenching. "You were my right hand. You were my friend. You were always strong until the end." It's easy to forget that they started the Cars together and had known each other since the early 70s in Boston. They were in a folk band called "Milkwood" who released one record in 1972. Obviously, Orr meant more to Ric than I ever imagined. Right up to the end. "You were my good time. You were my rave. You're the one that always set the stage......"
Devastating.

Nexterday demands very little from the listener. It's easy and comfortable, like an old slipper. Ocasek is a rich, elder statesman rock star with children and a wife and none of the trappings. So, he's got no one to impress, he just wants to make music. And that's what he does.

Grade: B-
ASide: Bottom Dollar, Silver
BlindSide: Don't Lose Me
DownSide: I'm Thinking

Ric Ocasek - Troublizing [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Troublizing - 1997

four tracks produced by....

Billy Corgan?

Really?

The first thing I noticed on the very first track is that this sounds like a heavy, 90s era Cars tribute band. "The Next Right Moment" would have fit perfectly on Shake it Up, albeit without the gritty, fuzzboxed guitars. It doesn't take too long, the next song, "Hang On Tight", actually, to get back to that minimalist Cars basics, but something else happens between the notes: Edge. With that bass pushed way up front and the floating guitar/key work dancing in the background, Ocasek's voice and paranoiac sound is given time to shine. The same happens later on the fun but slightly pedestrian "Not Shocked".
I think the heart of the album is the title track. A creeping and moody piece that, put in a minor key, might have appealed to Black Album era Metallica. Then again, maybe not. But, when the guitars and drums and, well, real instruments don't just take backseat on an Ocasek track but, rather, sit side by side and flesh out the song together, you know Ric has had a change of his synth-loving heart. Perhaps Weezer's influence was showing. After all, this album comes out 3 years after he produced the blue album and brought that band it's first success, galvanizing and helping shape the burgeoning Alternative movement. So, it's not really a surprise that "Situation" sounds like an outtake from the Brian Bell chord progression songbook.
Of course, the beat poet in Ocasek can't just stop himself and rears his ugly head on the Cormac McCarthy world "Society Trance", which is just...ugly.
Just as weird, the last track, "Asia Minor" is not by Ric, rather it was written by Billy Corgan. So...Smashing Pumpkins version of The Cars, I guess.

All told, Troublizing shows growth on Ocasek's part and, more importantly, a willingness to relinquish control. It's no Quick Change World or Fireball Zone, though.


Grade: C
ASide: The Next Right Moment, Hang On Tight
BlindSide: Troublizing
DownSide: Here We Go, Society Trance, Asia Minor

Ric Ocasek - Quick Change World [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Quick Change World - 1993

The familiar bass line peeks through the first real cut, "Don't Let Go", a song at once so familiar and yet, sort of fresh that, after the spoken word Laurie Anderson-esque opener fills me with hope, that this album might actually build on the promise of Fireball Zone.
Good news. It does. The sound is bigger and less cluttered. The songs are tighter and not without the requisite Ocasek paranoia.
Just like the first side starts with a spoken word against a post-apocalyptic soundscape, so does side two, only this time exploding into the galloping "Come Alive", one of the most energetic in the man's repertoire. Later on the same energy can be found on "Hopped Up" and it's not a moment too soon.
The first time I find myself not like the album comes late, with the title track, a lame attempt at a funky dance rhythm. And the spoken word experiment continues on "What's On Tv", but that one doesn't fare as well. It's well intentioned. And a bit hypnotic, if pretentious. Ric wants to be a relevant poet and I give him props for that, but it's not exactly the kind of stuff I want peppered throughout the album.
However, it really works as a bookend and the last track, "Help Me Find America" is one of the most human he's concocted, even though it features more electronics than any other he's put out.
I do wish the album hadn't been cut apart. Originally it was intended to be two separate pieces, a song cycle and a poetry cycle. But, the label left him in the dirt and had other ideas. But, it's sort of always been Ocasek's way to put the more difficult material on the second side/half of his albums. The first half really pops, however. So, it's worth a quick spin on the old SpotiWheel.

(Oh, yeah, since it's the 90s, there's a hidden track. Another mood piece. Not awful, but I'm really glad that trend is over.)


Grade: B
ASide: Don't Let Go, Hard Times
BlindSide: Come Alive, Hopped Up, Help me Find America
DownSide: Quick Change World

Ric Ocasek - Fireball Zone [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - Fireball Zone - 1991

The first sign of life from Mr. Ocasek in ages. Co-produced by...Nile Rodgers of all people, Fireball Zone opens with the scorching "Rockaway" and really just keeps cruising for a while.
Easily much more accessible than his previous solo records, he seems to have kissed goodbye to The Cars and embraced his own muse. No longer trying to distance himself from his devotion to Bowie/Numan, he comes into his own in many places (also gets a little funky at times) and scores. It's sort of strange to hear Ocasek try so hard to sound like Bryan Ferry meets Spandau Ballet on "The Way You Look Tonight", but, then again, it's not surprising, listening back to the direction he was always taking The Cars and his solo work.
So, it is surprising when he comes up with something like "Flowers of Evil", which, for lack of a more imaginative description, sounds like it fell off Adam Ant's Manners & Physique. Which is also to say that it's the most alive anything Ocasek has put out...in years.  And something has heavy as "Balance" seems out of place in the rest of Ric's catalog but, on FZ it's perfectly fine. In fact, I want more.

There's a lot to like on Fireball Zone. It doesn't sound like The Cars. And that's a good thing. Because I think I've heard enough of that for a while.

Grade: B+
ASide: Rockaway
BlindSide: Over and Over, Flowers of Evil, They Tried, Balance, Fireball Zone

The Cars - Door to Door

The Cars - Door to Door - 1987

Remember that muddy, cloudy, dense production that was smeared all over Panorama? It's back. "Leave or Stay" might have actually been good had anyone thought to put some air between the instruments. Fortunately, the sparsity of arrangement on "You Are the Girl" can overcome the shoddy production.
Door to Door is one of the most maligned albums in any band's catalog. It's not that this is the record that ended the band. It's that The Cars were done by this time. 9 years from that first, perfect release and, well, they just had nothing else to say. They were always basically a one trick pony. That trick worked for a handful of singles. But, it was always going to run out of steam at some point. That point was just before Door to Door.
This album is turgid and worse, anonymous. It could be any synth band of the era. Devoid of ideas, heart, emotion, or fun.
Avoid it.

Grade: D
ASide: You Are the Girl
BlindSide:
DownSide: Fine Line, Double Trouble, Ta Ta Wayo Wayo

Benjamin Orr - The Lace [File Under: The Cars]

Benjamin Orr - The Lace - 1986

Do you like "Drive"? Oh, good. Then you would like 60% of this album. Wait, what? You say you don't need to hear mid-tempo, synth driven, electric drum driven 2nd rate Cars songs?
Oh. Then skip it.

It's not that The Lace is BAD. It's that it's inconsequential. It aims for the middle. Except for the opening track, "Too Hot to Stop" and the burning "That's the Way" there's no there there. There's some promise on the title track, but, in the end, it's much ado about the same old same old. Definitely superior to anything Ocasek had put out on his own, not as much fun as some of Easton's effort, but definitely in the wheelhouse of mid-80s Cars. I do have a warm feeling for "This Time Around", the album's closer. It's pretty honest about what it is. Sort of "Drive" part 2 but with more of an eye on being on the soundtrack to some 80s rom-com like "About Last Night".

I always like Orr. He was my favorite Car. He was the best looking, the most androgynous and he sang lead on so many of their hits. His was a solid 80s voice, he wasn't the creepy club crawler that Ocasek's voice was. He could have probably sang anything. Especially of that era.
I wish his only solo record was better.

Grade: C+
ASide: Too Hot to Stop
BlindSide: The Lace, That's the Way, This Time Around.
DownSide: There's nothing unlistenable here.

Ric Ocasek - This Side of Paradise [File Under: The Cars]

Ric Ocasek - This Side of Paradise - 1986

Opening with an abstract, paranoid soundscape, "Keep on Laughing" suggests that it might be Ocasek's Low or Lodger but, in no time, those familiar Cars tropes kick in, the steady, mechanical beat, the airless, futuristic, spacey environs, this time buttressed up against glam metal guitar solos and we know that not much is going to change. The sound might be a hair heavier, but Ocasek, who never really had much to say beyond cliche and never met a refrain he couldn't repeat ad nauseum, offers no surprises.
I'm not sure why Ric fails on his own so utterly and completely. It's not like The Cars were a democracy, he was always in charge.
But, if you listen to This Side of Paradise as though it was a Cars record, it's fine. If you told someone it was a Cars record they might respond with, "Really? But it's so much heavier....oh, well, maybe they changed their sound. A bit."
And they wouldn't be wrong. See, Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays on the entire record. Ben Orr sings backup on a bunch of songs, and that harder rocker I wrote about, "True to You"?. Features them and Elliot Easton's guitar. So....save David Robinson (who I'm convinced Ric just didn't care for), it is a Cars song.
It's not until the end of side one that the promise of the very first few moments are made manifest. "Coming for You" is an ominous, dark, dangerous track sidelined only by Hawkes' needless filigree. Other than that, it's as close to what Ocasek's been pretending to be about as anything else.
Like Beatitude before it, Paradise is a near waste of your time. Slow, meandering, uninspired and dull.

Grade: D+
ASide: Coming for You
BlindSide: True to You
DownSide: Mystery, True Love, PFJ

Elliot Easton - Change No Change [File Under: The Cars]

Who knew Elliot Easton could sing? Or even warble? I certainly didn't think he would be the first non-Ocasek Car out of the garage with a solo album.

Co-written with Jules Shear, I'll say this for it, it tries. The entire MO seems to be to let Easton out of his shackles. And, it almost works on that front. He's downright blistering on "Wearing Down Like a Wheel" a song that couldn't fit anywhere in the Cars' catalog but is better than a goodly portion of their output, at least on the 3rd and 4th albums.
This is generic Power Pop. But that's what it is. In the tradition of Raspberries & Bay City Rollers & The Andersons...just without the songs.
Side Two is where the shit hits the needle and you start to wish you'd never heard this. But, you can't unhear the faux R&B, white boy soul and semi-rap of "I Want You". Which sounds like the Theme to Sanford & Son if written and recorded by Dee Dee Ramone.
But the album tries to right itself with the Country Rock, "The Hard Way", a song that suffers from mediocre lyrics & bad singing but has an easy, truck down the highway, big country sound, but is ultimately a failure.
The record fumbles around but finds it's energy towards the end. "Change" is a rocker, the kind we hope would come from the fingers of the legendary southpaw axeman.

Grade: C
ASide: Wearing Down Like a Wheel, Wide Awake
BlindSide: Tools of Your Labor, Help Me, Change
DownSide: I Want You

The Cars - Heartbeat City [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Heartbeat City - 1984



Hello.
Hello Again.

Dumping their longtime producer, The Cars hooked up with hitmaker Mutt Lange, got back to what made them great in the first place, namely, catchy songs, became the darlings of MTV, had Andy Warhol direct and co-star in a video and scored their best album since their debut.
They haven't abandoned their futurism, their love of all things antiseptically controlled, but they are a band again...of sorts.
Robinson is still programming more than playing and Hawkes' keys are...well...they're everywhere.
The hits are snappy and hit the target dead on. But, even the secondary tracks, "Looking for Love", for instance, are stellar. In the case of "Looking", the band seems to be embracing their power pop roots, with nearly treacly sweet backing harmonies, which gets back to what they were about in the first place: bridging the past with the future. They were always basically a 1-4-5 rock group dressed up in skinny ties and slotted shades.
Lange puts his magic touch on tracks like...well...."Magic" and "You Might Think" and the lovely superhit, "Drive" and comes up with winners on each. I can't say enough about "Drive". Not only was the video a winner, but this is the first time in a long time that Orr takes vocal lead and push a song just that much higher. His is a non-descript, bland 80's one, but that makes it perfect for the track. And the wall to wall synth sound that Lange produced is everything that The Cars have been trying to come up with on their own for a couple years, since Panorama, really, and weren't successful. His is such a milestone of 80s sound but, listening today, it sounds nostalgic and fresh.
Even on the inevitable Hawkes/Ocasek collaboration, "It's Not the Night", the band sounds alive and excited. It's a rocker and, truth be told, I didn't think Hawkes had it in him. I still don't. I credit Lange and Orr, who performed the vocals. Weird that this album would have the most cohesive and shiny backing vocals when RTB was Queen's producer. It should have been the other way around, no?

The Cars never wrote anything more than passable piffle. Pop Roc Candy. Earworms. As far as that kind of music goes, it doesn't get better than this.

Grade A+
ASide: Hello Again, Magic, Drive, You Might Think, Why Can't I Have You
BlindSide: Looking for Love, Stranger Eyes, It's Not the Night, Heartbeat City

Ric Ocasek - Beatitude [File Under: The Cars]

Why does this exist? At the height of The Cars' fame, just after they cracked the top 10 with their single, "Shake It Up", their lead singer, lead song writer, control freak who, according to stories at the time, dictated what each member would play, forcing the drummer to program his drums rather than play, does....a solo album?

The Cars might as well BE the Ric Ocasek solo show.

Was it money? Did he want a bigger slice of the pie? I mean, besides the lion's share from writing and publishing that he was already getting? Was he not given enough artistic freedom? Panorama wasn't enough?

Why does this exist?

After the first two very Carsian tracks, the record takes a left turn into weirdville. "Prove"'s synth-funk, "I Can't Wait"'s 80's teen movie soundtrack sound,  and "Connect to Me"'s frenetic, disjointed and schizoid meandering for SEVEN MINUTES close out side one.
Side Two is more of the same and still begs the question: Why does this exist? It's not like you can sing along to anything here, it's not like you wanna learn to play this stuff, and it doesn't really make for dinner music or background music, for that matter.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse than the (co-written by Greg Hawkes) "Out of Control" comes the pulsating nocturnal percussion of "Take a Walk". A song where Ocasek channels his inner beat poet (hence the title) and talks his lyrics. He so wants to be Bowie. That said, the closer, "Time Bomb" is the most ominous thing to come from Otcasek's pen. I really love it.

There's nothing he does here that he couldn't have done with the band.

Unless....

These songs were summarily dismissed by the rest of the band and he decided to prove 'em wrong and used his clout to put this out as a solo record.

Please O Please, be the reason.....


Grade: D
ASide: Something to Grab For
BlindSide: Time Bomb
DownSide: Jimmy Jimmy, Out of Control, Take a Walk, Sneak Attack

The Cars - Shake It Up [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Shake It Up - 1981

More of the same.
Better production, though.

The muddled sounds of early 80's cocaine induced production are gone. I'm not saying they were doing anything, this band seems like the last one to partake in anything mind altering save keyboards. But, that's what the production of the last album sounded like.

Actually, Shake starts off sort of promising.
"Since Your Gone" is a prelude to the album, of sorts. Easton's guitar sounds like it's being played on an e-bow to sound more synth-like (or it's a synth....) adds to the mourn-pop that adorns Ocasek's Bowie-lite persona.
And the album really takes off with the smash hit, "Shake It Up", an infectious calliope of New Wave sounds.

But, after that....more mournful ballading in "I'm Not the One", and the lazy, euro-trashy, "Victim of Love" take their toll. It's not until the Side One closer, "Cruiser" that I realized what was missing from this record: guitars. Easton may play one lick throughout with some crunchy bar chords but it's a welcome respite from the banal music we've come to expect. Things take a turn for the worse on Side Two, "Dream Away" suggests that Ocasek is more in love with Hawkes' sound than being in a rock band. Pilfering a synth line from Laurie Anderson's Big Science album, "Dream Away" wants to be something so much more than what it is, but what it is is an arty pop, studio creation. And it's dull.
Slowing further, "This Could Be Love" really tested my patience and made me remember what we did with this cassette: Listen to the first two tracks, turn it over and fast forward. Because the penultimate track, "Think It Over" is an attempt to return to a quarter note driven, guitar rock, hand clap riddled sound of yore. And the giant percussion of "Maybe Baby" seems to be a response to my imagined complaints on David Robinson's part of having...NOTHING TO DO.

You might remember Shake It Up fondly but that's because of the hit song that came with it. It's not very good in the overall and all you need from it you can get on compilation albums.

Grade: C
ASide: Shake It Up, Since You're Gone, Cruiser
BlindSide: Maybe Baby, Think It Over,
DownSide: Dream Away, Victim of Love

The Cars - Panorama [File Under: The Cars]

The Cars - Panorama - 1980

Otherwise known as "what happens when a pop rock band with arty ambitions abandons the pop and much of the rock in favor of the arty?"
Panorama is a mess. The song. The album. It's a droning, muzzled, over controlled mess.
Ocasek seems to be overly concerned with the band having any freedome so the reins have been pulled tight. In fact, there's no semblance of a real group working together until the fourth song, "Don't Tell Me No", where David Robinson sounds like he's actually playing his instrument instead of programming a Casio. That still doesn't redeem the song. And Easton isn't really given much to do until "Getting Through".
No, this is the Ocasek & Hawkes show. And by becoming ever more dependent on the keyboards for the sound tapestry The Cars have actually managed something that seems almost impossible: They went from being the vanguards of the New Wave movement and created something of it's time AND simultaneously timeless to being the representatives of all that was wrong with the movement and created something of it's time, yes but also something that could be shoved in a time machine for 1980. In less than 2 years they did that.
If you take the album for what it is, though, it's not entirely unlistenable. It's just a disappointment. The poppy sheen and pure craft of the last two records gives way to the New Wave Underground.
That said, the hypnotic effect of "Panorama" and the decidedly uber-New Wave-y-ness of "Misfit Kid" represent the era precisely and I can't deny that. And the rocker, "Down Boys" reminds me of what The Tubes were also doing at exactly the same time, in fact, it could be the dirtier, muddier cousin of "Sushi Girl". It's also one of the few places where the band sounds like a...band. But, it's obvious by now that Ocasek's in control.
I really can't imagine that they thought this album sounded good, however. It's so muddy. Compared to the sounds on the previous two.
Oh, and Rik's a bad lyricist here, too. ;)

Grade: C-
ASide: Touch and Go,
BlindSide: Getting Through, Misfit Kid
DownSide: You Wear Those Eyes, Up & Down