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Originally Posted by Burning Down
As far as I can tell, the search function is not turning up a general thread for The Cars. So I'm making one. Talk about this great band here!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Necromancer
One of their best singles Drive, would not be the same without Benjamin Orr on vocals. The Cars were a very versatile band out of the early new wave scene in the 70s, which infused a lot of different styles into their sound, Rock, Hard rock, Art rock, New wave, Post-punk, Synthpop, Power pop, etc. I'm glad they reformed the band, I hope they play Columbus, Ohio, where Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr first met and performed as a duo back in the early 70s, that would be a good home coming for Ric Ocasek and a tribute to Benjamin Orr.
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I remembered this morning that Jackhammer once commented he had no idea what music appealed to me even after I had been at MusicBanter for a year. So I searched for a thread about The Cars and see that luckily you made one already, Burning Down.
I love many of The Cars' songs from their Heartbreak City album because I heard them during my formative teen years, when their catchy and sometimes odd lyrics and raw emotion about relationship issues appealed to me since I was starting to pay more attention to relationships then.
Their lyrics on that album aren't very deep and sometimes use quite a few filler words just for the sake of rhyming, I suspect, but musically I like the feel of the songs
very much. The Cars do upbeat and peppy songs well, and also despondent ones with a hollow feel. I think their songs are aimed at tweens and teens, but I still like them!
Some of my favorites:
The Cars - "You might think" . . . Of course!
This is the Cars' song that first caught my attention. Others in the thread have mentioned it, too. I like Ric's voice, the quirky elements (his brief "You kept it going 'til the sun fell down" solo), and the persistent rhythm guitar:
The Cars - "Why Can't I Have You"
Mmm...I like the perturbed feeling of this heartbreak song. I appreciate that the lyrics have some unexpected, vivid sections, such as, "Oh candy smile, all the while, glinting, Your eyes like mica, a lethal pout, hinting," among the trite lines that include these: "Baby, why can’t I have you? You're breakin’ my heart in two, You know what I’m goin’ through." Normally I would roll my eyes at the trite lyrics, but the peculiar ones ("eyes like mica") save the song, in my opinion:
The Cars - I'm not the one"
A nice depressing song with a slow, troubled sound. This song gets me down.
It's a good catharsis song for doing some wallowing in despair in order to get beyond it.