The Cars
 

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!

Without doubt one of the best bands to have ever come out of the USA. Here in the UK they were known but largely under-appreciated by British listeners. Their debut is a timeless classic and I still listen to it often, their fourth album "Shake it Up" is all time fav of mine and I love the commercial "Heartbeat City" album as well.

I`m not overly happy that they`ve reformed, because without Benjamin Orr (the voice of the Cars) it will never quite be the same.

Best song is a hard choice, but it has to be the legendary "Moving in Stereo"

"Heartbeat City" is a great song too. I always liked it.



Yes, Benjamin Orr really did add a whole other dimension to their music. I love all the songs that he sang, and he was not a bad bassist either.

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.

If memory serves me right they were in a band called Milkwood that didn`t have too much in common with the Cars sound. It was the early influence of David Robinson ex Modern Lovers who was an influence image wise on the band that steered them into what would become new-wave.

Milkwood had a more folk sound, it seems like.



I think the Modern Lovers only ever released one album, plus some live stuff, but only after they broke up in 1974. Their sound definitely influenced the Cars, just listen to this:

Modern Lovers definitely were a big influence, the whole sound of that song is very early Cars and even has a clapping sound that featured heavily "On My Best Friends Girl"

I think Ric Ocasek was more the voice of the Cars. Ben Orr only sang on a handful of songs as far as I know.

The singing on the albums was usually a 70/30 split in favour of Ric Ocasek. When I say the voice of the Cars, I mean to say that his songs were more memorable. He sang some of the best known songs in "Just what I Needed" "Lets Go" and "Drive"

Other great songs he sung include "Moving in Stereo" "All Mixed Up" "Candy O" "Don`t Tell Me No" "Cruiser" "This Could be Love" "Stranger Eyes" "Double Trouble" to name some.

Ric Ocasek`s hiccup style delivery is the Cars, but the cooler more decisive delivery of Ben Orr provided the soul of the group.

Ben Orr definitely had more sex appeal than the rest of them though! :laughing:

For that reason he used to stand in the middle in concerts!!!

Many years ago I actually met Ric Ocasek in an airport and he was of course instantly recognizable with his height, dark shades and hair!!. I spoke to him briefly and got his autograph, he was also in the company of an absolutely stunning brunette, who was probably even more attractive than the brunette in the Drive video.

He actually married the woman in the video, and as far as I know they are still married.

http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles...rizkova-15.jpg

Paulina Porizkova. Stunning lady. Perhaps the person who inquired saw Ocasek's daughter, shes probably a teenager by now.

I grew up listening to the cars. My parents are pretty big fans and saw them live a couple times. They're pretty good, my favorite song by them is "Moving in Stereo". Has anyone bought there new album? I've heard mixed reviews on it.

I've been meaning to pick up some Cars albums. I've heard their self-titled is essential but what else should I get from 'em?

I'm really digging their self-titled at the moment, it's one of those albums where every track feels like a hit single. It's a real pop-rock gem.

Heh. I agree, but then again most of the tracks were hit singles!

I`d listen to them in order of production

The Cars- A milestone album in the American new-wave scene and imo one of the best debut albums in the history of rock.

Candy O- Similiar to the debut but not quite as good.

Panorama- Their most experimental and darkest release and a kind of homage to some of the groups that influenced them. Some good songs but not a great album

Shake it Up- My personal fav with its final new-wave sound and looking ahead to the Heartbeat City sound.

Heartbeat City- One of the most polished albums ever produced and the group are a world away sound wise from the debut especially with the dominance of synths.

Door to Door- Often regarded as their weakest album but I`d say their were some essential material on here.

I`d also recommend listening to some of Ric Ocasek`s solo discography as well.

The debut was often described as a greatest hits album as every song minus "I`m in Touch With Your World" sounded like a single

Heartbeat City is another good one.

Ha, yeah I read that there were a lot of singles released off it. The original 'All Mixed Up' sounds fantastic though, it sounds so different to the Red House Painters cover.

The way "Moving in Stereo" almost merges into "All Mixed Up" is superb.

Yeah the last 3 songs kind of merge into each other, it's very well done.

....and Bye Bye Love starts that trilogy.

Did you get my nominations for album wars? As for some reason I have no record of it being sent

Yeah the entire second half of that album is flawless. The only song on the album that doesn't really match the rest is 'I'm in Touch With Your World' but it's still a good song.

Whoops must check my inbox, thanks for that.

In post 18 I made the same point. "I`m in Touch With Your World" was always an oddity and sounded like a typical B-side of that era and it sits strangely with the rest of the album.

Yeah that's true it does kind of sound like a B-side. But at the same time it shows a more experimental side to the band, and those little weird cartoon sound-effects are kind of cool.

What`s even more odd, is that it was song number 4 on the album, usually that part of the A-side especially in that era, was reserved for stronger songs that were released as singles.

In fact it sounds like a B-side for a Buggles record.

i'm quite big on The Cars

love their debut and am getting their entire discog soon

No comments on the new album? It reminds me a little of the Shake It Up album. Meh. The one without a hit Ben Orr single. His presence made the band great (although I'm not sure he was a particularly good bassist).

Door to Door was full of songs that hadn't been good enough for the first album or so. "You are the Girl" has one of the worst music videos of all time. Still, "Strap Me In" and "Double Trouble" are the most rocking Cars songs I know of.

My favorite album is Heartbeat City. Just great.

I didn`t think you were much of a Cars fan!!!

Elliot Easton was seen as the best musician in the group, I`d say Ben was a decent bassist and nothing more. "Door to Door" was always a strange album, a departure from "Heartbeat City" for sure and more back to basics but the end product was actually quite different. The whole album has an eclectic feel with songs such as "Double Trouble" "Everything You Say" one of the most interesting songs the band ever did and "Fine Line" all sounding very different to each other, but strangely enough the whole thing is cohesive enough to be a decent album.

of course I am, been big on them since the 80s, when You Might Think and Drive came out

totally adore all their singles

saying that, I don't really like Heartbeat City (album) much because of the amount of filler and the snoozefest of a title track - they shouldn't really attempt "atmospherics" and concentrate on hooks and catchiness

my fave Cars song is Since You're Gone - which sounds like Dylan gone New Wave

As great as their hooks were, I think the defining element of that band were actually the atmospherics (thanks to Greg Hawkes) which were evident on all their albums sarting with "Moving in Stereo" off the debut and reaching their full blown conclusion with "Heartbeat City" that title track I find amazing btw.

You`re right "Since Your`re Gone" does sound like Dylan gone new wave. In fact the song as the same plodding feel as "Let the Good Times Roll" off the debut.

I love Since You're Gone. It's one of my favourite songs from them.

There is definitely not enough love for Candy-O happening in this thread. It's their best album imo.

Great album, cool name and one of the best album covers around as well, problem is it gets over shadowed by the debut. Around 50% of the material on it was recorded at the time of the debut and could have been on that album.

2nd best. nothing tops the debut

i got all the "classic" albums by now

listening to Shake It Up (album) now - it's pretty coolio

That album is a classic and defines what cool is and combines their early new wave sound with hints towards the Heartbeat City album and the following songs are Cars classics" Cruiser" "A Dream Away" "This Could be Love" and "Maybe Baby"

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. :)

This is interesting as the basic premise behind most of the Cars songs are about doomed relationships and most importantly about unattainable women (The songs could easily be switched though for a womans point of view) But the whole concept behind the Cars was always extreme negativity, despite the number of upbeat sounding songs they put out. Panorama was always their most negative and darkest album.

Sure by the time of Heartbeat City Ric Ocasek was cutting and pasting a lot of his earlier lyrics which I always thought were great anyway.