CD Odyssey Disc 729: The Cars

It is another busy week for your humble author. I could’ve written this review last night but like a carpenter who can’t convince his hands to build any more furniture after a long day, I couldn’t get my tired brain to compose any more sentences.

This is just as well, since I don’t know this album as much as I should, and the extra day meant getting an extra listen.

Disc 729 is…. Candy-O

Artist: The Cars

Year of Release: 1979

What’s up with the Cover? One of rock and roll’s most iconic album covers and also one of my all-time favourites. I’m confident I don’t need to explain why.

How I Came To Know It: When I was a kid I owned a 45 of “Let’s Go” (it might have originally been my brother’s, but he passed it along). I used to play it all the time; occasionally on ‘33’ speed just because I thought it sounded funny (and still kind of cool) when slowed down.

I didn’t get the full album until fairly recently, partly because I wasn’t familiar with any of the other songs. Eventually, my desire to have a digital version of “Let’s Go,” my curiosity for the Cars’ sound, and my prurient interest in the awesome cover by pin-up artist Alberto Vargas won over and I bought it on disc.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Cars albums, and of the three I must put “Candy-O” at the bottom of the pile. Here is the full list:

1. Self-Titled:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 550)
2. Heartbeat City:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 562)
3. Candy-O:  n stars (reviewed right here)

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

“Candy-O” is well named. It is instantly enjoyable, but it doesn’t have much going for it beyond the initial sweetness, and it doesn’t fill you up the way you want.

The album launches itself with a bang, with the enthusiastic (and exhortative) “Let’s Go” a song about a seventeen year old flirt you’re liable to encounter on a Friday night if you’re out late enough. The girl is a ‘frozen fire’, has a ‘risque mouth’ and is so beautiful she doesn’t wear her shoes. I’m not entirely sure what any of this means, but who cares – the song is about being out on the town and seeing a pretty girl. Beyond that, it is such a fun tune that you needn’t worry about some deeper message.

The whole album is in the Cars’ singular style that mixes in new wave and classic rock into a perfect blend that shouldn’t work but does. These guys mastered the use of the synthesizer eight to ten years before anyone else, and no one else ever came along to do it better. On “It’s All I Can Do” the verses sound like a Talking Heads number and the chorus feels like ELO proto-disco, and weirdly, it all works.

There are no real stinkers on the album, but I couldn’t help but find myself comparing the songs to those on their self-titled debut. Their debut has the same incredible sound and ear for production, but the songs are just way better. As sometimes happens on a sophomore album, the songs on “Candy-O” have the slight whiff of B-side or cutting room floor about them. With a few exceptions they don’t have the same fully formed concepts as the record before.

At the other end of the spectrum, the album is beginning to transition the band into the more pure pop sound on “Heartbeat City.” Again, these aren’t fully formed yet. There are some cool sound effects throughout the album, particularly on the title track but even on that song it feels like the band is trying just a little too hard to be themselves. That should come naturally.

As a complete record, there is a lot to recommend “Candy O” and I think it would have been a pretty sweet house party album in its day. However, it doesn’t have the depth it needs – musically or lyrically – to be great. Fortunately even when not firing on all cylinders, the Cars still know how to deliver a fun ride.

Best tracks: Let’s Go, It’s All I Can Do

CD Odyssey Disc 562: The Cars

I meant to write this review on Thursday but I was dog-tired and so here I am instead, up early despite last night celebrating my friend Chris’ birthday.  Happy birthday, Chris!

Earlier this week I watched some Jools Holland (I have about 35 left from when I taped them off of the HIFI channel).  Jools featured Ray Davies from the Kinks (recently reviewed) and also Cyndi Lauper.  Although I can’t say I liked Cyndi’s interpretation of blues standards, I really liked her – pushing sixty but still looking great, wrapped all in leather pants and attitude.

But enough of Cyndi, let’s return to another eighties icon.

Disc 562 is…. Heartbeat City

Artist: The Cars

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover?  Half pin-up girl, half muscle car poster.  That’s about as good as it gets.  This is half of a 1972 drawing by Peter Phillips entitled “Art-O-Matic Loop Di Loop” which is a pretty bad title, but a cool drawing.  Here’s the entire thing:

Note the traditional pin-up art trick of making the girl's legs twice as long as they'd be in real life?  I love that trick.

How I Came To Know It:  This was a big album when I was in high school, with lots of associated music videos, so I knew the hits fairly well, but it was Sheila who introduced me to the full album.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Cars albums.  Their self-titled debut is the best, and I’ll say “Heartbeat City” is second, although I reserve the right to bump “Candy-O” into that position if it suitably impresses me when I roll it.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

I never thought an album so full of organ, synthesizer and (egads) drum machine could be this much fun, but the Cars’ “Heartbeat City” pulls it off.

The album jumps out with energy and enthusiasm with “Hello Again” the first of five hit singles on the record.  “Hello Again” is my least favourite of the singles, but I am still awed by how much human energy these guys can create from a simple piano riff and a bunch of weird synth effects.

It helps to have Ric Ocasek as a lead singer.  His voice is perfectly suited to this style of music, with its short choppy lines and New Wave feel.  He sounds otherworldly and right on the edge of making fun of his own affectations, with never going over.

Ironically one of the album’s most famous tracks, “Drive” is sung by bass player Benjamin Orr.  Orr plays Roger Taylor to Ocasek’s Mercury on “Drive.” Like Taylor, Orr has a high and unpretentious crooning that breaks from the more theatrical delivery of Ocasek.  It is a perfect fit for the romantic ballad he sings on.

“Drive” was one of those magical slow songs at a high school dance.  Girls loved to dance to it, so you could almost always find a partner to press up against for four minutes.  If there is anything in high school more magical than getting the girl you like to slow dance with you, I can’t think of it right now, so thanks for the memories, Benjamin. 

Of course the king of all slow dance songs remains “Stairway to Heaven” but if you want to read about that, you’ll have to back a couple years in the Odyssey to when I reviewed it back at Disc 342.

The best and biggest of the hits on “Heartbeat City” is “Magic” however, with its ELO-inspired synth opening, cutting immediately to a hard-edged guitar riff before Ocasek breaks all the musical tension, emphatically singing:

“Summer!

Turns me upside down

Summer summer summer

It’s like a merry-go round.”

I don’t know how lyrics this empty of content can be so cool, but this song is undeniably cool.  It is fun to sing along to, fun to drive along to, and just generally makes you think of those summers where you’ve got no responsibility other than finding $10 to put in the gas tank so you can take your girl to the beach.  Enjoy those summers, friends, because there aren’t very many of them over the course of your life.

In fact the worst thing about the hits on this record, are the truly stupid videos it spawned.  I particularly remember “You Might Think” which featured Ocasek, model Susan Gallagher and a bunch of badly done computer graphics.  Worst of all it was popular on the video channels.  I remember other kids at high school talking about how cool the video was, and what annoyed me the most was that it was a good song being buried in stupid visuals.  It deserved better.  For starters, I would’ve gone with less of Ric Ocasek’s head put onto the body of a fly and more of Susan Gallagher.  Maybe at the aforementioned beach?  But I digress…

Side two of the album is less hit-driven and more experimental, as side twos generally are in the era of vinyl. In many respects, side two is a throwback to their earlier albums’ hard-edged punk and new wave influences but updated to the eighties by famous producer Mutt Lange.  For the most part, he doesn’t wreck them in the process.

“Looking for Love” is a pretty little track that is mostly guitar driven, which makes it feel slightly out of place on the record if only because of its normalcy, but I like it. “It’s Not the Night” sounds a bit too Laura Branigan for my tastes.  “I Refuse” is the worst in eighties music, with its empty, strained chorus and beat that generates images in your mind of bad eighties dancers swinging their loosely clenched fists from side to side.

“Why Can’t I Have You” is this album’s “Moving in Stereo” with an alien sounding production filled with synth-Goth organ and robotic hand claps.  It sounds like it would be terrible, but it is actually brilliant.  The cars manage to perfectly blend true romantic yearning in with the disconnected feel of the song’s tune to capture the numb despair of loving somebody who doesn’t love you back.

This is a very good record from a band that demonstrates that you can update your sound with the times and still maintain the artistic integrity that got you famous in the first place.

Best tracks:   Looking For Love, Magic, Drive, You Might Think, Why Can’t I Have You

CD Odyssey Disc 550: The Cars

Today is Logan’s Day Off!  Sounds like a delightful sixties theatre production, doesn’t it?  Like “Fop About Town!” or something.

Actually, it is just me taking an extra day off before a busy weekend.  So far I’ve cleaned the bathroom, tidied up some paperwork, did my banking and practiced the guitar.  Hardly delightful theatre production material, but that’s life.

I also have a bit of headache from not drinking coffee this morning.  I usually only have one cup, but miss that cup and the caffeine makes sure you know it isn’t happy.  I am ignoring its scorn to show just who’s boss.

Disc 550 is…. The Cars (Self-Titled)

Artist: The Cars

Year of Release: 1978

What’s up with the Cover?  A pretty girl has put on her brightest red lipstick and gone for a drive.  When I was a kid, the clear steering wheel in the picture used to fascinate me.  Now, I’m admittedly more interested in the girl

How I Came To Know It:  I’ve known this record since it came out.  My brother bought it that year on vinyl and it’s been in my life ever since.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three albums by The Cars.  This one is far and away their best, so #1.

Rating:  4 stars but very nearly 5

My first encounter with this album was at age eight, when my brother Virgil (then 15) calling me into his room and had me sit equidistant between his two speakers.  He then played “Moving in Stereo” to show how the sound went from one speaker to the other.  For a while “Moving In Stereo” and Prism’s “Spaceship Superstar” were two of my favourite songs partly because of how they used this effect.  I don’t know how people survived music in mono; I assume it made them listless and without energy, a lot like the disease of the same name.

While “Moving in Stereo” demonstrates the depth of this record’s lineup, the first three songs on this record are a tour de force in rock and roll brilliance.

“Good Times Roll” starts the album off, demonstrating that even the simplest guitar riff can be awesome when played with some brilliance.  The same goes for “My Best Friend’s Girl” at number two and “Just What I Needed” at three.

Together these songs define the Cars early sound, showing a New Wave edge couched within a foundation of hard rock.  So many bands around this time struggled to incorporate synthesizers into their rock and roll.  The Cars not only include it, they make it so good you can’t imagine the song without them.

The songs on this album are great for driving, they are great for parties and they are great for just singing along or playing air guitar as the mood moves you. I’ve heard this album at least a hundred times and I never get tired of it.

They are hard to pin down.  Clearly rock and roll, they also have early punk influences, and their chord progressions remind me of early country music.  On “Best Friend’s Girl” the guitar sounds a lot like Buddy Holly.  On “I’m In Touch With Your World” the combination of strange sounds (whistles, gears and what I think is someone trying to mimic a ray gun) I was reminded of mid-eighties Tom Waits.  “I’m in Touch With Your World” is a bit too New Wave for my tastes but coming in the middle of the album it is a nice change of pace.

“You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” is a brilliant piece of rock decadence, opening with:

“I don’t care if you hurt me some more

I don’t care if you even the score

Well, you can knock me and I don’t care

You can mock me, I don’t care

You can rock me just about anywhere

Because you’re all I’ve got tonight.”

The song is driven along by a dirty guitar lick that takes the free love of the sixties and inserts a healthy dose of seventies cynicism.  As booty calls go, this one is about as painfully honest as they get.

Although I’m not giving this album five stars, it comes pretty damned close.  As seventies rock and roll goes, this is almost as good as it gets.  I was shocked when I looked the album up on Wikipedia (which is never wrong) and found that it peaked at #18 in the U.S. (below lesser albums like “Candy-O” and “Heartbeat City”) with no top ten hits.  Yet more proof that radio doesn’t know that the hell it is doing.

History has been kinder, thankfully, and tracks like “My Best Friend’s Girl” are still instantly recognizable thirty-five years later.  I’m glad that thanks to having a music loving older brother, I’ve got to be a part of the journey from the beginning.  However, if this album is still unknown to you, that’s OK too.  Go get it tomorrow; it’ll be just as good on the first listen.

Best tracks:  Good Times Roll, My Best Friend’s Girl, Just What I Needed, You’re All I’ve Got Tonight, Bye Bye Love, Moving in Stereo