It's hard to believe that it has been 35 years since The Cars released the most disappointing follow-up album of the '70s, Candy-O. Now, don't get me wrong, it isn't the worst album ever released, or anything, but coming off of the absolute, fully-formed perfection of their debut album - you know, the one that had "Good Times Roll", "My Best Friend's Girl", "Just What I Needed", "Don't Cha Stop" and "You're All I've Got Tonight" on it.
I'll be the first to admit that "Let's Go" was a great way to announce their second album to the world, but it too raised the stakes and there just isn't anything else on the album that can hold a candle to the band's last truly great rock song. Sure, "It's All I Can Do" is pleasant enough, but sounds more like something you'd find on a Shaun Cassidy album.
Rolling Stone's Tom Carson wrote of the album's songs "They're all about enigmatic women who don't put out (or who do put out, but remain enigmatic), and there's a carefully oblique background of cars, nightspots and art-deco furniture." The band's detached commentary does nothing to create any sense of urgency, which is the one thing that made The Cars such a perfect debut.
So, if the album wasn't that good, how did it manage to sell over five million copies? By paying careful attention to the needs of their audience (basically teenage boys) and commissioning famed artist Alberto Vargas to do the rest...
