Rather than indulge in nostalgia, we here at The Shit thought it might be fun to review both of these classic Cars albums as if doing so at the time of their release in 1981 and 1984, respectively. Make no mistake, we love both albums unconditionally and have bought them in multiple formats.
In this writer's opinion, anyone who has done the same has earned the right to discuss each album critically, so with this in mind...
The Cars - Shake it Up
The Cars are nothing if not a visual band; each album cover an ad-worthy pastiche of American sexuality and verve.
Yet, despite two stunners ("Let's Go" and "It's All I Can Do"), the band's follow-up to their fully-formed debut failed to live up to the promise of the scantily-clad woman draped across the hood.
Panorama arrived a year later, showing the band eager to indulge their angular, arty side at the expense of all commercial concerns. The checkered flag on the cover symbolizing the end of the band's seduction of America's mainstream audience and, as expected, the album was a bit of a commercial misstep...but I really kinda dug the band thumbing their nose at convention to such an extent.
All of this makes the arrival of Shake It Up that much more intriguing.
If we were to judge this book by the cover, its apparent that the band longs for the glory days of their first album, but is playing it safe by opting for a more wholesome - perhaps even nostalgic - image of American enticement: the milkshake.
Once inside, I am delightfully pleased to find myself victim of a musical bait-and-switch, beginning with the album's darkly-foreboding opening cut "Since You're Gone". If ever there was a song that managed to straddle the fence between "immediate pop hit" and "darkly atmospheric post-rock", it is this one.
It's a song that wouldn't have sounded at all out of place on Panorama and, quite frankly, would have raised that album's cache ten-fold.
Ah, but wait. The album's next cut, from which it takes its title, is a totally unabashed, and truly "dumbed-down" summer beach hit with lyrics that are complete gibberish, even by Joey Ramone standards. Thing is, we don't take it as an insult because we arty types understand that its a pose and as easily discarded as last tour's t-shirts.
Quite surprisingly, that's about the only fully commercial concession the band makes on the entire album because, while there are certainly ear-worm melodies to be found throughout, the band continues to indulge their adventurous spirit and willingness to go where no pop band has gone before.
The end result is the band's most heavily-nuanced collection of midnight art pop excursions with one sure-fire pop smash tacked on to keep the bean counters happy.
Best 3 Songs: Since You're Gone, Think It Over, Cruiser
If the first Cars album was one movie, it might be "Fast Times At Ridgemont High", which, ironically enough, features the Cars' "Moving In Stereo" quite prominently.
That both album and movie were nice little sleeper hits with few expectations attached to them that wound up defining the decade. Unlike Cameron Crowe's film debut, The Cars did so before the decade had even begun.
If Heartbeat City was a movie, it would be "Terminator 2": A big hit-making monstrosity with a heart of gold - half-man, half-machine and all business. Every song sounds like a radio jingle, which, if you bought and loved the band's last two albums, means you'll soon be sharing the band with every Ocean Pacific board shorts-wearing yokel with ears.
Now, that's not to say that Heartbeat City is a bad album, which it is not. It just isn't a "Cars" album.
On "Hello Again", for example, it is as if a Huey Lewis fan fed what they believed were the Cars best attributes from the band's 1979 hit "Let's Go" into the Commodore 64's latest music generator program "Autotune" (!) and out popped this kitschy little number.
In the past, only a Huey Lewis fan could believe that this is what the Cars sound like, but now it appears that Ric Ocasek thinks so too.
One can't help wonder, though: If you'd played this album for the Cars in 1978 and told them, "This is you in six years", how would they have responded?
Will the album be huge? Without a doubt. After all, Heartbeat City is door-to-door Chess King- quality jingles performed by 3/5 of a truly great rock band. What's not to love about that?
Best 3 Songs: Magic, Why Can't I Have You, I Refuse
NOW ABOUT THE BONUS CUTS
Bottom line: As a longtime Cars fan, I don't find any of the "bonus features" at all interesting from a listener's point-of-view, nor do I see myself enjoying these any more as a completist either. Your mileage may vary slightly, but don't scoff at me for coming right out and saying I won't be spinning any of those embryonic demos of songs that went on to become other songs because none of those would have made me a fan.
Granted, hearing the home demo for "Shake It Up" was kinda cool.
AND, LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Both are out today on CD and 2-LP vinyl. The artwork on Heartbeat City has been restored to drummer David Robinson's original vision, which Elektra couldn't help but toy with just to make Robinson, whose drum duties by then had been reduced to incidental tamborine and shaker, feel all the more obsolete.
You may find yourself falling in love with an album you had kinda written off, or falling out of love with one that hasn't aged as well as, say, Paula Porizkova.
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car toons