And then, the Cars returned to making pop music with new-wave and art-rock influences, rather than art-rock with pop influences. It seems a wise choice, since their greatest triumph was in their debut’s ability to walk the line between pop sensibility and avant-garde experimentation like it was a tightrope. And while Shake It Up might not match the finesse and memorability of the first classic, it easily leapfrogs over Panorama with radio-ready singles as well as paranoid, freakout tracks.
pop rock
Record #89: The Cars – Panorama (1980)
As the saying goes, nothing gold can stay. Like their spiritual heir apparent Weezer a decade and a half later, after two winning albums, the Cars fell into a bit of a slump.
Record #88: The Cars – Candy-O (1979)
The astute among you will notice that I’m posting the back cover of this album as opposed to the legendary, lusty front (if you want to see it that much, you know how to use Google). As a man who has tried to follow the teachings of the man who said “whoever looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her in his heart,” it’s always been difficult for me trying to divorce this record from its cover. But that difficulty isn’t unwarranted: the record went platinum in record time, largely because of the pinup sprawled on its cover.
But that success reinforces the question: is the music any good?