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Music CD - The Cars: The Cars
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Music CD: The Cars
Artist: The Cars
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $7.05
Your Save: $ 4.93 ( 41% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Good Times Roll
2. My Best Friend's Girl
3. Just What I Needed
4. I'm In Touch With Your World
5. Don't Cha Stop
6. You're All I've Got Tonight
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Moving In Stereo
9. All Mixed Up
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075596052429
Label: Elektra / Wea
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Elektra / Wea
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Studio: Elektra / Wea
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: "When you're standing oh so near/ I kinda lose my mind/ Yeah"
Comment: "Just What I Needed" was already an oldie by the time I was a high school sophomore, but that didn't stop it from being one of the most relevant songs I could get my hands on. It simultaneously fulfilled all of my most pertinent musical cravings, serving up a flawless three-and-a-half-minute cocktail of crunching power chord heroics, sharp melodic hooks, hopelessly clever lyrics, and vocals that were both quirky and impassioned. It was the perfect pop song, but with enough spiky alt-new wave attitude to imbue it with a sense of genuine cool. Every time I cue it up, it takes me back to tenth grade, to that joyful year that saw me fall helplessly in love with my best friend. "Just What I Needed" is the sound of pure, hopeless joy, of butterflies in the stomach and lightness in the head, of wry, knowing angst and cheekily self-deprecating humor. It's the sound of smart people letting their emotions sneak up on them. Beautiful!
But the most mind-boggling thing about "Just What I Needed" is that it's not even my favorite song here! That honor would probably go to "Bye Bye Love," which is a brittle, cynical masterpiece. It's a simple breakup song that somehow manages to turn the whole notion of love inside out, and every one of its hooks is stuffed with bitterness and paranoia and caustic wit. In fact, I'd say that this album is worth the price of admission purely on the basis of Ric Ocasek sneering "you think you're so illustrious/ you call yourself intense." It's one of the most withering putdowns in the history of pop music, rivaling even the more acidic moments of This Year's Model and Highway 61 Revisited.
The other seven songs are icing on the cake. I love icing. There are sweet, gooey gobs of it all over this disc, in the form of such irresistible classics as "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Don't Cha Stop." "I'm In Touch With Your World" is marvelously quirky, and "Moving In Stereo" is endearingly creepy. "You're All I've Got Tonight" is desperate and paranoid and surprisingly fun, "Good Times Roll" is a panicked (anti-) party anthem, and "All Mixed Up" is really atmospheric and kinda sultry. And the chorus is beautiful, sort of. Yeah. This album'll blow your mind with its inescapable wonderfulness. Treat yourself to it.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worth a ride
Comment: Strong debut for the Boston post-punk/new wave band, fronted by the legendary Ric Ocasek (though bassist Benjamin Orr could almost be considered a "co-frontman"). Snide charm and effortless hooks dominated this effort, with several deserved hits along the way (and at least a couple more that probably could have been smashes as well). Heavily influenced and influential, its flavor is dulled a bit by time--their fusion of punk/new wave with catchy hard rock is no longer quite as new.
"Just What I Needed" is, of course, the standout of the bunch, but the underrated minor hit "You're All I've Got Tonight" is nearly its equal. Meanwhile, the hit track, "My Best Friend's Girl" hasn't aged quite as well, but it's got such a goofily fun hook that it's nearly irresistible. Surprisingly, one of the weakest tracks, "I'm in Touch With Your World," is the one that works hardest to stand apart; unfortunately it falls victim to a weak melody and the clichés of punchy psychedelia.
Best cuts: "Just What I Needed," "You're All I've Got Tonight," "Good Times Roll," "Moving in Stereo," "Don't Cha Stop," "My Best Friend's Girl," "All Mixed Up"
Customer Rating:
Summary: If people are still reviewing it after nearly 20 years, it's damn good.
Comment: This is one of the best albums of all time. Clever lyrics, amazingly woven melodies, technical brilliance, all offered without arrogance. It's like great modern art translated to audio. Each of the Cars' subsequent albums had a few tracks that hit these heights, but on the debut album, every song is a gem, and you hear something new every time you listen to it.
Still missing the incredibly beautiful, versatile and wide ranging voice of the late Ben Orr, whose interviews online showed him to be a smart, warm sweetheart of a guy, in interesting contrast to the cold, edgier image he sometimes portrayed on stage.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Soundtrack of My College Days
Comment: Back in the late 70's and early 80's, when musical technology made its biggest breakthrough since multi-track recording, some bands combined synthesizers with guitars, only to make them sound pretentious or out-of-place while others favored one instrument to the near-exclusion of the other. The Cars broke through by mixing guitar with synthesizers to produce a remarkably rare synergy. The result was danceable and appealed to both rockers and new wave fans. The band is fronted by two first-rate lead vocalists, Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. Ocasek, a quirky-looking scarecrow of a man with voice to match, provides an almost cartoonish foil to the earnest, understated Orr. The cutting-edge keyboards and deceptively skillful guitar work are driven by thunderous drums and background vocals that sound somehow like thirty people crowded around a microphone in a room much too small to hold them. The result is music that entertains, breaks new ground and fills my memories of college. This debut album shows the Cars at their most down-to-earth and raw, before drum machines and Fairlight synthesizers gave them much more "corporate" kind of sound.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Album For a Drive in a Convertible
Comment: In 1978, I was going to school at UC San Diego in La Jolla CA. I was living in a house on the beach in Del Mar with six other guys. One of these guys, Steve Pardella, had just purchased the new "The Cars" album and when I first heard it, It gave me a surge of energy that no other music had ever given to me. I immediately recorded it on cassette and put it in "My Car"
"My Car" at the time and which I still own is a 1969 Cougar Convertible in which I had installed a killer sound system.
This album, (along with Joe Walsh's "So What" album) was at the top of my play list when I drove to and from school. There was nothing more mood elevating than driving with the top down through Del Mar, along Torrey Pines Beach and through Torrey Pines State Park with "The Cars" cranked up to maximum volume.
Take this album for a drive with the top down - all your troubles will melt away. You are the king of the universe!
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Editorial Reviews:
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American art-rock was often stilted and lacking in humor until the New Wave arrived. Liberated by the influence of the Velvet Underground, Roxy Music and punk-era fellow travelers like Blondie and Suicide, the Cars methodically linked hookiness (enough to produce three hit singles and several other FM favorites from this debut album) and at least one raised eyebrow. The result still plays as a rock & roll classic. And if charm wasn't their aim, the fact is, it's undeniable. --Rickey Wright
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