Master Index of Archived Threads


Any fans of The Cars?

vtmet May 01 2013 06:49 PM

I was wondering if anyone liked their newer CD "Move Like This"? It came out in 2011 but I hadn't really listened to it until recently...Been playing it a lot on Spotify, and while it seems a little weird to not have the late Benjamin Orr singing on it; it still sounds pretty good...

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 01 2013 08:23 PM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

There are about 10 million threads on the Cars in the CPF archives, most begun by me. There's even a thread about threads about the Cars which briefly became a cool Cars fact of the day thing. Anyway, the first time I heard "Blue Tip" I absolutely fell out of my chair, it was like nothing had changed. A great Cars song. The rest of the album isn't quite so good as that, and with the aid of some perspective I'd say it sounds pretty much like a latter-period Cars album, which is to say, a good step below their best stuff but not terrible. I agree it's not the same without Ben. That arch Ocasek detachment takes over every song. And for some reason they didn't find a spot for even one cool Elliot Easton solo. I saw the reunited band perform and that's where they really missed Ben. They had his bass on a stand on stage but performed as a quartet. Hawkes played it on a couple of numbers but otherwise they delivered bass from a program. I loved seeing them play though.

vtmet May 01 2013 08:54 PM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: There are about 10 million threads on the Cars in the CPF archives, most begun by me. There's even a thread about threads about the Cars which briefly became a cool Cars fact of the day thing. Anyway, the first time I heard "Blue Tip" I absolutely fell out of my chair, it was like nothing had changed. A great Cars song. The rest of the album isn't quite so good as that, and with the aid of some perspective I'd say it sounds pretty much like a latter-period Cars album, which is to say, a good step below their best stuff but not terrible. I agree it's not the same without Ben. That arch Ocasek detachment takes over every song. And for some reason they didn't find a spot for even one cool Elliot Easton solo. I saw the reunited band perform and that's where they really missed Ben. They had his bass on a stand on stage but performed as a quartet. Hawkes played it on a couple of numbers but otherwise they delivered bass from a program. I loved seeing them play though. I tried a search of "the cars" but didn't think about doing the search within the "CPF archives"...the search produced more about the Disney movie than the band...plus I found a neat article about Benjamin Orr's son playing hockey not far from me in Vermont... I like 4 of the first 5 songs on the CD (Blue Tip; Sad Song; Too Late; and Soon)...and while it may not compare to the debut album, Candy-O or Heartbeat City; I like it better than "Door to Door" and "Panorama"...The main thing for me, was that it was additional material that still sounded like The Cars (as opposed to what I heard from "the New Cars" which I can't even describe what it sounded like {how you could smash the Cars and Utopia together and produce a sound that sounded like neither, I don't get})... That's pretty cool that you got to see them on stage again...I saw the Cars twice in the 80's, and while I love their songs, in concert they lost more sound quality than most bands that I've seen in concert; but it was still a joy to see...

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 01 2013 09:02 PM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

Yeah by most accounts Door to Door was like a bad Ocasek solo album and still the worst of the Cars elpees. I have come around some on Panorama, the band was trying to stretch it out a little and didn't completely succeed but it's probably their "artsiest" effort and to me more interesting than the Mutt Lange produced stuff that was too polished. Give me the first two!

vtmet May 01 2013 09:10 PM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

I think that the first 2 Ric Ocasek solo albums were better than "Door to Door" (as were the Benjamin Orr and maybe even the Elliot Easton solo albums)... Maybe the biggest problem with Panorama was that it came right after The Cars and Candy-O albums; if it was after Door to Door, or maybe even after Shake It Up or Heartbeat City, it might not have initially seemed so lame... Did not realize that Mutt Lange produced a Cars album (Heartbeat City); I thought that Roy Thomas Baker produced them all...

Edgy MD May 02 2013 06:16 AM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

If an album was huge, was released in the eighties, and sucked (relative to the band's other output, there's a good chance it was produced by Mutt Lange. Or Bob Rock. Members of the band said that he pretty much became the sixth member of the group. And they don't seem to say it wistfully.

Edgy MD May 02 2013 07:22 AM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

I don't know what happens to threads sometimes. Cars Aggregator, what happened to you?

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 02 2013 07:25 AM Re: Any fans of The Cars?

I can't find it either.