By Jimmy Casey
The Cars are a band that seems to be stuck in time. That span of years, for them, was relatively short but certainly helped define the musical atmosphere on the cusp of the late 70s and early 80s. Some people liked to call them a “new wave band”. I don’t want to go into my reasons (call me a coward or call me lazy) but I never considered them a part of that genre. There was an accessibility to their songs that was purposefully lacking with the new wave groups. Furthermore, the new wave pioneers seemed to understand that they were part of an important movement (which they undoubtedly were). The Cars, on the other hand, gave the impression that they only wanted to make music without pretensions of a future induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Most of the people I knew had never seen a picture of the band, had no idea what they looked like, and, for that matter, were completely unconcerned with movements within music history. It was nothing but the music, for them. Sure, it was originality, but that’s something my 9-to-5 get-home-drink-some-beer-watch-some-ball-go-to-sleep buddies didn’t know a lot about, at least not consciously. For them, the Cars was just another really, really good band that had somehow found its way into rotation on the playlist of The KATT (which was once, long ago when rock ruled, the premier FM radio station in Oklahoma). If it was on the KATT, it had to be good, and there damn sure wasn’t any new wave on the KATT…for some reason Okies never cottoned to that stuff, let alone punk, which was shunned and ostracized like a prodigal son…”hey, Jim, you know what a ‘punk’ REALLY is? Heh heh heh.” The Cars were on the KATT, by God, so they COULDN’T be THAT!
But for all that the fact remained…the music was awfully good. Catchy melodies. Lyrics tailor made for horny adolescent boys and the girls, just as horny in secret, they lusted for. Ric Ocasek’s voice was just quirky enough for the class geek to identify with. Ben Orr’s singing, the polar opposite of Ric’s, gave a much needed balance to the over-all vocal atmosphere. Yin to the other’s Yang, and it worked well, breaking up any monotony that might have crept in if they had gone it alone.
The beats, the bouncy synth lines, the crisp, quick, spare guitar stabs…it all added up to a fresh sound that made you want to dance…more specifically it made you want to dance with the same exuberance as a wasted punk slam dancing at a Pistols show. Oh, you would never do that. But hey, no reason not to get wild during the chorus of “Let’s Go” — “I like the night life, baby, she said” …Oh yeah. There you go. Ain’t that what you wanted to hear from the girl who sat across the room in Spanish class? The one that made you squirm, so bad that you had to devise new ways of getting out from behind your desk without being embarrassed. “She’s got wonderful eyes”…many were the times you thought you’d caught those eyes, that they’d turned to you and lingered for more than a second. “…and a risque mouth”…ah, but aren’t those the best kind? Ric Ocasek has been around, baby, I don’t care how goofy he might look in those Roy Orbison shades and the jet set mullet. When he wrote this stuff he knew the score. “I don’t want to hold her down, don’t want to break her crown, when she says: LET’S GO!!!” There it is! Kicking off one of the most powerful brainworm melodies ever recorded. LET’S DO THIS! This woman sure ain’t tellin’ me to take her downtown for a bag of chips, get a move on, I’m hungry and in a hurry, so let’s go…Nope, Jackson. She’s all about getting away and out of the house for the night. She may be hungry, but it ain’t for a bag of chips. She is, however, in a hurry. She can’t wait to take it all in, to bask in the electricity of the night life until the time comes when she says “Let’s go!” again. Only this time she’s wanting to go to MY HOUSE. Or, at least somewhere to be alone, God knows my parents would be waiting for me and they would not approve of what we have on our minds. Who knows how many more times she’d say “Let’s go” by the time I have to drive her home?
Ah, the scenario I constructed in my mind as the visual accompaniment to “Let’s Go.” I can’t be the only one who sees it like that, but then again you read the lyrics after all these years and it seems a little more tame. Still great visuals for the imagination but somehow not so charged with illlicit sexuality.
I saw what I wanted to see in the song, and it gave me no reason to take it for anything else. It’s kind of like the scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, when Phoebe Cates (oh, did I have a crush on her!) turns towards the camera and removes the top portion of her bikini to the soundtrack of the Cars’ “Moving in Stereo.” I loved the song long before I saw the movie. I thought it was one of the more eccentric tracks in their oeuvre and I liked that kind of diversion (as I had adored “Shoo Be Doo” on Candy-0). But now, forever seared into my memory, that incredible moment of voyeurism will inevitably be what my daydreaming mind will see when I hear those opening bars of “Moving in Stereo.” In my opinion such association of visuals with songs in rock music videos is a bad thing and kind of ruins it for me. But in this case I have made an exception.
A Cars reunion was something I never saw coming. Even before bassist Benjamin Orr passed away I had doubts that such a reunion was, or would ever be, in the cards. Oh, but there actually WAS a Cars reunion. MINUS OCASEK AND ORR!!! The two integral figures in the group absent and missing, leaving only guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes. Not to take away from their input and influence upon the band’s sound, but that’s like the Stones touring without Mick and Keith. I’ll be honest and admit that I have not heard the album, It’s Alive! that was the fruits of that project. To its credit, AMG did give it 3 & 1/4 stars. Moreover the two had the common sense to name the ensemble the NEW CARS, so maybe I’m just blowing smoke even thinking of them as an actual “reunion”.
But now, so many long years since their advent, Ocasek is back with the other guys with an actual Cars reunion. Well, as much a reunion as can be had without a key member, but at least they have an honest excuse. Ric tells Rolling Stone magazine, “This is not a reunion, it’s more like a conjunction.” Now I don’t know what the fuck he means by that, but I’m sure it makes sense in some context or another. It sure looks and sounds like a bona fide reunion. Every band that gets together after many years on hiatus wants to start a few paces away from where they left off, trying to be as relevant to the new audience, the new generation, as they were to their own. Sometimes it works. Most often, in my opinion, it does not.
Move Like This is the title of the new Cars reunion album (and I’m already sick and tired of using the word “reunion”…sad enough, I’m sure I’ll have to use it again before this is all over and done). It’s a well produced effort, sporting all the digital technology that was still a dream back in the days of Candy-O and Panorama. The bass parts have that gut rattling effect you expect to hear blasting from high-end car stereos dragging the strip daring the cops to pull them over on a Disturbing the Peace complaint. Ric Ocasek’s voice has mellowed a bit, and this development serves the quieter moments well. But when the trademark Cars rock sound swings around you find yourself missing that quirky edge he used to have. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no way anyone even remotely familiar with the Cars will mistake that voice as coming from anyone other that Ric Ocasek. I’m very surprised at myself for liking this album LESS because of the glossy production. The Cars style is preserved, but it would appear that, for me at least, one aspect of their trademark sound was the actual sonics. Like maybe would “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” sound so awesome if it were produced by Will. i. am? Still a great song, but it wouldn’t sound right. Would that even fly with today’s music lover were it their first introduction to the Beatles? I highly doubt it, but I hope I’m wrong.
The songs themselves have less of an edge to them. Not only musically but lyrically as well. That’s to be expected, however, when you consider that the lead songwriter is 62 years old. Time and age does that to a man, makes him a bit more introspective, gives him some wisdom that can’t be contained and finds its way into his creative process.
“Blue Tip” kicks off the collection of 10 tracks, and makes it glaringly obvious that, yes, this is really the Cars you’re listening to. No one else. Not even the New Cars. It’s one of the most “Cars-esque” tunes here. “Too Late” follows, with an introduction that almost conjures U2. It may not sound like Bono’s crew throughout, but to my ears it doesn’t sound a whole lot like the Cars, either.
“Keep On Knocking,” on the other hand, kicks in hard and takes you back to some of the band’s heavier songs. They could turn the guitars up a little, if you ask me, and squelch that synth that hovers over the chorus progressively getting louder as if to say, “Hey, we’re the Cars!” Yeah! I noticed that! Great song.
Four songs into the record and we come to the inevitable “Drive” sound-alike. It’s pretty obvious. So much so that I want to hear it as a reflection on the friendship between Ocasek and Orr, who was the original singer on that song. It may be there, actually. I may just not have been able to invest the time required with the song to catch the deeper, read-between-the-line meanings. On the surface it’s actually quite a beautiful love song. “Soon” is a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier, how Ocasek’s lyrics have reached such a level of maturity that it very well may be the case that he will never be able to pen a Cars song that displays the essential youthful exuberance of the bands earlier material. Young at heart maybe. “When the starry night has led to dawn the thought of you keeps me dreaming on…” Oh, ain’t that a long ways away from “The Dangerous Type”? Not saying that’s a bad thing, but…
“Sad Song” is up next and, despite the hangdog title, it kicks in like the twin sister of “Let’s Go.” It’s a strong track on its own merits. May well have fit in perfectly on Shake It Up, but they would have been accused of copying their own sound from Candy-O if that had happened. But for a reunion it’s perfect.
“Free,” another of the album’s highlights, might as well have been an outtake from Heartbeat City. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it would probably even be one of the best songs on that record. “Drag On Forever” sounds like one of those songs where the band wants to move into a different direction, maybe to be more relevant. I’m not impressed, though. It’s sluggish. I won’t throw in any obvious jokey nonsense about the song living up to it’s title, but there you go….
I don’t want this review to come off as if I only give the thumbs up to the songs that sound the most like the Cars did in their hey-day. I don’t think that’s a dishonest way to view them, though, seeing as how this is a reunion album and is marketed, to a lesser or greater extent, to it’s old fan base (because face it, how many in the iTunes generation have even heard of the Cars?). Still, I had hoped to be able to listen to Move Like This with a more objective point of view, as informed by what I know they’re capable of. The last three tracks, “Take Another Look,” “It’s Only” and “Hits Me,” are the ones that sound the least like the good ol’ Cars we knew and loved. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely flourishes of the old style here, but the group sounds more like it’s looking for a new direction, not resurrecting an old vibe. They are a decent trio. You don’t really notice the million dollar production so much.
Probably helps more than hinders in these cases.
All in all, a good album worthy of your consideration. Diehard Cars fans are gonna think they’ve kicked the bucket and wound up in heaven. Casual Cars fans aren’t likely to cross the line into the realms of the die hard as a result of hearing Move Like This. But they’ll probably enjoy it, even if they only listen to it once. As for myself, somewhere in between those extremes, I’ll give the band good marks. Reunion albums don’t generally turn out too well in many cases (have you ever listened to Vanilla Fudge’s Mystery? You know what I mean). This one does. It rocks when it needs to rock, albeit without the same arrogance and cockiness as the band once did. It flirts with the new wave style, even though it’s a subgenre that has practically been forgotten, and they get away with it. They still know how to piece together a beautiful ballad. Who can say what this record would have sounded like with the addition of Ben Orr, to make it a full-fledge reunion? Would it have pushed it over the edge into true classic Cars territory? Unfortunately we’ll never know. But Move Like This is a trip down memory lane that takes you just far enough to remember how it used to be while still being able to appreciate the ones taking you there.
