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The Nation's Pulse
The Cars Ride a New Wave
So how does a band that hasn’t released an album since 1987 sound so 2011?
If you married a Sports Illustrated swimsuit-issue cover girl, you might ditch your multiplatinum band for a quarter century or so, too.
The last time The Cars made a record a wall divided Berlin, cassettes outsold CDs, and NBA MVP Derrick Rose didn’t exist. So it is remarkable that “Move Like This,” the band’s new album, sounds at home both on contemporary radio and within The Cars’ genre-bending oeuvre.
The Atariesque blips and bleeps that begin album opener “Blue Tip” hit the listener as a sonic invitation to the 1980s. But the party therein is less Reagan-era reunion than modern hipster house party. Greg Hawkes’ keyboards are more Crystal Castles than Flock of Seagulls. Lyrical references to bellybutton rings announce that we’re not in 1982 anymore. The sing-along single, “Sad Song,” would feel out of place on a weekend radio nostalgia program.
That’s an accomplishment. Nobody apparently told The Cars that revival acts mail it in, don’t dare incorporate musical developments beyond their golden age, and essentially become cover bands of their former selves. Unlike so many offerings from retread rockers, “Move Like This” is not an advertisement, or an excuse, for a summer-shed tour.
“Move Like This” won’t change the world or revolutionize music. It will make the 37 minutes and 45 seconds that you listen more pleasant than the 37 minutes and 45 seconds that you don’t. In that unpretentious aspiration, it is like so much of the music from the band’s heyday. But it is on present-day playlists because it aurally fits the here and now and not the then and gone.
So how does a band that hasn’t released an album since 1987 sound so 2011?
Singer/songwriter Ric Ocasek, a sought-after producer for Weezer, No Doubt, and Guided by Voices, evidently remained current through his behind-the-curtains work in the music industry.
Current also caught up with The Cars. The vampire vocals of The National’s Matt Berringer, the retrofuturistic keyboards of The Killers, and the catchy hooks of The Strokes all pay homage, wittingly or not, to The Cars. Everything old is eventually new again — even New Wave.
It’s also probably true that bands subscribing to the New Wave ethos believe it obligatory to sound like the future. Fidelity to this ethos paradoxically confined the futuristic music to its era. That which made it fresh now makes it terribly stale.
Nothing appears so dated to today as yesterday’s vision of tomorrow. When Gary Numan and the Human League represented the sonic future, you couldn’t blame the 1980s throngs who retreated to the classic-rock-radio 1970s refuge. The ubiquitous Led Zeppelin t-shirt was at least as much protest fashion in these years as wearing Che Guevara upon one’s chest.
The synthesizer was anathema to the guitar gods Hendrix, Clapton, and Page — at least that is what their worshippers believed. But keyboards and guitars peacefully coexisted in The Cars. The band embraced the synth-happy trends without being overcome by them.
New Wave boasts an inordinate number of permanent residents of One-Hit Wonderville. Ocasek and company transcended that fate by transcending the genre. The Cars, like, well, cars, offered a variety of models. There’s New Wave Cars (“Moving in Stereo,” “Since You’re Gone”), Adult Contemporary Cars (“Drive,” “Magic”) Pop Cars (“Shake It Up,” “You Might Think”), and Album Oriented Rock Cars (“Best Friend’s Girl,” “Let the Good Times Roll”). Their arrival, slightly before New Wave’s, helped ensure a career beyond the brief lifespan of New Wave.
Popular music issues a constant challenge to hit the ear in a way that it has never been hit. Acts habituated to a sound (AC/DC being the sole exception) find fewer and fewer interested ears. The Cars’ longevity — 1976 to 1988 is a century in popular-music years — stemmed from its ability to adapt and overcome. The success of its comeback, being of the rare kind that works in practice as well as in theory, owes much to the band’s ability to roll with the pop-culture punches.
“I don’t relate to the things they say and I don’t want to be like them today,” Ocasek sings on “Hits Me,” the album’s coda. “I gotta just get through these changing times.” That’s just what The Cars have done on “Move Like This.”
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
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jppc| 5.17.11 @ 8:33AM
The Cars were ok but never great. Saw them twice in concert and didn't like either show. Far too sterile and affected.
They were fine radio music back in the 80's , nothing more. But of course, most music is "nothing more" than pleasant background noise. No offense to musicians. That serves a purpose too. I don't hate The Cars just tired of media/show business/music/movies.......political commentary. ;-)
Ed| 5.17.11 @ 9:27AM
This is why we are stagnating. We cannot let go of the past and begin to innovate. We have no desire to try anything new.
Dan Hirsch| 5.17.11 @ 11:31AM
And we don't call crap, "Crap!"
I'm not suggesting that The Cars were crappy, they weren't.
I'm suggesting that over the last twenty years popular music has suffered from too much fertilizer and not enough talent...
Bob Grant| 5.17.11 @ 10:07AM
JPPC's comments about the Car's being a mediocre band illustrates they were taken for granted during the 80's. True, their music was sort of bland mostly because of the clone bands that mimicked their sound and saturated the radio waves. Also, they - like many bands at that time - placed too much focus on the visual (videos and stage shows) at the expense of the audio.
I'll give them credit for brilliantly combining new wave and rock. Also, the lead guitarist provided some of the most memorable guitar riffs of the 70's and 80's.
The fact that they are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when other bands with far less talent or success is a travesty.
Dave| 5.17.11 @ 10:32AM
Agreed, the R&R HOF is a complete joke.
Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:32PM
I loved "Candy-O" though.
Dave| 5.17.11 @ 10:31AM
Haven't heard the new album, but I can't imagine they don't miss bassist Benjamin Orr, who passed away in 2000 from pancreatic cancer and sang more of their hits than a lot of people probably think he did.
Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 12:39PM
I dated a girl that looked like Candy-O once....
Bob Grant| 5.17.11 @ 1:08PM
Face it. It WAS that chick.
Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:29PM
No, it wasn't. She was a friend of my sister's, and I knew her from High School...she ended up marrying an investment banker, I think. I'm also sure she no longer looks like Candy-O.
Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:31PM
Thanks. You are very, very kind, Bob.
Bob Grant| 5.17.11 @ 7:43PM
Sorry,
Heh, heh.
That album cover was great. One of THOSE icons that ranks right up there with Farah Fawcet and Susanne Summers swimsuit posters.
Hopefully, Candy-o stayed away from the O-Henry's over the years.
Bill| 5.17.11 @ 12:42PM
I guess they're just what we needed.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 5.17.11 @ 1:28PM
Ric Ocasek was (and I think still is) the poster child for learning how to play the guitar, he was ugly as sin, and he still got himself a Supermodel. The Cars had some good tunes though, and had a nice run at the top of the music scene, but I didn't realize they've been gone that long. Welcome back Cars!! I hope they pass by the Carolinas, I'd like to see them in concert, and pretend it's the 1980's all over again, when everything was great, but we just didn't know it at the time.
Skippy| 5.17.11 @ 4:18PM
Todd Rundgren was a member of "The New Cars" some years back.
That dude is everywhere!
Killerman| 5.17.11 @ 5:07PM
Regarding "comebacks" or enduring bands, check out Blondie led by the perpetually creative and evolving Deborah Harry. "One Way or Another", "Call Me", "Rapture", etc. from the late seventies and early eighties, great live performances. Split up in 1982, back together in 1998.
Still touring, saw them twice last year. Debbie, Chris, and Clem still know how it's done and how to keep it fresh with a combo of old and new stuff with the help of new keyboard and lead guitar talent.
The Hunter -- 1982
No Exit -- 1999
Curse of Blondie -- 2004
Necessary Evil -- 2007 Debbie Harry
Panic of Girls -- June 2011
Take a look ... http://www.blondie.net
OK.... so I love Debbie Harry
Bob Grant| 5.17.11 @ 5:30PM
Yep. Blondie did/does rock. One of the most underrated drummers ever. The video "the Hardest Part" is one of the sexiest videos ever made. Debbie Harry vamping around a Graffiti background. Still good after all these years!!
Killerman| 5.17.11 @ 5:34PM
Oh, look!! Links!!
http://www.blondie.net/video/b.....iew-promo/
http://www.blondie.net/video/blondie-call-me-4/
Appleby| 5.17.11 @ 7:25PM
I liked 80s MTV because until my younger sister moved in with me I had never heard of MTV. It didnt take the ownership long to ruin it, of course, but the Cars are fondly remembered from the days when both music and art were important, and sex and shrieking were not.
Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:30PM
"Video Killed The Radio Star." The Buggles.
1st video ever on MTV.
Kingfish | 5.17.11 @ 8:46PM
guess no one ever heard of King Crimson.
Conrad Spiracy| 5.20.11 @ 7:51AM
As in "In The Court of the Crimson King?"
One of the best unheralded recordings of all time.
"21st Century Schizoid Man." WOW, what a tripping tune that was!!!
Con Spiracy
P.S. Thanks for the memory recall!
gearjammer| 5.18.11 @ 8:24AM
" The noise electric never stops " pretty much predicted the future-this wa sbefore cable news, talk radio, Ipods etc...
Replica Handbags&wallet; | 5.18.11 @ 9:29PM
Heya..thanks for the post and great tips..even I also think that hard work is the most important aspect of getting success.