Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I DON'T MIND THEM COMING HERE AND WASTING ALL MY TIME: In May, The Cars are releasing their first new album in twenty-four years. Now, The Cars were a fine band who put together a terrific body of work in the 1970s and 1980s. More than that, if you told me that the new track, Sad Like This, was a B-Side to something off Heartbeat City, I wouldn't have doubted it for a moment. Given that -- and setting aside the perfectly reasonable pursuit of money -- is there something they didn't accomplish musically that merits a new album?

N.B.: Here's a second track, Blue Tip, which again sounds precisely like vintage The Cars.

10 comments:

  1. Hot damn does that sound like classic Cars. 

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  2. girard3111:02 AM

    No. Like some guys my age, it sounds like they haven't moved since 1982, and that's kind of sad.

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  3. Marsha11:06 AM

    Why does a band need to "move"? Why do they need to "accomplish something musically"? If they have more songs that are in the same vein the ones I liked back then, works for me. Can't I just like the way their music sounds without them having to be artistes on some sort of musical journey?

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  4. Benner11:14 AM

    It's not sad they haven't evolved, but it's in a way surprising.  They've been listening to all sorts of music for 20 years.  Although, if you told me that was a new Interpol record, I might also believe you.  

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  5. Jim Bell11:17 AM

    I'm glad when some things don't change.   Let's go!

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  6. Dan Suitor11:27 AM

    I go to school with the son of the keyboardist of The Cars, and I made a joke to him once where I imagined his dad having a bitter rivalry with Mark Mothersbaugh (of Devo and innummerable TV/movie soundtracks). Turns out they're actually friends. This then sent visions racing through my mind of a cartoon series wherein a team of keyboard players from the eighties go on daring adventures together.

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  7. mikeski12:23 PM

    Thank you, thank you, a thousand times - thank you.

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  8. Nancy4:46 PM

    The Cars was my first concert ever! Heartbeat City (and Purple Rain) = the soundtrack to the summer of my sophomore year. Good times.

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  9. Marsha11:03 PM

    You're welcome.

    I'm not a music snob. I like what I like, and I don't really care that some people find it banal or dull. I tried to like "cool" "alternative' music in junior high and I sucked at it. Bring on old-style Cars!

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  10. PiledHighandDeep11:00 AM

    I heard this song on the radio yesterday, and thought to myself:  "that sounds a lot like an old Cars song, but I've never heard it before."

    Shouldn't the new incarnation be called "Used Cars"?

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