The Cars - Heartbeat City poll

The title track is by far the best song on the album.

I got off the Cars train with this record as a wee lad so I had to refresh my memory with a relisten and man, this record is garbage... everything is paper-thin & plastic-y and every hook is telegraphed. Was hoping for some redemption in the deep cuts, but nah.

They were such an organically quirky band in 1979-1980, the quirks here are just subpar songs dressed up in crass marketing/dated-production ("let's make this one sound like a Corey Hart b-side!"). Such an unbelievable contrast to their incredible debut which still sounds fresh.

Voted "Drive".

title track for me, my favourite song by them iirc

Title track, just slightly more than Why Can't I Have You

but ya, the production on this album so brilliantly recalls the overblown and shiny mid 80s

Voted "Heartbeat City". The way Ocasek phrases the "Oh, Jacki" at 2:02 kills me, as does the mournful "I thought you knew the way" line. One of those albums that's tied to a particular time and location in my life.

I coulda sworn I had the debut, Panorama, and HC on vinyl but apparently I sold off the latter two during a purge a few years ago. Going back through all these I don’t think I made the wrong decision. Definitely a “singles band” for me after Candy-O (which is p dope and I’m not sure I’d ever heard it all the way through).

both Hysteria and this album kind of gave me anxiety as a kid.. or they kind of scared me or something.

Just watched the Warhol-directed "Hello Again" video for the first time in forever. Curious what the Warhol/Ocasek connection was (one of only two other Warhol-directed videos was for a solo single). Also remembered that Ocasek was one of the only men on MTV with an earring in his right ear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXpJ0bM5zbM

man, i wish i liked the cars.

but i just. . . don't. idk.

i like the singles from this album, but even then they're "just okay." i just don't "get it man."

this probably isn't the best place to start with them tbh

up til my mid 20s I only knew Drive, and associated that with horrible 80s MOR music that was about the naffest thing I could think of at the time, like I thought of them being like Chris DeBurgh or something

try their first 2 albums and if you don't like those then OK fair enough you don't like the Cars. now I know their other stuff I don't mind Drive and Magic that much any more (I've never actually listened to this album, just have the Greatest Hits)

I did give this a repeat spin and agree with others in this thread. Very much a product of the time and sounds dated. Keeping my original instance and voting "Magic."

Every album is a product of its time. "Dated" is not an insult.

What about "Aged badly"?

(Not that I am saying that about this particular recording)

I'm not sure what that means, but I can tell you that synthesizers and drum machines for some reason "date" albums while guitars never do because they speak the eternal verities of rock.

Now, if the songs on HC suck -- an opinion I'll accept -- then the production is irrelevant.

Drive is a flawless song.

People in my musical orbit a lot the last while, as if in tribute to Ocasek, often without knowing it was Orr's vocal.

People in my musical orbit *have been playing it* a lot.

The canonical example of the production choice irrelevancy is Marshall Crenshaw's Field Day, I think.

Lillywhite's cavernous productions helps the album, actually.

Yeah, that's true. Maybe that's more of a case of production choice that initially seems to be wildly inappropriate turns out to be suitable and then some after all.

Albums don't really "date" if they do something interesting, imo. It's the albums that try to ape fashionable sounds or styles - the same DX7 preset, the same compressed snare sound - that age the worst. The gated marshmallow sound of the '80s (for example) is totally dated specifically because everyone was trying to sound the same. That's one reason why a great song like "Dancing in the Dark" sounds very much of its time and "When Doves Cry" still sounds (imo) like something from the future.

But no one sighs about a particular Fender Rhodes sound from 1977 -- on the contrary, you'll get scowls if you say, "Billy Joel sounds dated."

Again, y'all have to re-think your preconceptions.

i actually don't have a problem with most New Wave production and most of it doesn't alienate me like this did. and i don't have an issue with the three big hit singles from this album. but when i played this album off of YouTube through computer speakers, the album just felt flat and really lacking other great songs. i was really let down with my recent re-listening and this is after owning it on cassette, back in the day, and i remember playing it to death. i guess overall is, i was expecting to like this a lot more then i did.

xpost Yeah, but I'd still say it often comes down the sound of the drums first and foremost. For sure the keys on "Just the Way You Are" sound dated, but maybe just in the context of that contemporaneous style of soft rock schmaltz (that Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" transcends, imo).

I dunno, maybe Kirk put it best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UYPpOYXYWc

there's no "transcending"! The keyboards on "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" sound like 1973, and what's wrong with that?

again, y'all are wedded to an unexamined idea of transcendence, i.e. Great Music Transcends Time and Space.

xpost Nothing, because the song is good and interesting.

It'd be one thing if the production was the only problem with this record... but these are just lower-tier songs compared to the previous records. The well began running dry and they dressed up the dregs in Fairlight and Prophet 6 presets.

Mutt Lange produced much better songs.

I think Mutt's AC/DC and Def Leppard stuff has aged super well!

dated always means "old stuff i don't like"
classic or timeless means "old stuff i like"
subjective takes. i don't like drum machines or up-front synths but i do like harpsichords and mellotrons, which are as rooted in a specific time as any 80s sound. although i do like Heartbeat City, so consistency and nostalgia fight it out and produce unexpected results.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i've used the descriptor "dated in a good way" a lot more times than i have used just "dated" as a negative critique.

i like music that sounds "dated" —especially from the 80s— because it sounds like my childhood.

yes, i'm a walking cliche.

"Drive" is stunning!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

This result is correct not only because Drive is the best song, but also because it deserved to get some competition from the other strong songs on the record. I wanted it to win but I didn't want it to be a blowout.

This album is also good, just finished a listen. I was half expecting to hate this. It turns out it has some good songs on it and doesn't wear out its welcome with 10 quick songs.

I want a Cars poll!

tbf we've polled pretty much all the albums *and* the greatest hits

That's not really fair, we polled all the Police albums and the recent poll did very well.

I'm just going thru a Cars kick at the moment shot me and maybe I need a break from this place as I'm being attacked on everything.