37. The Cars--The Cars

 #38: The Cars--The Cars (1978)

Top-Notch Tracks: "Just What I Needed," (HJ200 #112), "My Best Friend's Girl," "Good Times Roll," "Bye Bye Love," "Moving In Stereo"

Album Depth: "Don't Cha Stop," "All Mixed Up," "I'm In Touch With Your World," "You're All I've Got Tonight"

Weak Links: Nope.

Stand-out Lyrics: "I don't mind you coming here, and wasting all my time."--"Just What I Needed"

"You're always dancing down the street with your suede blue eyes."--"My Best Friend's Girl"

"Substitution, mass confusion, clouds inside your head."--"Bye Bye Love"

"Let the stories be told. Let them say what they want."--"Good Times Roll"

"Life's the same, except for my shoes."--"Moving In Stereo"

"You can tuck it on the inside. You can throw it on the floor. You can wave it on the outside, like you never did before."--"I'm In Touch With Your World"

"It doesn't matter where you've been, as long as it was deep. Yeah."--"Just What I Needed"

"Let them brush your rock and roll hair."--"Good Times Roll"

"You think that you're so illustrious. You call yourself intense."--"Bye Bye Love"

"You've got your nuclear boots and your drip dry glove. Ooo, when you bite your lip, it's some reaction to love, uh-uvh, uh-uvh."--"My Best Friend's Girl"

"It's not the perfume that you wear. It's not the ribbons in your hair."--"Just What I Needed"

The Cars--The Cars

Album Cover: 7 out of 10. According to Wikipedia, the guys from the band were not fond of this album cover or the fact that the record company foisted it upon them. But, I think it's actually pretty good. Model Natalya Medvedeva looks like she's having fun, which lines up with the attitude of the whole album. I also think the translucent steering wheel is a very nice touch.

Comments: When I wrote about The Outfield, I lamented that they don't get played on the radio because they don't quite fit into any standard radio category. Well, The Cars are just the opposite. They hit that nice groove where almost every radio category claims them (except country.) The Cars get played on the pop music stations, the alternative stations, the hard rock stations, and now, due to the passage of time, the oldies stations. It says a lot about the universal appeal of the music made by these odd guys.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that this is probably the only album on my Top 60 list (with the exception of Lorne Greene's "Welcome to the Ponderosa,") that I have never owned on cd. Back when the album came out in 1978, what little discretionary cash I had went toward ELO, Billy Joel, and comic books. Years later, one of the very first cds I purchased was "The Cars Greatest Hits." I found it at Deseret Industries when I worked there and bought it for fifty cents, because the people in charge of pricing things had no idea what a cd was. And since a third of this album was already on that album, I didn't feel the immediate need to get it on cd.

However, through years of listening to the radio (mostly classic rock), I was repeatedly exposed to almost all the songs from The Cars debut album. (I think the only song from this album that hasn't gotten much classic rock radio airplay is "All Mixed Up.") It's a short album, but the depth is incredible--every damn song is pretty damn good! So, when it came time to make this list, I knew this album had to be here, whether I own it on cd or not.

I still hold the belief that "Just What I Needed" has one of the best beginnings of any rock song ever, which makes it almost criminal that it's not the first song on the album. But that's okay, because one thing this album definitely has is album flow. The songs flow seamlessly from one to the next, which really enhances the listening experience.

About the only negative thing I can say about this album is that they fell for the lame trope of having a debut album the same name as the band. With all the clever lyrics this album contains, couldn't they have found something different to name the album? (How about "Nuclear Boots?")

Up next: I'm in the mood.