Heartbeat City --- The Cars --- 1984 (Elektra)
Although the Cars had been around for six years before this album was released, and had indeed had hit singles such as "My best friend's girl" and "Just what I needed", this was the one that commercially broke them wide open, yielding five top forty singles, two of which hit the top ten, and properly introducing the band to the world at large. Ironically, it was also the album the Cars would never match in subsequent releases, and after "Door to door", its followup, hit the shops three years later it became essentially their swan song. They broke up, but reformed in 2011 to release a new album. The magic though, it would seem, was long gone by then.
But this was the heyday of the Cars, and you couldn't turn on a radio without hearing their AOR, airwave-friendly brand of mature rock, Ric Ocasek's always somewhat stilted voice the main one behind their hits. It helped of course that they turned to production supremo Robert John "Mutt" Lange for help, and his pin-sharp production on every track is one of the many things that makes this album so engaging. Rather amazingly, the Cars' two previous big hit singles came in 1978, from their debut self-titled album, and despite having three more after that until "Heartbeat City" came along, they troubled the charts no further. That all changed with the release of this behemoth, and it was suddenly
the album to have.
Relying a lot more on electronic music and synthesisers, it's a marked departure from the previous "Shake it up", and it opens with "Hello again", perhaps an appropriate title for a band who were probably thought dead after 1981's effort. With a bouncy, almost talking synth from Ocasek and Fairlight programming from Greg Hawkes, it somehow manages to retain its rock teeth, perhaps due to the guitar work of Elliot Easton. Equally at home in the disco or rock arena, "Hello again" is a great introduction to the album, and shows the Cars right back on top form. It positively buzzes with energy and action, as does most of the album, and it runs into a slower, moodier track with chiming guitar driving most of the melody. "Looking for love" would be covered the next year by German pop artiste Falco under the title "Munich girls", and here it goes from slow, brooding to uptempo bopper in a heartbeat (hah!) and back again, so that you're never quite sure whether the song is meant to be a ballad or not. Great whistling keys from Hawkes and a thumping bass from the late Ben Orr help move the song along, and it takes us into "Magic", which changes the whole game.
With a swirling keyboard intro joined by a stuttering guitar that then blasts its way in on the back of jangly piano, it's another rocker and carried on Easton's powerful, sharp guitar work. Great backing vocals as was often the hallmark of the Cars, and a guitar echo effect taken right out of Norman Greenbaum's classic "Spirit in the sky". Ocasek has always been identified as the voice of the Cars, but that changes for the standout, the big hit single, the one everyone knows. Probably the Cars song that has appeared on more various artists compliation albums than any other, and certainly their most famous, "Drive" is the big ballad, and lead vocals are taken by Orr, who does a fantastic job on it. It's just as well, because although Ric could have sung this, his somewhat quirky, sometimes annoying style would I think not have suited this song. As it is, Orr's gentle but firm delivery works perfectly, and Ocasek's softly trumpeting keyboards form the basis of the melody, with Fairlight "sighing vocals" adding to the atmosphere. Everyone surely knows the song by now, and it's gone down as one of the best Cars efforts ever, certainly instrumental in shifting so many millions of units of the album.
Things kick right back up then again for the high energy, uptempo "Stranger eyes", with those "speaking" synthesiser effects and a galloping percussion from David Robinson, Orr remaining on vocals. He only gets the three songs to sing, as Ric Ocasek, as is his wont, retains pretty tight control over the album, writing all but one of the songs (the other of which he co-authors) and no doubt lending a hand with the production, but as I say Lange's steady hand on the tiller steers this album into waters hitherto uncharted for the Cars, and helped yield them an album which turned quadruple platinum. Another single is next, with a driving guitar line from Easton and bouncy keyboards from Ocasek. "You might think" also gained the band great exposure thanks to its innovative music video. Great guitar solo from Elliot here too, and it's just a real fun song.
There, sadly, for me, is where the album begins to take a small dive in quality. The next three tracks are in my opinion much weaker than those which have preceded them. "It's not the night", the only song on the album not solely written by Ocasek (he co-writes it with Greg Hawkes) is built on a swirling, rippling keyboard melody with staccato guitar and a nice bassline, and it's not a bad song, in fact of the three it's probably the best, but I find it a little wanting. Nice hard guitar from Elliot Easton, but somehow it just doesn't sound like it's all coming together, not to me anyway. It also features Benjamin Orr on vocals again, for the last time on the album. I think Ocasek's vocal would have been a better fit for this, personally, but there you go. Samply keyboards run in "Why can't I have you" and it's the second ballad, with Ocasek back behind the mike, not so much of the guitar in this, in fact the synth sounds very cello-like at times.
Things get back rockin' then for "I refuse", with a very electro/pop beat though still with some good guitar work, but sounding rather like something you might hear from Laura Branigan around that time. Nice snarly bass from Orr and more bubbling synths and Fairlight work, then they finally up the ante and return to the calibre of songs we heard in the first five or six with the closer, the title track, which opens on deep sonorous synth and wind noises and then a thick pulsing bass line that pulls in the track, and again it's driven mostly on synth, though there are some nice touches on guitar from Easton. The main keyboard riff persists through most of the song, falling away for the chorus then back in, and indeed it is quite like the heartbeat of the song. Great percussion from Robinson, and little synthy touches from Hawkes and Ocasek add to the somewhat stark, bleak atmosphere of the song, with a warbling keyboard solo from Ocasek and little voice effects in the mix too (I think they may be talking in French?). Great strong ending to a really classic album, that has deservedly gone down as the zenith of the Cars' career, and taken its place among the great rock albums of the eighties.
TRACKLISTING
1. Hello again
2. Looking for love
3. Magic
4. Drive
5. Stranger eyes
6. You might think
7. It's not the night
8. Why can't I have you
9. I refuse
10. Heartbeat City
Of course, it's hard to stage a comeback when one of your core members is no longer around, and the tragic death of Benjamin Orr in 2000 effectively drew a line under the Cars' career. Their last album with him, "Door to door" was released in 1987 and they broke up, but after a long time apart they came back together for another album in 2011, "Move like this", dedicating it to the memory of their late bandmate and friend. While it was an okay album, I felt it was missing something: whether that was Ben Orr or something else I don't know, but it just didn't feel like a real Cars album to me. Here though, the Cars were firing on all cylinders (sorry!) and produced one of the seminal AOR albums of that period. In a way, it's probably good that they never bettered it, because it now stands as the best work they ever did together as a band, and I think it deserves that honour.