THE CARS pull into Sound Academy Friday (May 20). See listing. Rating: NNN
Ric Ocasek is impressive for many reasons. Not only is he the ugliest guy ever to marry a supermodel, but through the years, while rebuilding his career as a top-calibre producer, he also commendably avoided lucrative offers to take his Cars on nostalgic cash-ins, waiting until the reunion made sense and the songs were in place to justify the outing. The New Cars showed that some of his bandmates weren’t as patient.
Songs like Too Late, Keep On Knocking and Sad Song sound more like successors to their platinum-selling Heartbeat City than Door To Door ever did. Crisp keyboard lines and Elliot Easton’s simple guitar riffs flourish under Ocasek’s streamlined pop production. As with most Cars records, there are a few clunkers, and the absence of bassist/vocalist Benjamin Orr doesn’t go unmissed. Move Like This doesn’t so much rebuild the Cars’ old engine as take the classic model for a cruise in the country.
Top track: Sad Song
