Definitive Audiophile pressings

I totally get having a blindspot for The Cars. I read a lot of NME and Melody Maker in the 80s and kept up with what was happening in the 90s over there. But today, I still read about British bands and musicians from the 70s whose records I would see all the time but had no idea of what they sounded like and when I give them a listen I am totally surprised.
Oh yeah, There are several dozen boy bands and girl groups that were seemingly super popular over seas in the 90s that I could never name any of their songs, B*Witched, Girls Aloud, Take That, Boyzone, Westlife, etc…
 
Add a +1 to the list of Brits that is basically unaware of The Cars.

Im familiar with the cover art of the woman behind the wheel, but only because of this forum. I honestly couldn't name a Cars song but might recognise one if I heard it. In fact, if it wasn't for this forum I might have led a Cars free existence.
 
Very interesting. Their debut album was a massive 6x platinum smash hit and they were fairly commonly found on MTV too (especially in the 80s with Drive), but their songs have been all over American classic rock radio for the past 40 years. Makes me curious what other massively popular American bands are pretty obscure in Europe, and vice versa.
 
Very interesting. Their debut album was a massive 6x platinum smash hit and they were fairly commonly found on MTV too (especially in the 80s with Drive), but their songs have been all over American classic rock radio for the past 40 years. Makes me curious what other massively popular American bands are pretty obscure in Europe, and vice versa.
Chas and Dave fit the bill and so does Sublime apparently
 
Yeah I remember finding out Sublime isn't a household name in the UK when VMP dropped their record of the month earlier this year. I've never heard of Chas and Dave lol, that's wild.
not sure if you were on discord when that Uncle Ron guy came on, complained there was no landline to call VMP to complain about stuff, said two Kacey Musgraves albums within the span of a few months was "disgusting" and said nobody in the UK knows Sublime. Then he went on a rant about Chas n Dave hah.
 
Very interesting. Their debut album was a massive 6x platinum smash hit and they were fairly commonly found on MTV too (especially in the 80s with Drive), but their songs have been all over American classic rock radio for the past 40 years. Makes me curious what other massively popular American bands are pretty obscure in Europe, and vice versa.
Luckily for the rest of the world, Drive wasn’t particularly successful outside N America. If only we in N America had been so fortunate.
 
Now I’m trying to decide if I should listen to The Cars or not. I first saw their covers when browsing the MoFi website but wasn’t even curious to discover who they are.
The self-titled album rules IMO. Some of the songs were played to death on the radio but I still like the album. The Rhino cut is awesome but now sold out unless you order from canada/UK.
 
The Cars' fifth album Heartbeat City was huge when I was in high school, with tons of videos on MTV (You Might Think, Drive, Magic, etc) And of course Moving in Stereo was the soundtrack for the best moment in cinematic history*



*to me as a kid
 
Now I’m trying to decide if I should listen to The Cars or not. I first saw their covers when browsing the MoFi website but wasn’t even curious to discover who they are.
Ric Ocasek was a pop genius. The Cars released 4 albums in 4 consecutive years to diminishing returns. Their debut self-titled album is better than most bands greatest hits. The subsequent 3 albums that followed are all quite good, just not as good as the album that immediately proceeded it. Then they took a bit of a break and came back with Heartbeat City which was much slicker than anything that had come before and fit well alongside many of their mid-80s contemporaries.

Ric also produced a ton of notable albums by the likes of Bad Brains, Weezer, Nada Surf, Guided By Voices, and No Doubt.

If you enjoy New Wave or Power Pop the Cars are a nice rabbit hole to tumble down.
 
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