The Cars: Shake It Up

 The Cars: Shake It Up

1981

Elektra Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Since You're Gone  2. Shake it Up  3. I'm Not the One  4. Victim of Love  5. Cruiser  6. A Dream Away  7. This Could Be Love  8. Think It Over  9. Maybe Baby


 I remember looking at the cover of this 8-track a million times as a kid and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the girl was holding...I finally concluded it was some sort of futuristic phone or something...

I picked up the album years later and had to slap my forehead and say to myself, "Duhhhh...It's a cocktail shaker!" Damn, I'm dumb sometimes...It says what it is right in the album title....Oh well...

Hey, look what I found in my closet! It's my old jean jacket from 1981!

Let's take a closer look at the buttons on it...

Oh yea...My old Reagan/Bush '81 button...This was the same year Ol' Jelly Beans took office...

That's right! In 1981 the Iranian Hostage Crisis ended and the hostages got to come home!

MTV also debuted in 1981...Which was a good place to view the Cars new video "Shake It Up."

This song lets you know they've gone back to straight-up pop after the dark detour they took on "Panorama."  There's no way this song doesn't brighten your day...Quick, clippy, catchy...It also reminds me of "Kings Lead Hat" by Brian Eno...

After a single that strong, it didn't matter if the rest of the album was trash or not...It had to be a hit...Fortunately, the single was no fluke, and the album still sounds like a 40 minute slice of 1981 top 40 radio preserved on vinyl, but with all the "Endless Love" and REO Speedwagon edited out...



Lots of good new wave pop here...I think I'm going to have to pick "Cruiser" as the best track though...It's noticeably more rocking than the surrounding songs, but there's so many neat, interlocking guitar parts...Benjamin Orr is at his coolest singing here...

I also never hear it mentioned as a stand-out, but I've always liked album-closer "Maybe Baby."  The Cars' music is often a bit emotionally cold, but I don't know...There's something sort of rewarding and triumphant about it when it hits the chorus...

It was one of those albums that seemed a bit disposable when I first heard it, but it ended up being one of my most-listened to Cars albums...It feels like there's actually quite a bit of substance beneath the bright façade...Any collector of 80's albums should seek this out...

I dunno...Let's stop talking about it and let's check out "Maybe Baby" by the Cars. Enjoy...