The Cars: Door to Door

The Cars: Door to Door

1988

Elektra Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Leave or Stay  2. You Are the Girl  3. Double Trouble  4. Fine Line  5. Everything You Say  6. Ta Ta Wayo Wayo  7. Strap Me In  8. Coming Up You  9. Wound Up on You  10. Go Away  11. Door to Door


Hmm, the Cars winning streak seems to have ended...After five top-notch albums of crisp new wave and classic rock they lose their momentum and stall out on "Door to Door."

You know there's a problem right away with opener "Leave or Stay," it doesn't sound bad or anything,   there's actually some energy in the verses, but where is the chorus?  Once you drop all semblance of experimentation and give yourself over 100% to slick pop it usually helps to have a hook or something...Turns out this was actually a re-recording of an decade demo (which was later released on the 1995 "Cars Anthology: Just What I Needed" compilation)...And comparing the lean rock of the demo just highlights the problem with "Door to Door's" overly slick, yet murky production...

 "You Are the Girl" comes along and you think things are going to turn around...It has a bit of an overly-comfortable adult contemporary vibe, but it redeems itself with a catchy chorus and interestingly subdued instrumentation.

"I might have gotten a bad impression form the first song,  but this might turn out to be another good Cars album, " you start thinking to yourself, but then the big, bloated heavy metal song "Double Trouble" comes along and dashes all your dreams...

From there on out it's very hit or miss..."Ta Ta Wayo Wayo" is alright...It's got some energy at least and a fun rocking feel...I very much like the keyboards on this track, and "Strap Me In" is able to summon up a little of the dense, mysterious atmosphere that "Heartbeat City" excelled at. I also find the chorus of "Go Away" to be very lovely. On the other hand there's so many slow mushy track like "Coming Up You" and "Wound Up On You" sequenced one after another, that it's hard to keep my eyes open...

 By the end of the album you've kind of resigned yourself to the blandness when suddenly the title track comes along and it's about 60 bpm's faster than everything else! The record finally creates some spark, spirit and heat! I wish they would have explored this speedy, punk-influenced direction a bit more, but unfortunately the album ends here...

I bought this out of the used records bin at FYE for about three bucks, which I'd say is a fair price for this...I really only hold onto it for the two or three tracks I like and for the sake of completeness...I hardly ever spin this, and listening to it again today doesn't change my opinion much...It's okay as far as generic 80's shoulder-pad music goes, but for the Cars this is subpar...Even the album cover is ugly...They always had great album covers! Something was wrong and the band broke up shortly after this album...Too bad...

Let's check out "Door to Door" by the Cars...