THE CARS: SHAKE IT UP (1981)
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.
Back to basics — after the somewhat exaggerated
gloominess of Panorama, The Cars
return with arguably their most lightweight and unpretentious release to that
point. If The Cars were all about a
smooth, symbolic transition from the age of «classic rock» into the modern era,
Candy-O was all about how to handle
girl problems in that modern era, and Panorama
was about finding a good balance between hooks and atmosphere, then Shake It Up is just a collection of pop
hooks, period. The album has almost no personality whatsoever, as Ocasek and
Orr either deliver the lyrics without any particular vocal expression or, for
some reason, borrow elements of alien vocal styles (on ʽSince You're Goneʼ,
Ocasek seems to be giving us a Dylan impersonation — with all that rising pitch
on the shouted parts), not to mention how the vocals are regularly obscured in
the mix, starting a tendency that would eventually reach its peak on Heartbeat City.
With albums like these, writing reviews is no
fun because it all ultimately comes down to the overall number of hooks per
song — these tunes are catchy all right, but so slight that it's easier to come
up with useful insights about a jar of mayonnaise. The title track, which was
also chosen for the album's first single, truly does nothing except incite you
to "shake it up" (or, if you need more detail, "dance all night,
play all day, don't let nothin' get in the way"), with a fun guitar melody
and an appropriate set of woo-hoos to carry the day; its B-side, ʽCruiserʼ, is
much better, particularly its odd two-part riff that begins with brawny
arena-rock power chords and ends with a lighter bluesy flourish (people usually
prefer the reverse order), but there's little else to the song: it does somehow
manage to convey the grimy atmosphere of nighttime cruising through the seedy
parts of the big city, but that is hardly enough for a great song — decent, nothing more.
As far as sonic evolution is concerned, Shake It Up clearly pushes forward into
the electronic age, although in 1981 mainstream production standards had not
yet propelled bands high up in the air: electronically enhanced drums, with
elements of drum machine programming, and synthesized dance-pop loops reflect
the possible influence of Prince (something like ʽThink It Overʼ could, in
fact, very easily have fit in on Controversy),
but the sound is still very much «in your face», with a high quotient of pure
fun. On the other hand, it does hurt with the occasional ballad like ʽI'm Not
The Oneʼ, where Easton's melodic lead guitar lines are almost wasted on a
bleepy melody that seems more suitable for a soundtrack to some early Japanese
hentai game than for your respectable speakers — meaning that the then-fresh,
now-ridiculous sonic textures of the decade are already beginning to corrode
the musicianship.
In the middle of it all comes ʽA Dream Awayʼ, a
tune that is seriously out of place on the album: a grim, slightly industrialized
soundscape, with Ocasek's voice run through some serious effects and now
somewhat similar to Lou Reed's in its gloomy commentary on a world that cannot
satisfy the protagonist, because "the good life is just a dream
away". The song is almost like an outtake from Panorama, and although thematically it is not too far away from the
many other pessimistic statements on this record, musically it is far darker
than the title track or ʽVictim Of Loveʼ — showing that, once the initial
impression is over, there's at least a little more to the album than just the hook-stuffed
singles.
But still, not enough to shake off the feeling
that Shake It Up is about as
lightweight a record as its cover suggests — as The Cars return to the old
tried-and-true practice of putting glitzy supermodels on their slightly decadent
album sleeves (and this time armed with a cocktail shaker at that). A nice
listen if you like simple and direct early Eighties pop, and a well-earned thumbs up
all the way, but the fact that the title track actually earned them their first
Top 10 hit on the Billboard charts (ʽGood Times Rollʼ only hit No. 41, in
comparison) is hardly a positive testimony in the face of humanity.
>Easton's melodic lead guitar lines are almost wasted on a bleepy melody that seems more suitable for a soundtrack to some early Japanese hentai game than for your respectable speakers
ReplyDeleteHuh, I thought you were more into American strategy and adventure games.
I'm a bit surprised at the thumbs up. As opposed to their previous lousy album covers, this one indeed says it all about what's inside. If this represents the Cars at their least pretentious, then I guess I greatly prefer their former pretense.
ReplyDelete"Shake It Up" seemed to give permission for people to take The Cars for granted. After their first three albums, this is indeed a pure pop effort. I enjoy this album a great deal, not only for the hooks George mentioned, but the way it works to synthesize the power pop I grew up with in the 1970s with the New Wave era just as that was winding down. They were risking turning into ELO, but it was in a good cause.
ReplyDeleteI don't love this album anymore than I do "Panorama," but I love having both of them back-to-back this way.