The Cars – Panorama – 1980
Otherwise known as “what happens when a pop rock band with arty ambitions abandons the pop and much of the rock in favor of the arty?”
Panorama is a mess. The song. The album. It’s a droning, muzzled, over controlled mess.
Ocasek seems to be overly concerned with the band having any freedome so the reins have been pulled tight. In fact, there’s no semblance of a real group working together until the fourth song, “Don’t Tell Me No”, where David Robinson sounds like he’s actually playing his instrument instead of programming a Casio. That still doesn’t redeem the song. And Easton isn’t really given much to do until “Getting Through”.
No, this is the Ocasek & Hawkes show. And by becoming ever more dependent on the keyboards for the sound tapestry The Cars have actually managed something that seems almost impossible: They went from being the vanguards of the New Wave movement and created something of it’s time AND simultaneously timeless to being the representatives of all that was wrong with the movement and created something of it’s time, yes but also something that could be shoved in a time machine for 1980. In less than 2 years they did that.
If you take the album for what it is, though, it’s not entirely unlistenable. It’s just a disappointment. The poppy sheen and pure craft of the last two records gives way to the New Wave Underground.
That said, the hypnotic effect of “Panorama” and the decidedly uber-New Wave-y-ness of “Misfit Kid” represent the era precisely and I can’t deny that. And the rocker, “Down Boys” reminds me of what The Tubes were also doing at exactly the same time, in fact, it could be the dirtier, muddier cousin of “Sushi Girl”. It’s also one of the few places where the band sounds like a…band. But, it’s obvious by now that Ocasek’s in control.
I really can’t imagine that they thought this album sounded good, however. It’s so muddy. Compared to the sounds on the previous two.
Oh, and Rik’s a bad lyricist here, too. 😉
Grade: C-
ASide: Touch and Go,
BlindSide: Getting Through, Misfit Kid
DownSide: You Wear Those Eyes, Up & Down
