Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 139: The Cars - The Cars (+ Arcade Fire results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Great_Paul's week:
Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil
vs.
Serj Tankian - Harakiri
vs.
Simple Plan - Get Your Heart On!

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Sunday, November 5th at 4:00 PM Central Time; the future week poll will close earlier, when I am putting up the next topic
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle (a new user will be added to the end of the current cycle as long as there are four weeks remaining) - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).
7c. I have added a tiered vote structure - the least popular album will be removed and its backup votes distributed to the other two entrants.
8. Starting with the next cycle, every four weeks will be a competitive week where those listed choose a single album to face off against others.
9. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

The Cars - The Cars track list:
1. Good Times Roll
2. My Best Friend's Girl
3. Just What I Needed
4. I'm in Touch With Your World
5. Don't Cha Stop
6. You're All I've Got Tonight
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Moving in Stereo
9. All Mixed Up

Current cycle:
11/5: Giggsalot's bonus (Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges - Clube de Esquina)
11/12: neonreaper (Run DMC - Raisin' Hell)
11/19: Great_Paul
11/26: jcgamer107
12/3: Snake5555555555/RyoCaliente/BlueCrystalTear
12/10: ChichiriMuyo
12/17: BlueCrystalTear
12/24: rwlh
12/31: NFUN/Fluttershy_Pony/ChichiriMuyo
1/7: NFUN
1/14: StifledSilence
1/21: MaxGalactica
1/28: ZaziGuado/HBJDubs
2/4: Sheep007

Future Cycle:
2/11: HBJDubs
2/18: Fluttershy_Pony
2/25: Steiner
3/3: competitive week
3/10: Snake5555555555
3/17: ZaziGuado
3/24: firefdr
3/31: competitive week
4/7: Johnbobb
4/14: FoolFantastic
4/21: Seanchan
4/28: competitive week
5/5: Giggsalot
5/12: RyoCaliente
5/19: darkx

Tag

Gonna do this one! I need to get back into this anyway. It's good for me.

Did a first listen yesterday.

If you were to ask me before that if I knew any The Cars songs, my answer would have been "probably but I couldn't tell you it was them".

The first 3 songs here everyone has heard a million times before but, if you're like me, had no idea of the group responsible. Then there's 6 more songs and I honestly have no idea if they're good or not because that opening third mostly overwhelmed my ability to think about the rest.

And since I like to say stupid things in these topics... The harmonizing by The Cars reminded me of Queen. Just that part though. Obviously there's no Freddie Mercury here or any of the playfulness of stuff like Fat Bottom Girls or Bicycle Race.

Simple Plan > Avenged Sevenfold > Serj Tankian

This is a vote for the only one we haven't heard from before. I really enjoyed the last Avenged Sevenfold but do we need another by them? I didn't really enjoy the System of a Down so I'm not hot on listening to a Serj album, though recognizing he's got a very iconic voice.

Simple Plan > Serj Tankian > Avenged Sevenfold

Good Times Roll
Moving in Stereo
All Mixed Up - I'm probably over-rating this track because I havent heard it nearly as much as the other good songs on the album.
Just What I Needed
You're All I've Got Tonight
Bye Bye Love
My Best Friend's Girl
Don't Cha Stop- One of two tracks on the album that I've just never cared for
I'm in Touch With Your World- One of two tracks on the album that I've just never cared for

The Cars are great, and this album is fairly easy to rank because it has 5-6 songs that were on the radio/MTV all the time. My top two tracks are pretty easy to rank, and then there's a pile of singles that are a little tricky to rank and I ended up sticking an album cut above them.

Sorry for my absences - since my last excuse, I found an MP3 CD from 20 years ago with my old playlists and have just buried myself in my old favorites. Stuff that you can't hear on Spotify (like XTC's Wasp Star albums, Neil Young, etc)

Serj > A7X > Simple Plan

Just What I Needed
My Best Friend's Girl
Moving in Stereo
Good Times Roll
Bye Bye Love
You're All I've Got Tonight
All Mixed Up
Don't Cha Stop
I'm in Touch With Your World

I didn't vote last week but I'm glad that the Brazilian album won. That was gonna be my pick anyway.

While reading the song listing for this week's album I had the same reaction as Seanchan.

1: Moving in Stereo
2: My Best Friend's Girl
3: Good Times Roll
4: Just What I Needed
5: All Mixed Up
6: Bye Bye Love
7: You're All I've Got Tonight
8: Don't Cha Stop
9: I'm in Touch with Your World

Good album. A lot of hit songs in a rather short package that doesn't drag.

Moving in Stereo: Oh hey, I was obsessed with this song a few years ago. One of those tracks that I played on an infinite loop for weeks. Been long enough since I've heard it that I can enjoy it again.

Simple Plan - Get Your Heart On! > Serj Tankian - Harakiri > Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil

Seems like a pretty good set of albums; "Get Your Heart On!" has a pretty good opening song, "Harakiri" definitely has some great tracks (and even those I aggressively dislike are quite memorable), and "City of Evil"... well, I do like the way the album sounds, I'm admittedly a bit wary of an almost 73 minute long album in this style (though I'm cautiously optimistic enough that I'd still be happy enough to listen to it.)

Just What I Needed
All Mixed Up
Good Times Roll
You're All I've Got Tonight
My Best Friend's Girl
Bye Bye Love
Don't Cha Stop
Moving in Stereo
I'm in Touch With Your World

bump

Get Your Heart On! > Harakiri > City of Evil

Moving in Stereo
All Mixed Up
Just What I Needed
Let the Good Times Roll
Youre All Ive Got Tonight
Bye Bye Love
Im In Touch With Your World
Dont Cha Stop
Best Friends Girl

Got my second listen in early this week. Moving in Stereo is head and shoulders above the rest - I'm not super fond of the album as a whole but still think a lot of the individual songs are pretty good? I also can't say I heard a ton of them on the radio, although that may be cause I'm a little younger than a lot of B8 and am European.

Did a listen earlier in the week, although I was only half paying attention because I was playing something at the same time. Need to relisten and start the list, it shouldn't be too hard to rank these.

Morning bump.

1. Just What I Needed
2. Bye Bye Love
3. All Mixed Up
4. Moving in Stereo
5. My Best Friend's Girl
6. Don't Cha Stop
7. Good Times Roll
8. You're All I've Got Tonight
9. I'm in Touch with Your World

Solid classic 80's new wave/pop album. Just What I Needed is as good as it always has been. Bye Bye Love and All Mixed Up were pleasant surprises. The rest were good, but lacked something tangible for me to really latch on to. Still a rather enjoyable album as a whole.

Will need to do this tomorrow. Sorry about the wait. Been feeling deflated tbh

Just What I Needed
You're All I've Got Tonight
Moving in Stereo
Good Times Roll
Bye Bye Love
Don't Cha Stop
All Mixed Up
I'm in Touch With Your World
My Best Friend's Girl

Before listening to this album I couldn't name anything about The Cars. But this album had 3 songs that I recognized by title and then 2 more that I recognized by melody once they started. So that's a good signifier of its quality and popularity.

Good Times Roll - It's kind of funny that if you ignore this being a "famous song" and just try to analyze it musically, it's actually very... simplistic? Like in terms of lyrics and instrumentation. That's not even a bad thing and doesn't negatively impact it. Just an interesting thing that I never noticed before.

City of Evil > Harakiri > Simple Plan

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Will need to do this tomorrow. Sorry about the wait. Been feeling deflated tbh

I'll also have my ranking up later today. Should have done it yesterday but was very busy.

According to the liner notes for the Cars' Complete Greatest Hits, during the recording sessions for their debut album, the band joked that it would be their Greatest Hits. While they certainly went on to have some pretty big hits on subsequent albums (in fact, their highest-charted song, "Drive," isn't even from this one), I'd say this one has the highest concentration of hits out of any of their albums. It's short, it's sweet, almost every track got a lot of airplay on the radio and on MTV, and while it slows down a bit after the 1-2-3 punch that opens it, there's hardly a slow spot on the entire record.

My Best Friend's Girl - To put it simply, this is just one of my favorite songs ever. I was a horribly depressed 13-year-old when I first heard it and its devastating lyrics juxtaposed against a peppy pop rock melody just sang to me in the right way at the right time like few other songs ever have. I've probably listened to it over a thousand times in the 21 years since and I'm sure I'll hear it at least a thousand times more before I go.
Just What I Needed
Bye Bye Love
Good Times Roll
All Mixed Up
You're All I've Got Tonight
I'm in Touch With Your World - Probably the goofiest song The Cars ever made, and that's saying something. It's probably the weakest song on the album, objectively, but something about it just makes me love it.
Moving in Stereo - I know it's one of their most beloved songs but it's always been just a little bit forgettable to me, especially among their big ones.
Don't Cha Stop

My Best Friend's Girl
Just What I Needed
Moving in Stereo
You're All I've Got Tonight
Bye Bye Love
All Mixed Up
Good Times Roll
Don't Cha Stop
I'm in Touch With Your World

One of my favorite albums ever, which is a testament to its consistency, considering this doesn't even have my two favorite Cars songs on it.

I've heard most of this album before, as I own an MP3 compilation of The Cars, over half of which is taken from their two best albums (this one has 6 and Heartbeat City has 5). But this was quite the momentum setter - this debut is so strong that it was able to carry their career for a decade, and thank goodness. The Cars are good shit, and I'm glad Rick Ocasek lived long enough to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Ben Orr, sadly, didn't - one thing that made the Cars stand out were how Ocasek and Orr had voices that made for great harmonies.

As for this album, seven out of nine songs are absolute bangers, with "All Mixed Up" being a pleasant surprise (I hadn't heard that one before). There are two album tracks that are simply good, but good is good enough for those.

1. Just What I Needed
2. My Best Friend's Girl
3. Moving in Stereo
4. All Mixed Up
5. You're All I've Got Tonight
6. Good Times Roll
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Don't Cha Stop
9. I'm in Touch With Your World

1. Just What I Needed
2. My Best Friend's Girl
3. All Mixed Up
4. Good Times Roll
5. Don't Cha Stop
6. You're All I've Got Tonight
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Moving in Stereo
9. I'm in Touch With Your World

An objectively good album (other than I'm in Touch With Your World) but one that I failed to really connect with. Not exactly sure why. Maybe I found the lyrics to be a bit repetitive? Maybe I just wasn't "feeling it" for doing music analysis this week. Whatever the case, it was still nice to check off another rock classic.

If you want a trip, check out Milkwood Hows the Westher. Thats the Cars when they were a competent folk band.

this is late so you don't have to count it if you don't want to, but I still want to get it out there

1. Youre All Ive Got Tonight
2. Moving In Stereo
3. Just What I Needed
4. All Mixed Up
5. My Best Friends Girl
6. Good Times Roll
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Dont Cha Stop
9. Im In Touch With Your World

This is a total classic. I think every song here is great. They're all really fun to play in Rock Band too.

I keep listening to albums and forgetting to vote or rank lately.

I did not go into this album expecting it to be like 70% singles I'd known for years

1. Bye Bye Love
2. Just What I Needed
3. Good Times Roll
4. My Best Friend's Girl
5. I'm in Touch With Your World
6. You're All I've Got Tonight
7. Moving in Stereo
8. All Mixed Up
9. Don't Cha Stop