Shake It Up

About

After two blockbuster albums that certified The Cars as America’s most successful New Wave band, the group churned out 1980’s <i>Panorama</i>—an offbeat effort that was light on hook, and largely ignored by radio station. On 1981’s <i>Shake It Up</i>, though, the group was suddenly back on the racetrack. The peppy, simplistic title became the band’s biggest hit to date, with a frisky solo from guitarist Elliot Easton, and tricky keyboard runs from Greg Hawkes (Ocasek later admitted he wasn’t proud of the song’s lyrics). For much of the album—the band’s fourth in as many years—Ocasek sounds adrift. On <i>Shake It Up</i>, The Cars are neither the well-oiled pop machine that made their first two album, nor the scholarly experimentalists who made <i>Panorama</i> a year earlier. The music has plenty of wonderful touche, but it feels distant, and even Ocasek’s characteristic ambivalence about love lacks its usual bite. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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