Shake It Up

Performer: The Cars
Engineer: Ian Taylor
Producer: Roy Thomas Baker
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The Cars: Ric Ocasek (vocals, guitar); Ben Orr (vocals, bass); Elliot Easton (guitar, background vocals); Greg Hawkes (keyboards, background vocals); David Robinson (drums, background vocals). Recorded at Synchro Sound Studios, Boston. SHAKE IT UP, the Cars' fourth album, catches the group at a pivotal point in their career. They teetered on the precipice of overproduction and vapidity just long enough to produce this classic recording before losing their already-contested credibility. The group's trademark detachment and irony seem more like devices than a way of life here, and SHAKE IT UP is certainly the sprightliest, most listener-friendly of all the Cars' albums. The moody electronic textures that enliven "Cruiser" and "Victim of Love" are simply a means to a very effective end. And on "Since You're Gone" and the title cut, the group achieves the pop nirvana with which they'd always flirted.

CMJ (1/5/04, p.10) - Ranked #10 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1982".

Debuting in 1978, the Boston-based Cars managed to achieve both massive commercial success and New Wave credibility with their mix of power pop, Roxy Music-influenced art-rock, and melodic synth hooks. Despite his fame, leader Ric Ocasek proved to be a champion of the underground, producing albums by Suicide, Bad Brains, and Peter Dayton (later he produced hit records by Weezer and No Doubt). The band dissolved in the mid-'80s, and hopes of a reunion were complicated when singer/bassist Ben Orr passed away in 2000. Yet in 2005 the remaining members, sans Ocasek, enlisted the talents of pop guru Todd Rundgren and became The New Cars.

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