Heartbeat City by The Cars on Apple Music (original) (raw)

Unlike many bands that predated MTV, The Cars managed to make the transition to video stars. And the group’s fifth album, Heartbeat City, was well-timed, since it was released in 1984—which Rolling Stone later called “Pop’s Greatest Year.” Heartbeat City would become The Cars’ biggest album. It would also foster intra-band resentment, and help fuel a breakup. The members of The Cars were determined to integrate new recording technology into their music, including drum machines and samplers. For help in the studio, they hired an obsessive new producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who’d overseen hits for Def Leppard and Foreigner. The Cars’ 1978 debut had taken two weeks to record; Heartbeat City, by contrast, took between six and nine months (though accounts vary). That’s largely because Lange was a taskmaster, one who thought nothing of spending two days just tuning Benjamin Orr’s bass guitar. As a result of all that edgeless perfection, Heartbeat City has an overpowering feel; it’s almost too ornamental to feel human. Even Ocasek would later admit the music “sometimes feels stiff.” The commitment to modern tech mostly elbowed guitarist Elliot Easton and drummer David Robinson, while Orr contributes lead vocals to only two songs. The only trademark Cars sounds on Heartbeat City come courtesy of Ocasek’s easily identifiable voice, and the stellar keyboards of Greg Hawkes, who adds a great hook—actually, two of them—to “Hello Again.” Still, while Heartbeat City shifted The Cars’ musical direction, the album yielded several singles, including “You Might Think,” “Magic,” “Hello Again,” and Orr’s smash hit “Drive,” which a joined a short list of grim pop songs fans mistakenly believed to be romantic: The airy ballad feels gentle and intimate, and Orr’s vocal is like a silk shirt come to life, but the lyrics are unkind, maybe even sinister (“Who’s gonna plug their ears when you scream?”). Ocasek joked that the band broke up four times while making Heartbeat City. There’s bound to be resentment when suddenly, five albums into a career, three key players are pushed to the side. The Cars made one more album before dissolving for good, but it seems clear that Heartbeat City, for all its success, is the album that drove the group members away from each other.