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Rating: Has Ric Ocasek already gotten tired of new wave? Perhaps... But of rock? Still, after a year, following the successor "The Cars" and the follow-up "Candy-O", the Cars release this "Panorama", an "electrobeats" album. Or not? The sound has changed, you notice it right away, and even Ric's voice has altered, and that's not just because recording techniques were improving year by year back then. But what is concretely new? Saddidandà?
If the track that gives the album its title is a song that dresses an old body anew, with simple guitar patterns over which Hawkes and his keyboard embellish (for an impressive 5 minutes and 40 seconds!), "Touch And Go" doesn't resemble any other track previously released by Ocasek and company. With a jerky keyboard cadence that sometimes seems offbeat (Or is the rest of the song offbeat by not following the keyboard?) but then always aligns at the last moment with the rest of the song, it launches into a cunning refrain with an almost western guitarist. Easton's "foamy" solo, the surfer. If I said that this track alone justifies the entire album, I might be exaggerating, but the fact remains that in the compilation hits over the years, from "Panorama", only this "Touch And Go" has been pulled. Moreover, if we talk about style shifts, it's worth noting that for the first time in the Cars' music, the keyboards form the main structure and appear "first" in the lineup, ahead of the guitars.
"Gimme Some Slack" and we return to the galloping-trot of guitar and drums. And don't those little keyboards remind you of something by Grandaddy (even though it should be the other way around? Shouldn't "Ok With My Decay" remind you only in the sound of those little keyboards of "Gimme Some Slack" by the Cars?)? The "polished" new wave of the Cars as we know it.
The real '80s for the Cars begin with "Don't Tell Me No", where guitar and keyboard share the task of keeping the rhythm, one with a riff and the other with a loop. Orr sings a song that Ocasek composed for himself, and poor Benji ends up sobbing.
"Getting Through" (not very melodic): still on a very Texan guitar and a high drum beat.. A keyboard kicks in that seems to come out of an Alan Parsons record. But the "exciting" thing is the special, which has become a jumble of keyboard effects that today make you smile, recalling the old sound effects of Atari video game spaceships when they exploded. Ocasek in this track perfectly suited (loser) candidate in 1980 for the "Space Cowboy" contest..
If earlier I talked about how (maybe) Grandaddy inherited something in their (almost) always wonderful music from the Cars, try listening to "Misfit Kid". Ocasek decides not to sing it, to make it more "his own", thus reciting it "over" the music. A real shame.
Another return to "tradition" with "Down Boys", a fast-paced piece with sufficiently long verses to ward off timed talk. Again according to "tradition," the keyboard is "behind" the guitars.
Crickets in the night and gunshots that follow one another, or rather calm and madness, in "You Wear Those Eyes", Ocasek's first chill track in its own way with guitars and keyboards that "wobble" and "glare" a note on purpose. Beautiful solo of a few notes by Easton, one who in those few seconds he has (and in the impossibility of not respecting Ric Ocasek's taste for simplicity), must build a reputation as a top-level guitarist.
"Running To You", like "Panorama", "Gimme Some Slack", and others mentioned, travels thanks to the guitars. But come on!!! Wasn't this the album abandoning new wave? Yes, but not traditional pop-rock, so it seems. Beautiful chorus ("Running to you" sung 4 times) and keyboard solo for an all-guitar track. Undoubtedly one of the album's finest tracks, if not the best after "Touch And Go". Note how in this album, unlike the previous two, the sound wall is tall and proud.
"Up And Down" is an excellent song with a nice claustrophobic rhythm to which a good arpeggiated and airy chorus contrasts/clashes. The piece's quality is partially undermined by Ocasek once again speaking in time "over" the notes, or in other words, over the best part.
If the goal was to give a "sharp turn" to the car, well, this car's road behavior seems worthy of a modern big sedan equipped with esp! In fact, after some sway, it resets and aligns on the path of the previous two albums. To truly veer, this album needed to run faster towards innovation. But to do so, you need the right engine, and the right engine is the quality of the tracks.
It's worth saying that Ocasek's tracks were never intended for keyboards (Ocasek is a guitarist with a nearly stubby red Marlboro always lit, one eye tearing and the other on the chord), not even in "Heartbeat City"... Yet, precisely in that very successful episode of his career, marked 1984, Ric succeeded, thanks to a gentleman named John Lord-Alge, in transforming them into pieces with a prominent keyboard, twenty meters ahead of all the other instruments. Here, however, Ric doesn't succeed, but maybe, given the average quality of the tracks ("the engine" of this car, much inferior to that of "Heartbeat City"), it was better not to overdo it, in other words.
Of this album, the good arrangements are especially appreciable, the sound more "fresh" than before (easier to appreciate immediately, but less inclined to age over time, and therefore 20 years later if it doesn't sound current like Kraftwerk "must" sound almost lo-fi, and here it fails to end up either like the first or the second), and three truly good tracks, namely "Touch And Go", "Misfit Kid", and "Running To You".
The album, therefore, while not to be thrown away, comes off poorly both from a design perspective (the "turn"!) and a compositional one: three tracks out of ten is little for the Cars. Still, a year later, with "Shake It Up", Ric Ocasek tries again, showing more creativity from a compositional viewpoint but more "flat" in the arrangements, nonetheless failing to match even this time the first album "The Cars" and the second "Candy-O". But indeed four albums in four years are too much even if your name is Ric Ocasek.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Panorama (05:42)
I'm gonna get what's coming to me
no surprises, no impressions
hey, what's a wrong with you tonight
just sittin' on your can can
doin' the panoram
with nothin' to contemplate
with nothin' to search for
with nothin' to integrate
with nothin' to do
'cept think about you
with nothin' to do
'cept fall for blue
I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
I'm gonna to take what's comin' to me
no entanglements, and no compromise
hey get the picture, I'm on my knees
lookin' at your hot shot
turnin' down your offer
well I'm rippin' it up
I'm lookin' awa-ay
I'm pullin' my flag up
'cause I'm miles away
with nothin' to do
'cept think about you-ou yeah
I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
well, I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
I'm gonna to find my way out of here
no pushing the buttons, no deals with daddy-o
I'm gonna to get myself in trouble
gonna take my chances
if I break your bubble
well I'm rippin' it up
I'm lookin' away
I'm pullin' my flag up
'cause I'm miles away
with nothin' to do
'cept, think about you
I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
said, I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
well I just wanna be in, I just wanna be in
(panorama)
I just wanna, I just wanna be in your panorama
(panorama)
[repeat]
03 Gimme Some Slack (03:31)
I wanna shake like Liguardia
magic mouth in the sun
train ride to the courtyard
before you can run
down at the end of Lonely Street
where no one takes a walk
someone lyin' at your feet
and someone's gettin' off
just gimme some slack, yeah
just gimme some slack
just gimme, slack
that's all I want is slack
the seven floors of walkup
the odor musted cracks
and the peeping keyhole introverts
with the monkeys on their backs
and the rooftops strung with frauleins
the pastel pinned up sails
the eighteen color roses
against your face so pale
a just gimme some slack, that's right
uh gimme some slack
gimme, slack, oo yeah
all I want is slack
I wanna float like Euripides
all visions intact
I'm alright with Fellini fiends
a trippin' over the track
down at the end of L-onely Street
where no one takes a chance
someone's in the cheap light
someone wants to dance
just gimme some slack, that's right
all I want is slack
oh, gimme, slack
all I want is slack
gimme, slack
slack
slack
sssslack
slack
[unintelligible]slack
04 Don't Tell Me No (04:00)
It's my party, you can come
It's my party, have some fun
It's my dream, have a laugh
It's my life, have a half
CHORUS
Don't tell me no
It's my transition, it's my play
It's my phone call to betray
It's my hopscotch, light the torch
It's my downtime, feel the scorch
CHORUS
It's my ambition, it's my joke
It's my teardrop, emotional smoke
It's my mercy, it's my plan
I want to go to futureland
CHORUS
05 Getting Through (02:35)
I don't want to be your party doll
All flaked out in Tinsel Town
Circus mouth shooting all directions
With TV ads that sell erections
CHORUS
I got no clue what they want to do with you
It's just getting through, getting through to you
Living outside the misdemeanor
Some get lost and some are screamers
It's easy to tell the great pretender
Broken wings and flip top fenders
CHORUS
I don't want to be your suffering box
Argue art or untie your knots
I don't want to be your bad connection
Or fit into your reality vision
CHORUS
09 Running to You (03:21)
I'm comin' around
I want you to come
I'm comin' arou-ound
just for the fun
havin' a real time
just taking what's not mine
and I'm doin' what I want to do
that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
(runnin' to you)
that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
that's (runnin' to you) runnin' to you
you're lookin' for someone
maniacal shots
you're lookin' for someone
all over the top
I'm havin' a real time
just reading your head-line
and I'm doin' just what I want to do
that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
(runnin' to you) runnin' to you
that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
(runnin' to you)
you're hopin' for someone
that fits in the plan
you're hopin' for someone
two in the hand
havin' a real time
just taking what's not mine
and I'm doin' what I like to do
that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
(runnin' to you)
a runnin' a runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
uh that's runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
(runnin' to you) runnin' to you
(runnin' to you) runnin' runnin' runnin' to you
runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
I like runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
(runnin' to you) runnin' runnin' to you
(runnin' to you)
I like runnin' to you
(runnin' to you) runnin' runnin' runnin' to you
10 Up and Down (03:34)
Do you have to be so hard to get
Especially with those emerald eyes
You might have been a neon lover
But you didn't have to advertise
Well come on, well come on
You might have been a crackshot shooter
Hung up on your figurine
Under the cold and darkly sky
You're the only light I've seen
CHORUS
Well come on, well come on
And it happens everytime
I'm still hanging on the line
Don't want to go up and down
You don't have to be so touch
I'll tell you when I've had enough
You don't have to reek with charm
You won't have to twist my arm
Well come on, well come on
CHORUS
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