Customer Reviews

Panorama

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Many bands of the eighties had obscure albums released, but I've heard none quite like this one. When I first saw the cover to the album, I figured it will be different from your average Cars album, for it didn't have a picture of a woman on it. The electronics dominate the atmosphere of the album, with great textural guitar parts in the background. The album has really three types of music in it. Hard Edged guitar rockers (Gimme Some Slack, Down Boys, Running to You, Up and Down)the electronic songs (Misfit Kid, You Wear Those Eyes, Getting Through) and album defining new wave type songs (Panorama, Touch and Go, Don't Tell Me No). In my opinion, the best Cars album, and probably their hardest rocking album. Definitly worth buying.

Panorama is indeed an under rated album. Some 20+ years after its release, it still sounds as forward and inventive as the day it was released. Having been in my early teens when this album was released, my first exposure to The Cars was with a series of Candy-O songs I'd heard on the radio. I was instantly hooked on the Candy-O title track. Then came Panorama and CITI FM played Gimme Some Slack, Touch and Go and Up and Down. All 3 of these songs really resonated with me then as they do today. Songs like You Wear Those Eyes, Panorama, Getting Through, etc. seem similar in that they all fall within the supposed "Dark" mood of the album, and yet they cover the spectrum of emotions, including quite humourous lyrics.

It seems that some like to criticize Ric Ocasek for much of his mainstream work although he can hardly be blamed for wanting to actually make a living selling music; one would really need to listen to the man's full body of work, including his solo work and rethink the mainstream label. Still, few musical composers could claim to have a musical style so unique that it is almost instantly recognizable, within a few notes, as sounding like nobody else. The fact that most songs on their other releases are catchy and likeable should be no source of shame...it's not like it sounds great because it's a repackage of someone else's material as is a common practice in the current mainstream scene. Ric Ocasek has performed in many musical genres, including his first major label release with an early 70's folk bank called Milkwood. A complete listen to the Cars library should greatly impress new listeners with the large collection of great songs, and Panorama proves the Cars to be a band that was willing to break out of the mainstream at the risk of losing the mainstream ear. For one album they almost joined the likes of Wall of Voodoo's Dark Continent album which is as clever as it is "unaccessable".

Let's not forget the music scene that bands like the Cars rescued us from in the late 70's. Thank you Cars for 23 years of great listening with Panorama.

I remember when this album came out, a reviewer labeled it as "what happens when Ric Ocasek runs out of ideas for songs". What did he know? While I am partial to the Cars, having been a major fan since their first album, I find Panorama to be a very important piece of work in their short career. I consider Candy-O to be my favorite album, and their best release, yet Panorama is a fantastic ride. This album is why headphones were invented--to drown out all other noise so you can focus entirely on the music. What a rich collection of sound and word, indeed. Anyone who is curious about the Cars needs to get this album, if none other.

I began listening to rock music as a 13-year-old in 1980, when "Panorama" was featured on my local (and now sadly defunct) album rock station. This was my introduction to The Cars. I bought the album back then having heard only "Touch And Go" on the radio. I was amazed by the tracks: All were keepers, in my opinion, with the exception of "Down Boys" and "Running To You." In other words, "Panorama," "Touch And Go," "Gimme Some Slack," "Don't Tell Me No," "Misfit Kid," and "You Wear Those Eyes" all impressed me as solid rock 'n' roll outings . . . and 26 years later I still listen to these tracks and marvel at them. Underrated? Damn right. Frankly, I can't listen anymore to the mindless "party music" on some of the other Cars albums -- the tracks that are now in unending rotation on corporate rock stations. Panorama isn't heard on those stations today because Panorama is anything but bland and predictable. It remains revolutionary in its intricate weave of hard rock guitar and cutting-edge techno pop synthesizers; and don't overlook Ocasek's heavy lyrics, which to me represent his best writing. Some lyrics, such as those on "Panorama" and "Gimme Some Slack," are downright poetic in their own right:

The rooftops strung with frauleins
The pastel pinned up sails
The eighteen color roses
Against your face so pale
. . . .
I wanna float like Euripides
All visions intact
I'm alright with Fellini fiends
A trippin' over the track

With lyrics like this, the result is infinitely more profound and substantive than what's found on, say, "My Best Friend's Girl" or "Let's Go." "You Wear Those Eyes" is downright erotic (something I don't see other reviewers mentioning, but I've always found it so), and "Touch and Go" offers one of rock's most suggestive and memorable lyrics: "In your headlock on the floor / Who could ever ask for more?" The title track is a masterpiece of intricate guitar and synth work, a veritable rock magnus opus, with layer upon layer of virtuoso musicianship.

I agree with others who call this album "ahead of its time" because it predicts the alternative movement in its use of heavy guitars, gloomy lyrics, and rejection of the slick and commercial. As a result, I regard bands like The Strokes and Smashing Pumpkins, for example, as drawing heavily on The Cars sound as heard in Panorama.

I consider the first three The Cars albums as a soundtrack to my teenage life. I was introduced to their debut album The Cars by my first boyfriend and I can remember many nights listening to it in the quiet darkness of his car after a football game. Then Candy-O arrived and was given to me as a Christmas gift by that same boyfriend. By the time Panorama was released, I was nursing a broken heart after the end of that sweet relationship. Every single song on Panorama seemed to help me through the bad times and mirrored that darkness I was feeling. Panorama is something special indeed. The sounds, the lyrics, the experience of this album is mesmerizing. The lyrics are both funny and heart-wrenching. My personal favorites are You Wear Those Eyes, Up and Down, and Touch and Go. Perhaps Panorama means more to those of us who were there when it was first released because it is so tied to our memories. However, I believe any true The Cars fan will appreciate the artistry and beauty of this album.

The production's absolutely perfect, especially the separation and the dynamics. In the arrangements, every note is in the right place. The guitar and keyboard riffs excellently accent the melodies.

And the lyrics: Just abstract enough to let the listener imagine their own meaning. And right in sync with the gloriously diverse sound.

Finally, Ric Ocasek's singing is so humourously dark, or so darkly humourous, one or the other. Listen to this album along with Beatitude and you'll gain a full appreciation of RO's genius.

And that cover, and those sharp photos on the back. Why couldn't they have done more work like this? Or maybe this album was meant to be a stunning exception to their generally pop-oriented career.

While this isn't my favorite Cars album, it is easily their riskiest and most under-rated. It was the The Car's new-wave masterpeice and after it's lackluster reception, it was all down hill artistically for the band. While subsequent releases did sell more copies (Shake It Up and the monster album Heartbeat City), the band seems to have lost a bit of it's edge and went total pop afterwards. All though it's hard to argue with top 10 hits, I'll take the songs like Panorama, Misfit Kid, or Touch and Go over Shake It Up, You Might Think or Tonight She Comes anyday.

This, the Cars' third album, is their most unaccessable and probably my favorite one- it's a departure from the first two hit-drenched offerings. The only 'hit' here is the dreamy 'Touch And Go': the rest is quite progressive. Panorama is dark and moody: the influence of Devo, Suicide, Kraftwerk and the Velvet Underground is evident, yet Panorama sounds nothing like these influences. Ocasek's darkness shimmers in both his lyrics and his ultracool vocal delivery and Greg Hawkes' makes good use of those oh-so-sci-fi synthos. He is one of the few keyboardists I know of who made full effect of cheesy toy synths(yes, he used some actual toy casio keyboards). Elliot easton's solos are all memorable here, and Benjamin Orr's voice is always pretty slick. Yeah, some of David Robinson's syndrums sound rather dated now, but at one point these robotic quirk-n-jerk rhythms were the future. Great late night listening, not the party album most of thier other albums can be. Not head music either. The title track is definately not your usual album opener and sets the mood for some of the rest. 'Gimme Some Slack' chuggs along with an almost Rolling Stones-ish rhythm guitar. The one romantic song in the abrasive bunch, 'You Wear Those Eyes', is a spacey, dreamy one with Ben Orr vocals that are just too cool for words. This could be an ode to some sort of space princess. A punkier, robotic 'Up & Down' is possibly the best thing on the album, while 'Misfit Kid' pulsates with alienated coolness. Makes you wanna wear your sunglasses at night. By the time of the Heartbeat City tour, the Cars were just playing Touch & Go from this album. It got lambasted in the press when it came out, too, making it one of those semi-forgotten moments in a band's history. An enjoyable album, one I always return to. An equivelent to this one would probably be Ric's own solo album 'Quick Change World' from 1993, which has a similar darkness.

"Panorama," the darkest and most stylistic album of The Cars, is clearly the most overlooked disc of America's finest power pop outfits. In the first few weeks after its release, it sold well, with "Touch and Go" garnering heavy airplay. But many listeners, I remember, didn't quite warm to its haunting songs. Still, I love it, even though it lacks many of the bouncy radio-friendly songs of the band's earlier releases. The songs are haunting and full of Ric's quirkiest of lyrics. And, despite its heavy synth feel, the album is laden with some of rock and roll's greatest guitar hooks. What's more, it clearly shows that the Cars were, again, ahead of their time. Listen to later U2 and you'll hear the influence of "Panorama," though Bono and the boys may not even be aware of it. I only wish rock's critics would give it its due.

Not sure why it is not listed as such but wanted to confirm that this $6.99 Elektra release of Panorama is HDCD Remastered and sounds fantastic. The Cars and Candy-O also received the same quality HDCD remaster and sound great as well. Unfortunately the Elektra $6.99 Shake It Up and Heartbeat City releases did not receive this remastering and the difference shows, especially on SIU.