Customer Reviews

Shake It Up

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once you get past the first two songs, i.e. "the hits", this becomes one very musically intriguing CD. The real reason, however, to buy this album is the song "A Dream Away". This one song is unlike anything else in the Cars' catalog either before or after it and arguably the best "non-hit" they ever recorded (a worthy runner-up might be "You Wear Those Eyes" from "Panorama"). I might be the only one who thinks so but I have my reasons. Beat poetry meets techno, "A Dream Away" should have spawned an equally trippy video though to my knowledge it never did. It also should have been included on the Cars' Anthology album but you can get it here. "Think It Over"'s pretty cool too.

A little more light-hearted this time around, a year after the darker textures of Panorama. Shake It Up is a wonderful album that's sometimes forgotten, stuck between their "commercial disappointment album" and their "commercial smash album". It all starts out with one of the band's most memorable tunes, 'Since You're Gone', with Ric Ocasek's charming rhymes and Elliot Easton's faux E-Bow solo. A true classic. The title track is also a true classic, featuring a neo-doo-wop groove that remains the Cars' most danceable tune. 'I'm Not The One' is a simply incredible ballad, one of their best. It wasn't released as a single until 1986, as a remixed version from the Greatest Hits album. The original is better, with yet another wonderful synth solo by the band's secret weapon, Greg Hawkes. It sounds downright gothic. 'Victim Of Love' is a more light-hearted ditty. I love Hawkes' giddy synth touches on this one. 'Cruiser' is an awesome rocker, a perfect cruising song, naturally. I haven't owned this album for very long, and 'Cruiser' has already become one of my favorite Cars songs, along with the next song, 'A Dream Away'. This song is astounding; a great mood created by a driving synth line and synthesized drums, coupled with Ric's moody voice and lyrics. Probably my favorite song on the album. 'This Could Be Love' is another moody ballad, and a great one at that. Could've made a good single, too. 'Think It Over' has a bit different sound for the Cars. Despite the synths, it feels a little more rockabilly than usual. Ben Orr's vocal, as usual, make this song jump from good to great. "Everytime you run around, it makes me wanna pop". Also would've made a great single. 'Maybe Baby' is a driving Ric Ocasek rocker with some pretty slick percussion. And that's the end of this short but sweet Cars album, their one and only album cut at their own custom studio, Syncro Sound in Boston. I wonder whatever happened to that place? Anyway, Shake It Up remains one of the Cars' more light, enjoyable albums and I never tire of it.

I appreciate the content-based reviews, but some of us are long-time Cars fans who made their minds up about the songs many years ago. The question is, is this compact-disc everything it could be in terms of SOUND REPRODUCTION?

Regrettably not. The Cars albums were initially "dumped" to CD back in the early 90s, and it took a long time for the first three albums to be decently re-mastered. (Sadly, ART and LYRIC reproduction still has not been handled properly! Each new CD version looks exactly like the older, worse version!) As far as I can tell, Shake It Up and Heartbeat City have never been properly transferred. In other words -- they sound terrible.

Seems the problem is, Elektra's out of business. Certaintly, it's not a question of The Cars being able to sell records, since they ALWAYS DID, FROM DAY ONE. It's just not fair.

Somebody, please, obtain the rights and do The Cars right! Don't these pioneers of 80s sound quality deserve modern reproduction?

"Shake it Up" is the perfect follow-up to "Panorama" and a nice prelude to "Heartbeat City". In a way the album is a mixture of the 2 album styles ("Since You're Gone"/"Shake It Up"/"Victim of Love"/"Think it Over" sounding like they fell off the "Heartbeat City" album and the rest sounding like they could be leftovers from "Panorama").

A very diverse album all the way with Ocasek's lyrics and Hawkes' keyboards ruling the scene. Ocasek's lyrics have never been better than they are in this album ("chicken encounters fill your bowels" and "is this the kill? is this the thrill? this could be love" among many other poetic pieces).

My favorites on the album are "Cruiser" and "Think it Over". Both songs are negative (ala "Panorama") in their approach, but say so much about Ocasek.

This album is the advanced, techno, new-wave Cars that is so much their trademark - and the essential (but not their best) Cars' album in my book

This album, though overshadowed by the debut album, has a number of great titles that never made the fm airways. Songs like "Think it over", and "Victim of love" are still ranked among my all time favorite 80's recordings. Overall, this is a wonderfull work worth hearing time and again.

While this CD will never be classified as one of The Cars best, it has enough to make it a disc that I reach for when driving with the top down. The music brings back memories of a simpler time and after a couple of tracks I find my stress level subsiding. Maybe I am just getting older but I thought when it first came out Shake It Up had a brighter sound. This version the music seemed a little more muted. Overall though it has found a place in my CD rotation.

Wanted to confirm that this $6.99 Elektra release of Shake It Up is *NOT* HDCD Remastered like The Cars, Panorama and Candy-O releases were, and it really shows. This budget release sounds dank and uninvolving, to say the least. While Heartbeat City was also not remastered, it sounds a bit better than SIU. I see that there is an OMR (original master recording) version available for $26.99 but who wants to pay that kind of money when the other remastered titles are so low priced. I guess I'll keep spinnin' my vinyl on this title for now...

The first four Cars albums, all produced by Roy Thomas Baker and released in the space of four years, are a really solid body of work. Each one is not quite as good as the one that came before it, but this was a great band, so even this fourth one, "Shake It Up," is still a four-star album in my book. It's probably not the one to start with, but if you own a couple others and you're still curious about the Cars, give it a try.

"Shake It Up" is more commercial than the previous album, "Panorama," but at the same time, it has a warmer, more intimate sound, more along the lines of "Candy-O." The biggest difference is that "Shake It Up" is not as guitar-oriented as any previous Cars album (nor any of the later ones, for that matter). After delivering great solos on the first two songs, Elliot Easton only gets one more solo, on "Victim of Love," though he does play some really nice, raunchy fills at the end of "Cruiser." There is not a single solo on the entire second half of the album, as the keyboards carry the melodies and the guitar is relegated to a complementary role.

Still, this album sticks in my mind just as much as the first three. Ric Ocasek was still wrting good tunes, and even the weaker material toward the end is so cleverly arranged that it jumps right out of the speakers and into your head. "Think It Over" and "Maybe Baby" would've been dumb songs in the hands of lesser musicians, but the Cars make them come alive. "Maybe Baby" is the only song where David Robinson has a chance to cut loose on drums, and he attacks them with all the ferocity of a guy who has spent the entire album up till then playing with a drum machine.

There are two first-rate keyboard-driven slow songs on this album, "I'm Not the One" and "A Dream Away." "Since You're Gone" is one of the funniest, most fatalistic songs Ocasek ever wrote, and "Cruiser" is a great crunching rocker in the tradition of "Candy-0." Some people hate the title song, but I've always loved it.

Yes, the Cars were less of a "rock" band here, but being a "rock" band was never the point anyway. They always walked both sides of the line between rock and new wave. They just chose to be more of a new wave band with this album. And it worked out just fine, as far as I'm concerned.

*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE "MFSL" 2010 AUDIOPHILE CD REISSUE ***

By the time "Shake It Up" appeared in November 1981, THE CARS had produced a stunning self-titled debut album in 1978 but followed it with two albums "Candy-O" (1979) and "Panorama" (1980) which left some fans feeling cold and cheated. "Shake It Up" restored some of that original faith (it peaked at Number 9 in the USA). I bought it on holiday in New York at the time and have played the thing to buggery ever since.

Which brings us to this expensive and exclusive MFSL Original Master Recording issue. Released late January 2010 in the USA on Mobile Fidelity UDCD 788 (40:53 minutes) - it features mini-LP repro artwork (a hard-card gatefold sleeve) and is a limited numbered edition (numbered in gold lettering on the rear). It's been mastered from the 1st generation mastertapes by ROB LoVERDE at Mobile Fidelity's Sound Labs in Sebastopol in California using their patented GAIN 2 SYSTEM. The disc is a GOLD ULTRADISC II CD - itself housed in a gauze inner sleeve for protection. This is then cleverly wrapped in a black and gold gatefold card-protector (the wording on both sides explain MFSL's remastering process and the company's 30-year history in Audiophile Pressings). Beside that is an 8-page booklet - which essentially mimics the inner lyric bag of the original Elektra Records LP.

Cars fans will know that only 4 of its 9 tracks have been remastered before - "Shake It Up", "Since You're Gone", "I'm Not The One" and "Cruiser" on the 1995 "Just What I Needed" 2CD Anthology. The 5CD mini box set issued by Rhino in 2010 didn't carry a remaster either - this is first time the entire album has been given a sonic overhaul and it sounds fantastic.

I have a real problem (like many other listeners) with Eighties over-production - but this MFSL remaster sweeps all that aside - it's clean, warm and beautifully subtle in its quiet power. My favourite track has always been "A Dream Away" (lyrics above) which had a slight mastering glitch at the beginning - it's been fixed by MFSL - and the song's sweeping 'liquid' feel is at last given the muscular reproduction its always deserved. The punch out of "I'm Not The One" is fabulous - when the guitar slides in about 25 seconds in - it's so clear. Some tracks are weak ("Cruiser" and "Maybe Baby" are hardly great), but there are others on here that I can't live without like the frantic "Think It Over" and the Side 1 opener "Since You're Gone" (neither have ever sounded this good). I've been disappointed by Audiophile issues before, but this is a superb remaster.

Niggles - some have moaned that the card repro is gimmicky and won't stand the test of time with regard to wear and tear (once out of the shrinkwrap, there's no outer plastic sleeve to protect it like Japanese repros have). They argue that MFSL should only use jewel cases with lift-locks to keep these expensive CDs properly protected. It's a good point and one well worth making. Personally I like the repro artwork, but I think Mobile Fidelity must address this issue; they should make some kind of MFSL outer plastic sleeve for protection that could act as a generic outer-wrapper for old and future issues. Outside of that minor minus, I've loved rehearing this album in such sonic clarity...

"Shake It Up" is never going to be mentioned as a 'masterpiece' in any league table anywhere - but like "Heartbeat City" - I've always loved it - and I've always had a soft spot for THE CARS and their layered slices of pop brilliance. If you love this album (originally produced by Roy Thomas Baker of Queen and Smashing Pumpkins fame), then expensive or not - you need to own this stunning Limited Edition of it.

Wholeheartedly recommended.

This album is often referred to as The Cars weakest, but I disagree. I think that it gets that title today because music in general has become much "darker" than it was in the 80's, and therefore, this album gets a bad rap because it's very bright, bubbly and the most "dated", due to the heavy use of synth. If you don't try to compare the albums and just listen to this without preconceived notions, I think you will find it to be a really good album. "Cruiser" alone is worth the price of admission. What a great song!!! You also have "This Could Be Love" which utilizes Ben's deep brooding vocals (adds great atmosphere to the song). "Maybe Baby" is the song that sounds the most like previous efforts. It has heavier guitar and drums with less synth. It could have been on Candy-O or the debut. "Since You're Gone" is one of the Cars best songe ever. People like to downplay "Shake It Up", but I think it's because the song is so upbeat and "dancey". It is one of the least "dark" Cars songs. I love it!! I personally don't care for "Think It Over" too much. It is actually TOO bubble-gummy, repetitive and juvenille sounding to me.
My Top 5 Cars albums (in order):
1. Candy-O
2. Cars
3. Shake It Up
4. Heartbeat City
5. Panorama