It’s Dad Rock Tuesday once again, and I have quite a post for you today. Guess what? A dated late-’70s record has once again underwhelmed me. This blog has never been about objectively judging music—the fact that I write every post in the first person attests to that. This is all about my opinions, which, I’ll admit, is a bit self-indulgent. They’re what I know best, though.
Anyway. The Cars further cement my “meh” opinion of the genre of new wave. This popular late ’80s surge in mediocrity still doesn’t work for me.
The group vocals are obnoxious, the synths are overpowering, and while a few of the songs could easily be considered catchy, they’re all fairly hollow and devoid of any substance whatsoever.
Who knows what I’d have thought of this record if I had grown up in the ’70s, though? I imagine that this would have been a very welcome break from disco or whatever. There’s very little mutual respect between differing generations and their respective music, and while I do consider myself fairly accepting of a lot of older stuff, I just can’t do it sometimes. This record has that completely stereotypical ’80s sound to it, one that my ears have been trained to despise. Maybe that right there is what I’m basing my opinion of this album on, which, I’ll admit, isn’t very fair. There’s not too much that I can do about it, though. As a very wise man once said, “haters gon hate.”
Swole Ear 