The Cars

After releasing two albums, one a perfect pop/rock-meets-new wave classic, the other a very good follow-up, the Cars were game to try things a little differently on their third album Panorama. With longtime collaborator Roy Thomas Baker behind the boards, the band decamped to the Power Station in New York City and began working on a set of songs that were a little less poppy, both structurally and sonically…

If rock's most successful and memorable acts have usually succeeded by wrapping their own distillation of music history and personal tastes in whatever fashionable trappings are currently gripping the culture, it's hardly surprising that the Cars remain one of the most enduring symbols of the punk/new wave era. This 20-track anthology distills that argument perfectly. Ric Ocasek's songs embody a solid '60s sense of pop craftsmanship informed by a trend-conscious stylistic sheen and a cynical, slippery emotional detachment that's often betrayed by his own distinctly weary brand of romanticism, from the anxious pop of "Just What I Needed" and "You're All I've Got Tonight" to the melancholy-on-ice musings of "Drive" and "Tonight She Comes." Sixteen of the 20 cuts here were chart singles, and radio staples like "Bye Bye Love" and "Dangerous Type" might as well have been. ~ Jerry McCulley

A classic album by a group that helped rock music find its new direction. The Cars, Heartbeat City, was released in 1984 and immediately shot up the charts to Number 3. The album produced several songs instantly recognizable as classics that will forever be among the greatest pop songs ever recorded. Heavy beats. Cool lyrics. Lots of keyboards. This album represents 80's music at its peak, and was a forerunner of New Wave becoming pop and pop becoming New Wave.