Review:

on 2012-03-13 CharlesMartel Said:

If Tubeway Army's "Are Friends Electric?" introduced synth pop to the world, then "Cars" was what established it as a genre to stay around for a while. And the creative force behind both of those tracks was the same guy, Gary Webb aka Valerian aka Gary Numan.

"Cars" was in many ways the perfect pop song. Synthesisers replaced guitars as the principal instruments, but there were still the catchy hooks and the memorable lyrics found in any good pop song. Numan's style also caught the mood, a somewhat wooden stance seemingly like a robot with a deathly pale face, red lips and black hair. (Though as he would later admit, his debut appearance on "Top of the Pops" made him so nervous that his wooden stance was the consequence, while heavy make up was applied to cover up his acne).

For 1979 this was ground breaking. It still sounds good today, and listening to the truly wooden synth pop of some modern copyists, they could all learn a lot from Gary Numan.
Rating: 8/10