817. The Cars--Panorama (1980; #5) (0)

817. The Cars--Panorama (1980; #5) (0)

1. Panorama (?) (2)
2. Touch and Go (9)
3. Gimme Some Slack (4)
4. Don't Tell Me No (3)
5. Getting Through (2)
6. Misfit Kid (?) (3)
7. Down Boys (?) (2)
8. You Wear Those Eyes (?) (3)
9. Running to You (?) (2+)
10. Up and Down (?) (3)

REVIEW: This (and others) exposes a flaw in my rating system. For Ed, the flaw that he's finding is on the high end, in that he assigns a lot of 10s, and there's no higher rating available for the ones that he expects to be the classics we'll see later on. For me, the flaw is more at the lower end--I just got through thoroughly trashing "All Eyez on Me" and gave it a 1; and now this album, which is IMO much better and much more tolerable, gets a 0. Why? Because I know more songs from the Cars album, some of which I dislike and they get points deducted, whereas from the 2Pac album I don't know any other songs than California Love, which gets a point. Anyway, this is probably my least favorite Cars album, with only one song I like, Touch and Go, which is one my favorites from them. Overall, though, a 0.

ED'S TAKE:

817. The Cars--Panorama (19800

1. Panorama (8)
2. Touch and Go (10)
3. Gimme Some Slack (8)
4. Don't Tell Me No (8)
5. Getting Through (9)
6. Misfit Kid (9)
7. Down Boys (8)
8. You Wear Those Eyes (8)
9. Running to You (9)
10. Up and Down (8)

OVERALL RATING: 8

DISCUSSION: I really like the cars, especially their first album. Whatever you call the style, I;ve mentioned I truly like the kind of vocalizing that came out around then. I've mentioned, besides Ric, people like David Byrne (Talking Heads) and Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music) who had it too. Even the less stellar songs here are saved to my "listenable without reservation" because of Ric's vocal stylings and, sometimes, the quirky beats. And, like you, I REALLY like "Touch and Go".

And, while I DO sometimes worry that I'm being too generous with my song evaluations while leads to inflated album evaluations, I'm NOT concerned about "10's now vs. later. I went into this thing assuming that I'd be just as likely finding "10",s in the end of the list as in the beginning. I've often mentioned (ok, twice) that with my favorite rock lists put out by www.fastnbulbous.com, I'm often as taken by their #250 of a given year as I am their #12. I'm used to that. Remember, I gave Animal Collective 10's.