Expanded Versions of The Cars - Candy-O, Panorama, Shake It Up, Heartbeat City albums Coming 28 July

They are available on CD on the 1995 Anthology.

 

I thought they wouldn't appeal to me either. Can't stand cd's padded with demo after dull demo.
But these, I promise you, they don't sound like typical demos. Listening to the S/T "demo" version, track by track as on the album, was a lot of fun. And because I've heard the finished album more times than most people would care to know, this demo version - despite the mastering - is now my preferred version. I wasn't surprised to read that some of the demo tracks here got "considerable" airplay for a year and Just What I Needed demo became a "top request item" before the album came out.

(The Cars, Rhino 2 disc set. Album mastering by Inglot/Hersch on 1st cd is appalling.)

 

I think side two of Panorama is as good as side 2 of The Cars. They both have a nice flow and all the songs are really good.

 

For a long time, the Panorama HDCD was extremely difficult to come by. So, at least this makes something available for those who couldn't pick it up before.

 

Sort of on topic, but how did the colored vinyl box remasters sound? I could only find reviews for the CD release.

 

I'm very happy to see new Cars material surfacing after all this time. I am surprised that the monitor mixes of Candy-O weren't included because they're pretty cool. Reeeeeallly looking forward to a Shake It Up release. How about revisiting that debut Ocasek album too? Solid album with some excellent 12" mixes by Francois Kevorkian.

And, of course I'd love to hear the alleged surround mix of the first album... anyone know who did the mix on that one?

 

Glad to see we at least get another chance at improved mastering for Panorama, since audiophile labels have handled a mix of CDs/SACDs/vinyl of the others in the core catalog.

 

I guess now would be a good time to sell mine. I recently found a non-remastered version which I am happy with.

 

Panorama is my favorite. I have loved it since it's release.

 

Far from it, I'll bet. There must be a reason it's coming back on the market. I first had it on cassette when it was released, playing it through my Sparkomatic under-dash player. Fun times. I don't remember ever thinking it was anything less than the band's third album of excellent music. I've never heard of a monitor mix before. Are these mixes what The Cars' singers heard during the recording of the tracks, or are they new?

 

You're so right, I just re-pre-ordered! I'm not sure where or what the monitor mixes are culled from.

 

You can still buy the Original Album Series box set of the first five albums here in Oz for AUD $20.00 (~ USD $15.00)

If you read the blurb above for They Won't See You it wouldn't surprise me if this is the same source as for the forthcoming release on Candy-O. I found the monitor mixes for the Candy-O album on the web many years ago and the entire album plus That's It and Slip Away were there. They're still up on YouTube when I looked a minute ago.

I really fail to see how adding a few tracks to the end of the regular album makes it deluxe. I love The Cars and am interested in these but the lack of bonus content is rather annoying. At least pad the disc out to a near full 74-80 minutes with bonus content. As they are, this is just a lazy money grab. A bit like WB's "Deluxe" reissue of Devo's Freedom of Choice that simply tacked on the Dev-O Live EP after the album and omitted other tracks from the album sessions. If only Rhino had continued releasing the two disc deluxe sets with the album on one disc and a second disc of bonus content.

And the recording industry wonders why sales are going backwards at a rate of knots.

 

shocked heartbeat city hasn't had a deluxe release

 

Panorama is my favorite album. Very excited to hear the bonus stuff!

 

I can't complain that they didn't just include bonus content in the discs in the recent CD box, because it was so cheap (I think I paid $18, or $3 per as album). But the really disappointing thing here is that there is still no really good sounding version of Panorama readily available on CD. I really wish this release was a new mastering with more dynamic range. This one is not terrible, but also definitely not great.

 

I think the original cd from the 80's sounded fine myself?

 

They could just be going in order of original release (the 2-CD deluxe of the debut came out some years ago).

 

You may not like it, but to call it appalling is wrong. The sound on this CD is definitely not "appalling".

 

I'll be happy with MOFI SACD's of Candy-O, Panorama and Shake It Up if and when they ever come out (pssst... hey MOFI... 1-step 45s of the first two Cars albums, please.)

 

I don't know my Cars catalog well-enough... have these 3 songs ever appeared anywhere else (e.g., a future LP after Panorama), or is this the first outing for all 3?

 

The Rhino box remasters sound great in my car, so I don't know if a few bonus tracks are going to be worth it for me, though I will definitely sample them when they become available.

 

I have all the mofi albums. My original LP of Candy-O sounds better than mofi. I found a sterling pressed panorama that is as good as I could expect it to be. Sounds phenomenal. The mofi the cars, heartbeat city and shake it up are better than the original LPs

 

I was appalled. Therefore it's right for me to call it appalling.
Turn it up loud, and maybe you'll hear what I heard.
Brittle, harsh glare.

 

That demo of "Bye Bye Love" is killer!!!!

 

The demos on the S/T deluxe set are all crazy good! I'm usually not a huge fan of demos but these are all killer. I'm hopeful the demos on Candy-O and Panorama will be similar, even though there are only a handful of them.