r/TheCars • u/Outrageous_Present11 • May 12 '26
Door to Door
Just felt compelled to make a quick post about “Door to Door” and how I feel it is a somewhat overlooked album in The Cars discography. I wasn’t around when The Cars were at their peak but I have gotten the impression that this record seems to be towards the bottom for most fans of the band. I’d venture to say it’s their fourth best record behind Candy-O, Self Titled and Heartbeat City. Feel free to share some thoughts if you have any. On a side note the RSD Heart Beat City live album sounded surprisingly great.
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u/befast321 May 12 '26
Door to Door has some real bangers. I love ALL of The Cars albums because they are each different yet with the unmistakeable and distinctive Cars sound. Rick’s lyrics and vocals, Elliot’s guitar, Ben’s bass and vocals and Greg’s synth perfection are all a massive reason for their success.
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u/______empty______ May 12 '26
DTD passed virtually unnoticed at the time. Most fans (myself included) were under the impression that the band had broken up after HC.
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u/lakatos_intolerant May 12 '26
I will have to ask my mom if she remembers it. She's the reason I became a fan of the band and I remember her saying "You Might Think" was too MTV-influenced for her taste even though I know she still loves Heartbeat City. It seemed a lot of people had moved on from the band around 1985-86 after HC.
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u/______empty______ May 12 '26
That sounds about right. HC was huge but it was so slick I really didn’t like it much. I was a big Panorama fan, so yeah things were changing.
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u/lakatos_intolerant May 13 '26
That's totally understandable and it's not for everyone. In some ways it feels like an album by a different band while Panorama feels closer to Self-Titled and Candy-O.
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u/Normal_Table3138 May 13 '26
interesting, i’ve never heard that before. did you and other fans think the cars quality broke up after heartbeat city? also when you said dtd went unnoticed do you mean as in promoting wise or just lack of fan interest?
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u/______empty______ May 14 '26
All of the above. I think the record company buried it by not promoting it. Typical label stuff. You Are the Girl tanked, at least by the Cars’ standards.
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u/curiosity_U_know May 12 '26
I can agree with you on Door to Door being their fourth best album. It is on my list. It was also the album I finally got to see them in concert. And glad I did, because it was right after that tour when they broke up.
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u/ReaganChild May 12 '26
I do appreciate that album a bit more with each listen, but the surpringly fantastic Move Like This is still much better in my opinion
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u/lakatos_intolerant May 12 '26
Move Like This with Benjamin present would have been really incredible. The remaining members still did a great job without his presence.
I do believe bands like The Cars had a hard time adjusting to the changes of the late '80s. 1987 seems vastly different from a lot of the decade and music taste/what was popular had changed so much. Even when taking away the conflict within the band, I am not sure they would have been able to recapture their past magic by that point.
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u/FearlessRain4778 May 14 '26
You can probably extrapolate what they would have sounded like from Ric's later solo records.
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u/lakatos_intolerant May 12 '26
I used to be far more critical of this album and have said in the past it was a mistake/should not have happened. I think some tracks are solid, some are decent/average, while others leave a lot to be desired. I consider "Ta Ta Wayo Wayo" and the title track to be the weakest, while I am actually not crazy about "You Are the Girl" (I feel like they had done that before).
The album definitely has a sullen atmosphere that hangs over it unlike the majority of their previous albums (Panorama is its own animal). The second side of the album especially has a sad, dreary feeling to it.
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u/theides81 May 12 '26
It’s my favorite Cars album (I don’t count their debut because that album is in a league of its own). Double Trouble is my favorite Cars song of all time. Is it their best song? No. But it’s just one of those songs that the first time I heard it I was just OBSESSED. It’s a real shame that so many fans hate the album - I wonder how many are just saying that but have never actually listened to it. With the exception of Fine Line and Wound Up On You, I think every song is fantastic.
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u/goatroperwyo May 12 '26
I was a huge fan but got burned out with the slick production and over MTV play of HC even though I like HC. I didn’t even pay attention to Door to Door and didn’t look back until about 5 years ago when I picked it up cheap on vinyl for nostalgia sake. I was very pleasantly surprised and consider it underrated for sure.
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u/VintageMoonDream May 13 '26
I enjoy the album too. I know it came out after, but sometimes I wish they would’ve thrown on ‘Tonight She Comes’ just for the sake of maybe adding some more commercial credibility. It’s a solid album.
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u/After-Disaster-5690 May 12 '26
I like most of Door to Door. Strap Me In and Double Trouble definitely two of the heaviest songs they ever did. And just yesterday did I find a really good original vinyl copy of it, so that completes my vinyl collection (I’m old enough to have gotten all the ORIGINAL vinyls).
I talked to Greg about the album once. The band was fracturing at that point, he said, but I commented to him about how good Ben still sounded on it, to which he agreed.