AMG Review of Complete Greatest Hits

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

When the Cars released their first greatest-hits album in 1985, it was capping a golden run that culminated in 1984's Heartbeat City, their biggest hit yet. They lasted one more album, 1987's abysmal Door to Door. So, technically, there isn't that much new territory covered by Complete Greatest Hits, especially since there's only one song -- the only good one, "You Are the Girl" -- from Door to Door, but it's nevertheless a substantial improvement over that initial hits collection, while being easier to digest for most listeners than the exhaustive 1995 anthology Just What I Needed. Essentially, the title explains it all, since it has all of the hits, which also means many are AOR staples. This approach means that nearly all of their debut and half of Heartbeat City is on this disc, but it also means that there's essentially nothing missing (apart from perhaps "Candy-O") that casual fans would want. Also, this approach confirms that the Cars were a sexy, stylish new wave singles band on the order of Blondie -- sure, they had one classic album in their canon (the debut), along with some very good follow-ups, but they made the most sense song by song on the radio, even years after their prime. To hear why, this is the disc to get.