300 Favorite Albums with James Campion
Oct 14, 2026 · 2 hr 19 min · 27 segments
In Episode 116 of *300 Favorite Albums*, host James Campion is joined by acclaimed music journalist and author Steven Hyden (*There Was Nothing You Could Do*, *Twilight of the Gods*) to dissect one of…
Steven HydenGuestJames CampionHostneeded, just what I needed.
I needed someone to feed me.
A sonic masterpiece of bridging mid-70s rock, new wave panache, and prescient 80s foreshadowing from a formidable unit.
Nothing sounds like this before and rarely after, including the rest of the car's canon.
The bass-drums combo is chest-thumping revelation, and the guitars are compressed into hermetically sealed goodness.
There are outstanding and in some cases significant debut records by seminal bands in the history of rock and roll.
And then there are the rare ones, in which the band not only introduces itself as a distinctly unique unit, but provides a soundtrack for an entire career.
This is what the Cars pulled off when Elektra Records released their self-titled opening salvo on June 6, 1978.
At the height of disco and the popularity of punk, a new, and it would turn out, trailblazing genre of rock called New Wave announced itself with key debut albums by Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, both on this list and already covered in previous episodes.
Right in the middle of this comes the cars, but with a nod to classic 1950s rock and roll and Americana.
The very name of the band reflected this, specifically its cover, with a beautiful ruby-lipped woman smiling behind the wheel of a vintage model automobile.
produced by longtime collaborator Roy Thomas Baker, an Englishman who'd made his name working with the likes of the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who, Nazareth, Santana, The Mothers of Invention, Free, Journey, and T-Rex.
The Cars sound was fresh, bright, crunchy, yet slick with a slice of emo and a tinge of sexual perversity.
needed, just what I needed.
I needed someone to feed me.
A sonic masterpiece of bridging mid-70s rock, new wave panache, and prescient 80s foreshadowing from a formidable unit.
Nothing sounds like this before and rarely after, including the rest of the car's canon.
The bass-drums combo is chest-thumping revelation, and the guitars are compressed into hermetically sealed goodness.
There are outstanding and in some cases significant debut records by seminal bands in the history of rock and roll.
And then there are the rare ones, in which the band not only introduces itself as a distinctly unique unit, but provides a soundtrack for an entire career.
This is what the Cars pulled off when Elektra Records released their self-titled opening salvo on June 6, 1978.
At the height of disco and the popularity of punk, a new, and it would turn out, trailblazing genre of rock called New Wave announced itself with key debut albums by Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, both on this list and already covered in previous episodes.
Right in the middle of this comes the cars, but with a nod to classic 1950s rock and roll and Americana.
The very name of the band reflected this, specifically its cover, with a beautiful ruby-lipped woman smiling behind the wheel of a vintage model automobile.
produced by longtime collaborator Roy Thomas Baker, an Englishman who'd made his name working with the likes of the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who, Nazareth, Santana, The Mothers of Invention, Free, Journey, and T-Rex.
The Cars sound was fresh, bright, crunchy, yet slick with a slice of emo and a tinge of sexual perversity.
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