Move Like This

Move Like This is the seventh and final album by American rock band The Cars, released on May 10, 2011 by Concord Music Group. The album featured all of the original band members except for bassist and vocalist Benjamin Orr, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2000.

The first single from the album, "Sad Song", was released in mid-March. Other songs in the album include "Blue Tip" and "Free". FMQB described "Free" as a "return to the classic Cars sound that fans know and love."

According to Billboard magazine, the album was recorded in engineer Paul Orofino's home studio in Millbrook, New York. The Cars did not add a new bassist to the line-up to replace Orr; instead, keyboardist Greg Hawkes programmed or performed all of the bass parts on the album.

Move Like This makes the first Cars reunion to feature vocalist Ric Ocasek since their 1988 split. In 1997, Ocasek was quoted as saying the band would "never" reunite. A partial reunion of the band occurred in 2005 when Hawkes and lead guitarist Elliot Easton toured with singer Todd Rundgren as "The New Cars"; neither Ocasek nor Cars drummer David Robinson participated, and Rundgren's line-up broke up after two years of touring.

This was the last appearance by Ric Ocasek before his death on 15 September 2019. 
 North American tour 
In April 2011, the band announced a North American tour to promote the album. The eleven-city tour kicked off May 10 in Seattle and wrapped up May 26 at the House of Blues in Boston. The performances and track listings received mixed reviews: Hollywood Reporter reviewer Erik Pedersen found Move Like This to be a "surprisingly good" album but described the May 12 Hollywood Palladium show as "icy" and unenthusiastic. San Jose Mercury News reviewer Jim Harrington described the band's performance at Oakland's Fox Theater as "incredibly flat and dispassionate", but praised the band's "solid" musicianship.

Songs performed on the tour include the Move Like This tracks "Blue Tip", "Keep on Knocking", "Sad Song", "Free", "Drag on Forever" and "Hits Me", as well as material from the band '70s and '80s albums. On tour, Orr's bass parts were performed by Hawkes on keyboard and bass; the vocals on songs originally sung by Orr ("Just What I Needed", "Let's Go" and "Moving in Stereo") were performed by Ocasek.
 Track listing 

Best Buy edition

This enhanced CD also has videos for "Sad Song" and "Blue Tip". "Rocket USA" is a cover of a 1977 song by the American band Suicide, from their self-titled debut.
iTunes edition

Category:2011 albums
Category:The Cars albums