The Cars burst onto the scene in 1978 with their self-titled debut album, “The Cars.” This album is truly amazing, the band could have broken up or retired after their release of this album and it would still be a candidate for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

I am straying away from my “Top 10” format for this album because I truly believe that this album is pretty dang close to perfect.

The album casually begins with one of the most well-known songs of the classic rock era, “Good Times Roll” and doesn’t relent with back-to-back classics until the ninth and final song.

My favorite song is “Bye Bye Love,” which combines every aspect I want in this genre. The Cars embody the new wave genre incredibly well, and “Bye Bye Love” is full of synthesizer riffs that almost sound “space-agey” and fit the song so well.

“My Best Friend’s Girl” is probably the best-known song from this album and is the second “most popular” song on the album according to Amazon Music. This track tells the story of somebody whose ex-girlfriend is now dating his best friend (as is kind of implied by the title of the song). To me, this song seems to be slightly inspired by 1960s-era pop songs.

Probably the least-known song on the album is “I’m In Touch With Your World,” this song is honestly pretty weird, but it is still really good. Although, I can’t put my finger on the exact reason why the tempo and beat of this tune seem off. The vocals are also sung in a manner that is slightly jarring, although it is again hard to explain exactly why.

The song that is the “most popular” according to Amazon Music metrics is “Just What I Needed.” This is widely known across the music community as one of the staples of class rock. I think “Just What I Needed” is one of the definite highlights of the new wave era of music. Between dizzying synth noises to a pretty solid guitar solo, this song is infinitely repeatable.

From top to bottom, “The Cars” delivered some of the best music of its time, the band continued to make great music, but none of the songs really stand out to me in the way that this album does (except for “Drive,” which is one of the best songs of all time without a doubt in my mind).

As a whole, this album delivers some of the best that music has had to offer over the past 50 years of songs that we have easy access to. I think “The Cars” as a band deserve more recognition than they get; while they aren’t the flashiest or most high-flying band out there, they deliver really fun songs.