2000 Great Songs #1199: Moving In Stereo

January 04, 2026

2000 Great Songs #1199: Moving In Stereo

There's no denying The Cars' 1978 eponymous album is one of the all-time great debuts, a damn-near-perfect merging of power pop and nascent new wave, all polished to a fine enough sheen to make both genres safe for American audiences. But it's also an album I almost never listen to, nearly every track rendered rather dull from complete oversaturation during my youth.

But I still find the deep cut "Moving In Stereo" pretty cool. The slower, more psychedelic track got much less radio play that the record's fistful of singles, giving it a bit of novelty--at least until Fast Times at Ridgemont High came out four years later. The song's connection to that unforgettable Phoebe Cates scene, one of the most enduringly perfect needle drops ever, has made it all but impossible to hear without flashing back to the film. (This was then recreated for a new generation when the song was deployed in season three of Stranger Things.)

But if I can just get past all that baggage... it's still a pretty cool song. I like the ones Ben Orr sings, his croon a little smoother than Ric Ocasek's nerdy tone. And it's got a trippy, headphone-friendly ambience a little better suited to late nights vegging out on the couch than the balance of the album's more upbeat driving-around-with-the-windows-down vibe.