Café Racers

Artist: Kim Carnes
Label: One Way Records Inc
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 724353468026
EAN: 0724353468026
ASIN: B00005NNP9

Release Date: 2001-10-09

Café Racers

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Soft Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Adult Contemporary | Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

You Make My Heart Beat Faster
Young Love
Met You at the Wrong Time in My Life
Hurricane
Universal Song
Invisible Hands
I Pretend
Hangin' on by a Thread (A Sad Affair of the Heart)
Kick in the Heart
I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is
You Make My Heart Beat Faster [Extended Version][*]
Hurricane [Extended Vocal Version][*]
Invitation to Dance [Vocal Dance Mix][*][Version]

Similar Items:

Voyeur
Mistaken Identity Collection
Barking at Airplanes
Chasin' Wild Trains
View from the House

Album Description

One Way reissue Cafe Racers plus 3 bonus tracks, extended versions of 'You Make My Heart Beat Faster' & 'Hurricane' and the vocal dance mix of 'Invitation To Dance'.

Customer Reviews:

Don't listen to what others say, this album is great.......2006-08-21

Slick production leads to Kim's most 80s-ish album. Don't let that scare you--"You Make My Heart Beat Faster" is full of heat and passion, and "Universal Song" is an emotional, intelligent anthem. Single "Invisible Hands" has one of the most crazy 80s bass lines I can think of! Produced by Keith Olsen (who did some work on Stevie Nicks "Rock A Little")--this is more lighthearted than some of Kim's other album. I hear some people knock this record. Tell 'em to shut up. The songs are great and the 80s still rock.

Flashdance ballad - Grammy winner!.......2005-03-22

Album originally released with 10 tracks. This Cd includes 3 bonus track, including "Invitation To Dance" (from "That's Dancin'!" soundtrack).

Lyric sheet / booklet is no enclosed.

4 tracks charted on Billboard Magazine:
- "Invisible Hands" (Pop Singles #40, The Billboard Hot 100 #40 - 1983, The Billboard Hot 100 #97 - 1984);
- "You Make My Heart Beat Faster (And That's All That Matters)" (
Hot Dance Music/Club Play #15, The Billboard Hot 100 #54);
- "I Pretend" (The Billboard Hot 100 #74 - 1984, Adult Contemporary #9);
- "Hurricane" (Hot Dance Music/Club Play #16).

Phil Ramone producer invited Kim to write and perform a ballad for a movie in the making titled "Flashdance." She co-wrote with Duane Hitchings and Craig Krampf "I'll Be Here Where The Heart Is." They ended up winnin' a Grammy for this song in 1984.

February 1984 - Kim Carnes was nominated for a Best Pop Rock Performance (female) Grammy Awards , for "Invisible Hands."

Kim Carnes strongest album ever.......2005-02-24

The liner notes for this album and several other reviews posted on-line seem to think that this album was a desperate attempt by EMI to churn out another "Bette Davis Eyes" size hit for Kim. I totally disagree. While I am certain the record company was hoping for another success, I do not think Kim was "pushed" into whatever style of music was hot at the moment. Rather, I feel this album is a continuation of the moody/eerie synth-pop new wave style of the previous 2 Kim Carnes albums.

People think because Kim's first big hit was a duet with Kenny Rogers that she was a country artist gone new wave. How completely wrong. Re-listen to "Bette Davis Eyes" and re-watch the video. The song may have been a huge pop hit, but it was a precursor to many of the new wave bands and videos to come in the decade. The follow up single "Draw of the Cards" and the title song to that album, "Mistaken Identity", are further proof of Kim moving in this dark, new-wave direction. The follow up album, "Voyeur", was also in the same vein with the title song and "Does it Make You Remember". That album and "Cafe Racers" did not suffer because of content, rather they suffered for the same reason that many other artists of the mid-80's suffered. Kim's videos were not played on MTV as she was not deemed cool enough for the network. Other older female artists of the era suffered the same fate such as Olivia Newton-John, Juice Newton, etc. These artists had been huge in the 80-82 era, but were blown off the charts by 83 with MTV and it's penchant for British New Wave and Heavy Metal.

"Cafe Racers" includes some of Kim's best synth pop tunes including "Invisible Hands", "You Make my Heart Beat Faster" and "I Pretend". All were hits in my book, even if not on the charts. The inclusion of "Invitation to Dance" on this CD is greatly appreciated as I have been searching for that song for many years.

Kim furthered her foray into the eerie new wave genre with her next album, "Barking at Airplanes" and her last sizable chart hit , "Crazy in the Night" (#15). Say what you will, but Kim Carnes crafted some of the best new-wave synth pop songs of the decade and deserved much more success.

Before And After review.......2003-12-22

Kim Carnes released Cafe Racers in October 1983

BEFORE:
Kim Carnes had lost some of her Bette Davis Eyes steam with the Voyeur album, but EMI still knew they had a talent on their hands. She'd recently recorded a track from the Flashdance soundtrack (I'll Be Here Where The Heart Is, included on here)

AFTER:
Cafe Racers registered with a thud on the pop charts, peaking at a dismal #98 on the album charts. Of the 4 singles taken off the album, only one track even scraped the bottom of the top 40 (Invisible Hands).

Although Cafe Racers was a total flop, the album has become a cult classic. Before the album was reissued in 2001, copies of this cd were selling for over $100 on ebay!

Kim abandons the style from the last 2 albums and moves into the mid-1980's with style. The album is filled with great pop/new wave numbers. EMI pushed and pushed the album, but consumers didn't want it. I think time has been kind to this album, 20 years on, it is very much a product of 1983/1984. But it evokes everything good about the music back then. EMI-America released no less than 4 singles from this album (Invisible Hands, You Make My Heart Beat Faster, I Pretend, Hurricane). None of them made a significant impact on the charts, and none of them made Kim's Gypsy Honeymoon compilation which she personally selected. However, they are all great pop numbers representative of the moment. Invisible Hands is an instant pop classic along the lines of Bette Davis Eyes and it's a shame it only got to #40 because I think the song would've been a smash with the right promotion.

Cafe Racers was the verification that Kim Carnes was never going to duplicate the success of Bette Davis Eyes/Mistaken Identity, but however, people who weren't hellbent caught up on that song knew she had plenty of other great songs. Try it out, it's a real cult classic, and the bonus 12" mixes are well worth it for those into 80's Extended Mixes. 5 stars.

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Jamaique: Toute Les Musiques De Monde V.2 ~ Various Artists

Letter from Home ~ Pat Metheny Group

Colours in Thirty-Third ~ Muhal Richard Abrams

The Art Of Jazz Saxophone: Impressions ~ Various Artists

Placebo ~ Squat

Taking a Chance on Love ~ Anne Shelton

Only One ~ Mahmood Khan

B.B. King 36 All-Time Greatest Hits Boxed Set

Kaza-Bana ~ Arb

Guaguano En El Solar ~ Rene Alvarez