Songs like "Shake It Up" may have won over the average pop listener but the real delights on a Cars album for hardcore new wave fans were the tracks where the band stretched out and experimented. One of the Cars' finest experimental tracks is "Moving in Stereo," a gem from their debut album that sounds like a new wave update of Eno-era Roxy Music. The lyrics are cryptic but interesting as they depict a disturbed individual who describes the apparent nervous breakdown he's suffering with stereo-related imagery: "It's so easy to blow up your problems/It's so easy to play up your breakdown/It's so easy to fly through the window/It's so easy to fool with the sound." The music avoids the typical verse-chorus pop song structure of their singles to create an eerie sing-song melody that rise and falls in a circular fashion that is quite hypnotic. This hypnotic feel carries over to the Cars' recording, which uses the bare-bones melody and lyrics as a springboard for sonic experimentation: it fades in with an eerie electronic whine then slowly adds layers (a guitar riff, a pulsating beat from rhythm section, and otherworldly synthesizer lines) as Benjamin Orr croons the detached lyrics like a vampire-ish lounge lizard. Producer Roy Thomas Baker also adds plenty of effects to the vocal, including stereo panning of Orr's voice from one speaker to the next. The combination of odd songwriting and hypnotic sonic effects made "Moving in Stereo" one of the Cars' most distinctive tunes. It was too quirky to be released as a single but gained notoriety in 1982 when it popped up on the soundtrack of Fast Times at Ridgemont High as the sonic backdrop for the famous scene where Judge Reinhold fantasizes about Phoebe Cates rising from the pool to seduce him. The song's eerily stylized feel captured the mood perfectly, ensuring that "Moving in Stereo" will always have a special place in the heart of both Cars fans and 1980s movie addicts. From: https://www.allmusic.com/song/moving-in-stereo-mt0012266075#review
