It’s tempting to fall back on a bad pun—out of gas?—to describe The Cars’ later albums. And yes, Heartbeat City (1984) is burdened with producer Mutt Lange’s clunky efforts to steer them toward hard rock as band mastermind Ric Ocasek veered toward precision-tooled construction lacking the human touch. But yet, Heartbeat City includes one of that decade’s great pop love songs, “Drive,” whose benign sheen can’t mask an unnerving descent into psychosis. The newly released “expanded edition” features some worthwhile bonus tracks, including the demo for “Drive.”
