It's 2011, and there's a new Cake album

It's true, it's called Showroom of Compassion and it's out January 11th. I find it odd that there is not a single Cake thread out there (at least, according to thread search). Surely there must be some fans on ilx.

Cake are kind of a special group for me since they are one of the first groups I ever really got into, way back when Fashion Nugget was sorta new and I was 11. Since then, each new album has been an event for me. Their first four albums were all massive to me; just great, 70's-style rock with some neat quirks and a ton of great hooks on each track. Pressure Chief (2004) was sort of the turning of my musical tastes, or so I thought, since I thought it was only okay and couldn't really get into it. But I guess in the end it really wasn't all that good. Hard to believe that the year is 2011, for God's sake, I'm grown up and married, and they're still releasing new stuff...

I already preordered this, but couldn't help d/l it anyway. Anyone have any thoughts on it yet? On my first listen, nothing stood out. Couldn't remember a single song, which is a bad sign. The only thing that stands out is how terrible the production sounds. It's got that serious closet sound and the vocals sound digitized, like the "Cool Blue Reason" processing effect somehow bled onto every track. God, I hate to be "that guy" who talks about how much better things were back "in the day", but I can't help but get a little depressed by this. Is this the same group who hid great gems like "Alpha Beta Parking Lot" and "Open Book" among standouts like "Hem of Your Garment" and "Opera Singer"? Or is this one a grower?

I never got much further than an edited edition of Fashion Nugget growing up and I sort of regret missing out on decent music. From what I can tell they are one of the few bands who don't deviate from their signature sound in an effort to sound different. I'm looking forward to the comeback of sorts, I had sort of forgotten about them outside of Short Skirt, Long Jacket or "That theme from 'Chuck'".

In other words, I need to step my game up and find the rest of their discography.

I think the only Cake song I've ever heard is their cover of I Will Survive, which I liked. It was quite big on MTV for a while in the UK.

I loved that cover because it was so bizarre and unexpected. It really doesn't sound like a cover but the song is so recognizable. They also covered "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" on that album and it fit perfectly into their style. I wish they had the balls to do something like that today. Their cover of "War Pigs" was okay but it felt so forced.

i played in a cake tribute band for a halloween show last year and had to mainline cake songs for a month (never having heard them before, except for "short skirt"). therefore, i can no longer listen to cake.

Um, wow.

Talk about an ultimate backhanded compliment.

That is impressive considering they haven't had a hit in a decade.

I usually find myself liking 2-3 Cake songs per disc. This one has "Federal Funding," which sounds like a '60s protest song, and "Long Time," which has that classic laid back Cake groove. The rest of it kinda passes over me.

I'm coming around a little to it. I agree "Long Time" is a good jam and "Sick of You" is a good single if nothing else. The last few songs really drag though. I mean I dig "Easy to Crash" but the one about winter and "Italian Guy" are just forgettable. I like the idea of Cake mixing it up and doing stuff, but come on you cannot do a string ballad.

I would possibly come around to this but I'm not sure why anyone would give it that much effort.

xpost to soto

I know! I got spam about this and thought they meant #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart or whatever. But nope. Stunning! I look forward to the think pieces to follow.

I would possibly come around to this but I'm not sure why anyone would give it that much effort.

Maybe if they like the band...

I've made a playlist of my favorite 3-4 songs from the last 5 albums and it's honestly one of my favorite, er, records I have. I think they can write incredible hooks. It's a little bit weird to me in '11 that these guys are (more or less) laughing stock while Pavement are canon. It didn't feel that way in 1994, and shows how a few selected bands are picked out and the rest reduced to the dustpile...

I would guess it's because there's more irony in Cake's work, that they have kind of a shtick that they don't really deviate from - 60's style guitar hooks + detached singing + trumpet + shouting in the background. It's easy to turn on a band when you suspect they may have been taking the piss their whole career.

They don't do themselves any favors though. It just occured to me that the leadoff single from their last 3 albums all draw heavily on their prior work -

"Short Skirt/Long Jacket": Sounds kind of like a really good parody of the band, with such an obvious hook and blatant catchiness; distills everything about the group into one song.

"No Phone": A nearly direct rip of "Never There", same feel, same lyrical subject, same kind of bass line...

"Sick of You": Pretty much an amalgam of all of Cake's "signature" moves, including the spoken word bridge (right out of "Rock n' Roll Lifestyle", the random trumpets, shouting in the background, and old-school country-rock riff