Labels: Major
Review by: Alex Deller
Quite what I’m supposed to do with this I don’t know. Cake are one of those bands that had a very big song some summers back but have since all but sunk from the public eye. For other examples see Smashmouth, Lit, Spacehog and a great many more acts that struck unexpected gold thanks to tunes neatly coinciding with teenagers finishing exams and getting to loaf around in the sun all day, smoke badly-rolled joints and drink warm beer. They probably have a core of fans religiously buying each new record, attending gigs, posting hyperbolic reviews on Amazon and genuinely aghast that the rest of the music-buying world fails to recognise their greatness, behaviour strangely reminiscent of the way some stupid dogs starve to death pining by their masters’ graves.
As it stands, this is a pretty average album of mid-paced college rock that hints toward hip hop, ska and funk; reeking of a band who probably bangs on and on about their tediously “eclectic’ influences in interviews. Y’know, guitarist grew up on classic rock; drummer digs African polyrhythms but sticks at this to pay the rent; bassist is heavily into hip hop while the singer loves everyone from Bob Dylan to Marvin Gaye, and together they make irritatingly quirky music with the singular aim of reliving that one moment of faded glory. Piffle.