album of the week: 2.1

Cake

Showroom of Compassion

Upbeat Records (2011)

why you'll love it - Cake returns in full stride

why you'll love it - Insignificant addition to the discography in general

"Its been a long time" croons John McCrea. Something I and other Cake fans can't echo enough. It's been over six years since Pressure Chief, their last release. Of course, the band waits until the second track to express this sentiment. Cake has never been one to state the obvious, as well as follow trends, sing with excitement, or write about normal things. For such an accessible band, their songwriting style is wildly unorthodox.

Unique as they may be, Showroom of Compassion is anything but unfamiliar. This record hits all of the standard Cake notes. Plenty of guitar twang, an easy going pace, mariachi horns, soft keyboards, and lots of yelping between verses as the melodies crescendo. At this point one would question the necessity of this album (now their sixth). This is where the six year absence comes to the rescue! Time may be unkind to this release for not having as many memorable hits like "The Distance" and "Short Skirt / Long Jacket"; but right now the world needs some Cake, and Cake is what you'll get.

Very little separates Showroom of Compassion from much else of Cake's discography. If anything, I've noticed a bit more of an "epic" feeling from a couple of their songs. The instrumental, "Teenage Pregnancy" builds a heavy and stressful melody that says more than any of McCrea's usually cheeky lyrics could. "Easy To Crash" would have made a more appropriate closer than the floundering "Italian Guy" which just sounds like a rough draft of "Opera Singer".

Even though this record is nothing more than Cake as you've always known them, being the only band that does what they do keeps this from sounding like filler. There are no bad tracks on this. Most are good, the rest are left up to how much countryness in music you can handle. A few tracks near the end start to lay it on thick. The main question you have to ask yourself here is if you want more. My response is yes.