Customer Reviews

B Sides & Rarities

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cake is a band that doesn't break a whole lot of new ground. The production values have gone up significantly since their Motorcade days, but the overall sound is much unrefined, at least in spirit. This album is a collection of B-sides, meaning if you have done your homework, you should have heard most or all of this before. It contains almost entirely material that was not included on previous studio albums, and then a few live cuts. I really like their version of 'Strangers in the Night' as well as 'Subtract One Love (Multiply the Heartaches). Also notable are 'War Pigs' and 'Conroy' for some good instrumentation. Also it has a alternate take of one of my favorites 'It's Coming Down.' I will say again, most of this stuff you can find in other places but is fun nonetheless.

There are some live cuts that in my opinion, add very little to the album. 'Short Skirt' is a song I was tired of the first time i heard it, and 'War Pigs' is unecessary, even considering the Flaming Lips cameo. A studio take and a live take together on one collection is filler to me.

So I dunno buy the album if you like cake. Its not expensive. It's good. The liner notes smell nice.

So I love Cake and have been waiting for this release for a long time, but I was sort of disappointed when I finally got it.

I like some of the covers, those are cool, but really, there is not much substance on this disc.

If you are Cake fans, pick it up because this is the first truly indie release by Cake since they got away from a horible record company and I will always support them, but if you are not that big of a fan, this is not a needed disc.

In addition to rarities and live versions of their own songs, Cake covers artists as diverse as Black Sabbath, Johnny Darrell, Piero Umiliani, Buck Owens, Frank Sinatra, George Jones, and Barry White! Depending on your perspective, the good or bad news is that all the tracks end up sounding like Cake. But, while Cake doesn't transform any of these songs into something truly new (like Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" or Fountains of Wayne's "Baby, One More Time"), the covers aren't parodies, either. It all adds up to a surprisingly credible Cake album, and I'd recommend it to any of their fans.

First of all, I'm a big fan of Cake's music. The bass-lines, the guitar riffs, the horns, the throaty vocals that aren't really melodic but somehow seem to fit in just perfectly. It's just a great combination.

Secondly, I love covers. I used to scour the Internet for any cover of any song, just to hear it. If it was a good cover, I'd usually run out and buy a CD buy the cover band. Since I already love Cake, and love cover songs, B-Sides is everything I expected.

The first song is a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs, which is a song that I love. Cake takes the song, and delivers it in true Cake fashion. The last song on the disc is also a cover of this song, but a live one. Continuing with covers, they also have Barry White's Never, Never Gonna Give You Up (which was featured on the American Werewolf in Paris soundtrack, and was the only reason I bought that disc), Sinatra's Strangers in the Night, and Mahna, Mahna from the Muppets. (do dooooo do do doo!) They also cover some country songs, such as Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town, which has been sung by several artists through the years, and Excuse Me, I Think I've Got a Heartache. The best part about the country covers is that they're REAL country songs, not this Kelly Clarkson stuff that folks are calling "new country." New Country is just rock with a steel guitar, and consists primarily of junk.

So, Cake fans and cover song fans out there, go out and buy this disc. I'm giving it a full five stars.

Cake does it again. This album of covers is great. Only Cake could take songs from Frank Sinatra, Barry White and Black Sabbath and totally own them as if they wrote them.
Buy this disc, these songs are so good it will make you cooler just owning it.

The main reason to get this is the version of "War Pigs." It's the goofiest thing here, and at least makes sense in the band context. After that, things are a really mixed bag. The number of country covers is telling, but frankly, Cake brings nothing to them in the way they reinvented "I Will Survive" ("Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" comes close: see also The Killers' version on Sawdust).

As is the case with most B-Sides collections, the majority of the songs were recorded as larks or left unfinished for a reason. If you're new to the band, stick with Fashion Nugget or Prolonging the Magic. You'll be glad your ears weren't forced to listen to Cake's version of "Manna Manna," which was cute on Sesame Street with muppets, but not by adults.

PS - The Vanilla Icing smell is NASTY.

This is more like a country cover album, though War Pigs is excellent. If you're a huge Cake fan you definitely want this in your collection, but if you're only a fair-weather fan (or have never really listened to them before) you probably will not like this album. If you can order the physical copy, do it--there are some crazy smells coming from the cover art! (Plus iTunes only offers the clean version. WTF is that??)

I love all of CAKE's music, and can't wait to go to a live show.

the live tracks on here were astounding, and awesome. I loved the War Pigs (live) it was great to compare the two versions.

I really wanted a full album of newer CAKE music- but the b-sides and Rarities was good enough and its oddness that I disliked at first grew on me, and now I can't get enough.

"Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" is one of my faves - I love CAKE as a country-esque band, its a nice detour.

(My CD case was purple, the grape smell was like the MR.SKETCH marker smell. ew.)

Just bought this album... first spin through it and I really like it. Check out the song "Thrills", made me chuckle. Great album! Only complaint is that there's not more of it. It's a pretty short album, but usually Cake's songs are under 4 minutes. Enjoy

If you like Cake and know what they are about, you will love this CD. It's just plain fun to listen to. They're cover of "Ruby", "Excuse Me, I Think I've Got a Heart Ache", and "Strangers in the Night", are a hoot! But, Black Sabbath fans wil probably not be impressed with Cake's version of "War Pigs".