Fashion Nugget [Explicit Lyrics, Original recording reissued]

Cake | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 17, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics, Original recording reissued
• Label: Volcano
• ASIN: B000003CKH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (233 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,977 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #28 in Music > Alternative Rock > American Alternative > Post Grunge

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The twisted cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is a statement of intent, while the cool jazz riffs from the band's trumpet player are part of what makes tracks like "Daria," "It's Coming Down," and "Frank Sinatra" so original. "The Distance" is a funked-up jam with a Chili Peppers chorus. --Jeff Bateman

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cake's Best Album to Date January 28, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

Every song on this album has its merits. Obviously, "The Distance" and "Frank Sinatra" rank high on everyone's lists. However, many of the other songs are worth notice. The bizarre "Open Book" is appealing in its odd harmonies and disjointedness. "Daria" gets my vote for the strangest lyric of the album: "[I won't be] smoothed over like milk, silk, a bedspread, or a quilt, icing on a cake, or a serene transluscent lake." "It's Coming Down" is both cynical and humorous regarding a breakup, saying "She's gone and she's wearing your red sweater."

Although much credit has been given to the bassist (who definitely deserves it), the lead guitarist makes this album work. Every song, even ones without a guitar solo, the guitar plays a vital role, often adding biting riffs to otherwise innocuous songs. Listen to "Stickshifts and Safetybelts," "Italian Leather Sofa," or "Nugget."

This is really the only Cake album anyone needs to buy. Quite different from Motorcade of Generosity or Prolonging the Magic, Fashion Nugget is Cake's quintessential work that is sure to remain a classic.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brain-Expanding Experience March 23, 2001

By 3rdeadly3rd

Format:Audio CD

Cake are certainly an alternative group. Their music is about as willfully different to the mainstream as you can go while still being always listenable and their lyrics range from the mundane and symbolic to the intentionally bizarre.

"Fashion Nugget" contains most of Cake's best work to date - especially the singles "The Distance", "Frank Sinatra" and "I Will Survive". These three tracks alone serve as a great introduction to Cake's musical philosophy.

The lyrics throughout the album either cover simple topics (such as cars) or seem to go some way toward discussing more cerebral topics such as - I think - the breakdown of families, the nature of love and friendship and so on.

Cake's singer - whose name I have forgotten - has a marvellously deadpan delivery with (on "I Will Survive" especially) a very creative use of pause to convey ironic meaning. Their musicians are also top-notch, often giving the impression of being just about to veer off into dissonance only to just hold it together to the end of the track.

Most of the tracks here will appear to be quite obscure on first listening - feel free to think "what the heck are they on about?" after you've heard tracks like "The Distance" and "Open Book". But, after thinking about the lyrics, you'll probably decide that they mean something - just what is most probably up to you.

In that may lie the entire point of the album. The lyrics mean different things to different people depending on what they are thinking at the time - they are that symbolic.

The other attraction of the album for me is that Cake cannot take themselves seriously in music.... While other artists are writing self-conscious lyrics which sound almost identical, Cake are experimenting with words ("When you tried to tell me the one for me was you/I was inside your mattress in 1982" - Daria), music (their guitarist sounds at times like a terrible amateur but then switches to be the guitar equivalent of Primus' Des Claypool - simply amazing work on "Race Car Ya Yas" and a few other places in the album) and conventions (watch the almost-harmony in the chorus of "Open Book").

This album is definitely not for everyone. Even those who do like it will probably have times of hating it alternating with times of playing it and nothing else. It is, however, an album worth listening to - even if you don't own it, there's something here for most moods. Read more ›

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best CD in my collection hands down April 30, 2001

By Paul Spencer Hemingway

Format:Audio CD

You've probably heard the radio tracks: I will survive & The distance, for example. And they are great. But what this album offers is 10 or so other tracks that are genious...the horns, the lyrics, McCrea's deadpan voice...Cake's other two offerings are awesome, but this is the one that hasn't left my CD changer for 4 years. Not a bad song on the album. Check out Open Book, Stickshifts, and She'll come back...

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Album to Play...Again and Again March 4, 2005

By B. Merritt VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Cake became popular on the university circuit several years ago, but I'd personally never purchased any of their albums prior to this one. But after hearing several sections of this new album being played on NPR while John McCrea (Cake's lead singer) got interviewed, I went out and bought this CD. I felt compelled to hear out the remainder of the songs, and wasn't satisfied with just the few stanzas that were allowed on the radio program/interview. I was particularly drawn to Cake's remake of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". This was a song that my mother loved and I found it refreshing to hear it played at a more modern level.

Many might call Cake's music new-wave or some form of pop, but to me it sounds like a blending of 50's instrumentation with modern lyrics and a low-down beat, similar to a blues melody.

My favorites are the aforementioned "I Will Survive", "Frank Sinatra" and "Race Car Ya-Yas".

There are some definite "explicit lyrics", including a few added to Gaynor's classic (Mom! Close your ears!), but this didn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the songs.

A cool album. Now I've gotta go out and buy a few of their older one's.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 12 great tunes, 2 DOAs. December 27, 1999

By J. T. Nite

Format:Audio CD

What other band could do covers of a disco hit, a country ballad, and a spanish mambo and nail them all? Cake's unique musical sensibility sustains even their strangest experimentations. The original tunes on this album are even better than the covers -- Italian Leather Sofa skewers Yuppie happiness, Nugget's catchy, f-word-laden chorus is guaranteed to get you in trouble, and songs like It's Coming Down and She'll Come Back to Me have a depth of feeling unheard of in most pop music. Fans of They Might Be Giants and REM will appreciate Cake's deadpan delivery and complex, obtuse lyrics. Fans of Wilco and the like will like the little bit of alt-country flavor (thankfully, just a taste). Ska aficionados will love the horns and great beats, and fans of Bush and Silverchair -- well, should probably see if they can get a "taste in music" implant. The only two songs that you'll find yourself skipping are "Race Car Ya-yas" and "Stick Shifts and Safety Belts," which stretch Cake's strengths until they become liabilities. All in all, however, 12 solidly great songs make a fine CD in anyone's book.