Customer Reviews

Fashion Nugget

5 star:		(165)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Fashion Nugget by Cake
Zomba/Volcano
Explicit: Yes ("Nugget" is pretty much is the only offender, but it's a pretty good one)
Best Song: Friend Is A Four-Letter Word
Worst Song: She'll Come Back To Me

Ah, Cake. The first thing to mention about Cake (Because you just can't talk about Cake's big break without talking about Cake themselves) is John McCrea. McCrea's voice is absolutely brilliant. The guy sings with a half-funky, half-monotone voice that at times almost sounds like he's speaking. Not only is the monotone singing approach unique and absolutely addicting, McCrea can do more than that. He can do anything, from Country yelps, ("Stickshifts And Safetybelts") to pseudo-rap. ("The Distance") As a matter of fact, it's a real shame their claim to fame is "The Distance", since while that is a spectacular song, there are plenty of joys here. "Frank Sinatra" is a wonderful little gem with a spectacularly memorable chorus:

"We know of an ancient radiation
That affects dismembered constallations
A faintly gimmering radio station
While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather
The flies and the spiders get along together
Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record."

And the fun doesn't stop there, for it is merely the first track. We have the great and funky alt-rock perennial "The Distance" featuring McCrea's brilliant delivery, the lyrically simplistic but absolutely wonderful "Friend Is A Four-Letter Word", the oddly compelling one-two punch of "Open Book" and "Daria", the short little piece "Race Car Ya-Yas", featuring another memorable "chorus":

"The land of the race car ya-yas
The land where you can't change lanes
The land where pink fuzzy dice
Hang proudly
Like testicles from rear-view mirrors"

And then we get into the latter half, which isn't as good but still with plenty of gems. A lot of the songs take an almost Country approach which I don't care for myself, ("Stickshifts And Safetybelts", "She'll Come Back To Me") but there's still the genius of the witty, dry, twisted cover of "I Will Survive", the cynical "She's Coming Down", the pleasant but unusually long for Cake "Italian Leather Sofa", and "Nugget", featuring YET another memorable chorus:

"Shut the f**k up
Shut the f**k up
Learn to buck up
Shut the f**k up
Learn to buck up"

It all ends with the melancholy "Sad Songs And Waltzes" where McCrea sadly proclaims:

"It's a good thing that I'm not a star.
You don't know how lucky you are.
Though my record may say it,
No one will play it.
Sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year."

While Cake does have a good discography, this is their real masterpiece, a witty, fresh little gem. A personal favorite of mine, Fashion Nugget is not only the quint-essential Cake album, it's a genuinely refreshing piece of alt-rock most will skimp on. My advice: Don't.

Final Grade: A

Cake is the Long Island Iced Tea of rock-n-roll, you just keep throwing in tasty ingredients one after the other and just pray you don't get a hangover. They've been called everything in the book by those trying to describe them to the uninformed, for those I say get informed buy this cd or go see them live. In simple terms though they're a country -funkin-alternative-rock-bar band, that will make the stiffest legs (like mine) move. "Fashion Nugget' is their major label debut and features the hit single "The Distance", written by phenomenal guitarist Greg Brown, is all groove the riff sounds like it could've been lifted right from Beavis's mouth. There's a couple of obvious things that set Cake apart from your average "alternative" band, most notably their preeminent trumpet player (considering their not a lame ska band) and spoken vocals that are almost non-rhythmical raps. The vocals are definitely rapped though on "Nugget" their hilarious funky hip-hop rant; They also incorporate some of the strangest damn things as instruments like on "Italian Leather Sofa" that gets its start with a chainsaw being fired up. "Italian Leather Sofa" is also the closest they've come to capturing their jammin' live sound. There's also some great country tinged ballads like "She'll Come Back To Me" and a tip of the hat to Willie Nelson with a great version of his "Sad Songs and Waltzes." The highlight though is their fantastic cover of the disco classic "I Will Survive", and instead of being sung with Gloria Gaynor's hope and enthusiasm, they give it the drunken bitterness the original lacked.

I like Cake because they found their sound. All of the songs start with a scratchy guitar, the singer starts in (oh yeah... uh-huh....), there's a trumpet solo and the song ends. And it works for them. There's about three covers of other bands songs, which is a shame because Cake writes some good lyrics. But still, you can't help but the admire the unlikely pairing of Cake with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." As for Cake-written songs, there's three original songs about cars, "Stickshifts and Safetybelts" being strangely romantic.

Cake sounds like an old 50's rock band, to me, at least. They keep up that sound until you come to "Nugget" where the lead singer swears at you relentlessly. This is a good record. There's nothing bad to point out, just that the songs don't get really great. They can reach a certain level and they just stay there. But it's fun place to stay.

I love the band, but when I listen to them I have to admit I make my own compilation out their CD's because their albums just aren't strong all the way through. In my opinion this is their strongest album overall. It's the only one I STILL enjoy listening to all the way through after years of owning it. This is the album I would recommend if someone way buying their first Cake album.

I bought every Cake CD within the span of a few weeks after I finally got hooked by "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" from Comfort Eagle. For a long time, Comfort Eagle was my favorite Cake album. The problem is, ask me on any given day now and it'd probably be a toss-up between Fashion Nugget, Prolonging the Magic and Comfort Eagle.

The fact is that Cake has never released a dud. Their first album suffers in quality, but considering they were unknowns at the time, one can't blame them for working on a shoestring budget. The music is still great.

At the end of the day, I find myself coming back to Fashion Nugget again and again. The big single on this album, "The Distance" is, in my opinion, one of the weaker songs. That's saying a lot. Check out Frank Sinatra, Friend is a Four Letter Word, and Daria for a small glimpse into the genius that is Cake. The lyrical imagery and their catchy melodies quietly wrap themselves around your brain. They are certainly the masters of making more out of less.

If you ever get a chance to go see Cake live, do it. Watch everybody sing the lyrics to every song. It's a great experience. If you've heard their typical radio fare (Rock 'N Roll Lifestyle, The Distance, Never There, and Short Skirt) and have been even mildly interested, you owe it to yourself to go buy Fasion Nugget. You'll soon find yourself owning all of their releases. As a good friend of mine would say, "Trust me".

If there's one thing you can say for Cake, it's that there's not many other bands like them out there! The monotonic yet strangely riveting vocals of John McCrea, plus the funky addition of di Fiore's trumpet to the decent guitars and drums, makes for a quite unusual combination. McCrea's unique vocal style works best on the in-your-face tracks like Open Book, Nugget, and Italian Leather Sofa. The slower, more sedated songs like Frank Sinatra and She'll Come Back to Me don't come off quite so well, he sort of drones on them. In general though, this is a well-done and enjoyable album-- my biggest complaint about it is actually that it is too short. Cake's style is unique enough that you will either love them or hate them, but if you find their style to your liking, you're in for a treat.

this cd is an amzing showing of the musicality of this group and their ability to write music of such diversity between the different pieces and still manage to make them sound good, the trumpet solos rule.