Customer Reviews

Piece of Cake

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my favorite Mudhoney album. This is one long record of really great songs, one right after the other. As everyone else has said, theres not really any filler on the album. Their earlier albums are probably regarded more as classics then this one but as far as I'm concerned this album is actually more fun to listen to ... and it came out in 1992 when music was still good right?

Mudhoney delivered the goods on their major label debut. I love Make It Now and No End In Sight but the whole record rocks relentlessly. Acetone is a stylistic left turn but always sticks with me too.

Mudhoney was doing grunge before it became cool, and there are a lot of good tracks here. It took some time for this disk to grow on me, but grow it did. I can't compare it to their other releases since I haven't heard any of them. Tunes such as "Make It Now," "No End in Sight," and "Ritzville" rock hard until the slow, mournful final track, "Acetone." Good stuff.

If anybody asked me what exactly 'grunge music' sounded like, this is the record I'd play. Mudhoney were there from the very beginning and stood somewhere between Seattle's trashy underground and it's more popular bands. Grunge is about initially wanting to play the cool sounds you love to listen to but realizing that you're not really able to. Or, at least, about being too lazy to keep trying. It's produced by self-proclaimed losers who start to rape musical ideas. You'll find that in perfection on 'Piece of Cake': Noisy lo-fi-songs, nosy lo-fi-vocals and fuzzy guitars, creating some sort of 'garage-rock'n'roll'. They don't use any style-corset. It is what it is. Loud and dirty, but honest. One might call it 'Seattle Soul'. And on this album, Mudhoney found the right mix of fast and slower songs, with a few funny suckerpunches at other music styles, and no filler material. It's their best one.

This is one of my favorite CD's. Mudhoney never cared about pleasing the masses. Instead they put out great CD's of what rock music should be. Power, emotion, and better than average writing and performing. You can keep all the typical garbage that corporate America decides it will promote. I prefer the real thing - which is what bands like Mudhoney represent. No filler or rock star posing here. This is music that slipped past the folks at corpo swill. Piece of Cake is a great representative of Mudhoney's style. Stop reading this and buy it!

What's the real skinny on this album? Well, about 50% of the songs are brilliant. The other 50% are just fine/ok. Now realize that in the music world you are often lucky to find an album which has three good songs together. This record has a lot of tracks, and you can find at least 7-8 gems. There are no "skip" songs, and you can listen right through very nicely. It's true- a lot of the grunge and postgrunge movements have owed a lot to bands that just missed the high point in the hype (the Pixies also come to mind)-- Mudhoney is one of the best of these protogrungers.

This album is pretty enjoyable, but really at the end, thanks to Living Wreck, Let Me Let You Down, and Acetone. A lot of the album sounds good, but is not really moving and likeable. The skits on this album, despite Untitled 4, are highly repulsive. This band is still musically talented, and thematically provoking. But kinda so what at the same time.

The spotlights of the album is the best of the album Suck You Dry, Acetone, and Living Wreck. I pretty much think this album is about youthful expression, sex, anger/angst, and Acetone. I love the themes of the album, very gripping. But on the other hand, some tracks just are not good, Youthful Body Expression, Thirteenth Floor Opening, and No End and Sight, which the whole album can not make up from.

Get this CD, is its yes below 10.00, otherwise, you will find it second-rate to Tommorrow Hit Today, or My brother the Cow. Song ratings below

1."[Untitled 1]" - 0:38 5
2."No End In Sight" - 3:34 6
3."Make It Now" - 4:25 7
4."When In Rome" - 3:55 8
5."[Untitled 2] - 0:25 N/A or 0
6."Suck You Dry" - 2:34 9/10
7."Blinding Sun" - 3:39 6.9
8."Thirteenth Floor Opening" - 2:31 5
9."Youth Body Expression Explosion" - 1:59 4.5
10."I'm Spun" - 4:04 9
11."[Untitled 3]" - 0:40 N/A
12."Take Me There" - 3:32 10
13."Living Wreck" - 3:30 9.5
14."Let Me Let You Down" - 3:57 9
15."[Untitled 4]" - 0:29 Actually 10
16."Ritzville" - 2:38 4
17."Acetone" - 4:15 8.9

Goodness... I still remember buying this album via mail-order BMG club circa 1992. Music was SO SO good at this time and unlike 2006 there was always a million CDs I wanted to buy. It was a very exciting time to be into underground music. Mudhoney, along with fIREHOSE and ALL were my absolute favorites of this early 90's era and I gobbled up everything these bands made.

Needless to say I revisited this album 10+ years later and it is "decent" but not as magical as I once favored it as a teen. Contrary to some reviews I feel there IS skippable stuff here with 4 truly great cuts amongst the 17 tracks. Those 30 second "title-less" intro / jam things sound dated and a bit goofy now. I had read this album was rushed in the studio and it was not even held in super high regard by the band members. This was the peak of the Seattle "Grunge Gold Rush".

Mudhoney is a very good band. Get this one after you have Superfuzz, EGBDF, and My Brother the Cow. Even the EP 5 Dollar Bob is as interesting minus the filler of Piece of Cake.

This is an underrated original masterpiece and definitely one of the best "grunge era" albums of the 90's. It also shows Mudhoney going in a very different, more eclectic and fun direction than they'd previously taken. Gone is the heavy fuzz-grunge they pioneered and instead there is more focus is on the song-writing and production. If anything this album shows the range that Mudhoney are capable of, even if it's not to their older fans' tastes.

I personally love this album, however. Highly recommended.

Mudhoney was one of my favorite bands until this album. After hearing this i just couldn't get into them anymore. "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" and their Self Titled LP are far far superior releases. I guess when they started making money, they were able to afford better equipement, thus ruining their great sound. a shame.