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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cake's Best Album to Date, January 28, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Fashion Nugget (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.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
12 great tunes, 2 DOAs., December 27, 1999
This review is from: Fashion Nugget (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.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fun Album to Play...Again and Again, March 4, 2005
This review is from: Fashion Nugget (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.
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