I’ve had a hectic week, but things
started to mercifully slow down over the weekend. Saturday night I was up late listening to tunes and hanging out with fellow music enthusiasts all night. Today I settled down on the couch to enjoy the
opening kickoff of the NFL season (made more enjoyable by a Miami Dolphins
victory). Before I hit the sack, I’m going to get in a music review.
Disc 781 is….Fashion Nugget
Artist: Cake
Year of Release: 1996
What’s up with the Cover? A simple drawing of a crown.
Would a crown be a fashion nugget for a king?
How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to Cake (and
to this album in particular). Around 1999/2000 she used to work at a clothing
store that played cassettes of music in the background. One of the cassettes
had a couple of Cake songs, including “Perhaps,
Perhaps, Perhaps.” Sheila’s coworker told her the song was by Cake, and
so Sheila bought the album and introduced me to the band in the process.
How It Stacks Up: We have seven Cake albums which I
believe is all of them. Of the seven, “Fashion Nugget” is one of my favourites.
I’ll put it second overall.
Ratings: 4 stars
As bands grow into themselves they can sometimes
over-complicate the very things that made them great to begin with. That’s
likely why for a lot of bands they never outdo their first album. “Fashion
Nugget” is Cake’s second album, but it still has the simple brilliance of an
early career record.
The basic structure of their music in 1996 was essentially
the same as it is now; a concoction of R&B and funk rhythms, indie pop and
traditional crooning Sinatra type stuff. However, “Fashion Nugget” feels more
raw and stripped down. This starkness to the sound gives it an emotional depth.
I like the more smooth flow of later albums as well, but as early Cake goes, “Fashion
Nugget” is as good as it gets.
The energy of the album is best expressed on “The Distance” which is one of the great
driving songs of all time. The song has an insistence that demands the reckless
speed of an American muscle car. In addition to being a great driving song, it
is also a clever exploration of why we metaphorically keep racing long after
the race is over.
Cake seems obsessed with cars, on this album and
many others as well. In addition to “The
Distance,” “Fashion Nugget” also features “Race Car Ya-Yas,” and “Stickshifts
and Safetybelts.” Cake has a conflicted reaction to American car culture. “Race Car Ya-Yas” is a dirge about idiot
street-racer types and “Stickshifts and
Safety Belts” is a rockabilly number that celebrates the romantic side of
that same culture.
The album also has a fun remake of the Gloria Gaynor
disco classic “I Will Survive” which
is every bit the equal of the original, and may be better if only because Cake
better captures the bitterness of the song’s lyrics.
The band has already mastered using trumpet
flourishes to accentuate their rock and roll sound. It is a great reminder that
it is the trumpet that is the companion horn to rock and roll, not the
saxophone.
On this listen I noticed that “Sad Songs and Waltzes” has a little trumpet jazz interlude where
they riff off the melody from “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.” It was a great way
to tie some of the musical themes on the record together, and also a timely
reminder that jazz interludes only work when you know the song that forms the
basis of all that noodling.
Cake are masters at writing a memorable lick that sounds
like it has been around for decades, and yet keeping that sound new. They are
very clever songwriters, but do it in a way that doesn’t rub your face in it
The album is tastefully restricted in the same way, with
14 songs and 48 minutes of music. That does push the edge of responsible pop
music making, but it is still significantly on the right side of the line.
We played “Fashion Nugget” a lot when we got it, and
I think because of that I don’t pull it off the shelf as often as I should.
Getting to spend some time with it over the last couple days reminded me it was
time to reacquaint myself with it.
Best
tracks: The
Distance, Stickshifts and Safetybelts, I Will Survive, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps,
Nugget, Italian Leather Sofa, Sad Songs and Waltzes
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