Cake: Showroom of Compassion (2011)

I've never been a serious Cake fan and most of what I know of them consists of their singles. They're a band that I enjoy hearing randomly but I have never went out of my way to listen to one of their albums. One of my New Years resolutions (that I just decided on a couple days ago) was to update this blog more and with some stuff that I may not necessarily enjoy. This is my first attempt at that.

Cake hasn't released an studio album in seven years prior to Showroom of Compassion and vocalist/songwriter John McCrea has said the album would be a much different sound that previous releases. Since I've never listened to Cake intensely, I guess I can't say for sure that it's not different, but Showroom of Compassion sounds exactly the same as every cake song I've ever heard before.

That's not to say the album is bad, it's just more of the same. There's a lot of enjoyable stuff here. "Got To Move," "Sick of You" and "Long Time" could all be decent alternative radio hits and the more offbeat side of the band (though they're pretty offbeat in nature) is represented as well with the instrumental "Teenage Pregnancy," the slow country of "Bound Away" and the album closing "Italian Guy."

Showroom of Compassion isn't going to change anyones opinion of Cake. If you liked them before you'll like them now and if you didn't you still won't. It's a solid album from start to finish but I still don't see the need to seek out future Cake releases for myself.


Rating 3.5/5


Track Listing:

1. "Federal Funding" - 3:50
2. "Long Time" - 4:36
3. "Got to Move" - 3:40
4. "What's Now is Now" - 3:37
5. "Mustache Man (Wasted)" - 4:04
6. "Teenage Pregnancy" - 2:41
7. "Sick of You" - 3:18
8. "Easy to Crash" - 4:08
9. "Bound Away" - 3:25
10. "The Winter" - 4:06
11. "Italian Guy" - 3:11