Fashion Nugget
Amazon.comThe twisted cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” is a statement of intent, while the cool jazz riffs from the band’s trumpet player are part of what makes tracks like “Daria,” “It’s Coming Down,” and “Frank Sinatra” so original. “The Distance” is a funked-up jam with a Chili Peppers chorus. — Jeff Bateman Fashion Nugget
Short URL: http://www.typerion.com/?p=19655
Posted by 
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
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.
Rating: 4 / 5
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
Rating: 5 / 5
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.
Rating: 5 / 5