Review: Cake - Showroom of Compassion

It's been a long time since we've heard from our good friends Cake. Seven long years, its been seven long years since the last time we had a new Cake album in our hands, but the wait is over and we now have Showroom of Compassion in our dirty little mitts. And you know what? The wait was worth it, because their new album is pretty great, as are most Cake albums. So lets get down to the details on this solar powered record. Oh, by the way, they recorded the whole album using solar power 'cause they're hippies.

This album opens pretty strong with the first two tracks being some of the best on the album, we start things off with the song Federal Funding and right from the beginning of the track you know you're in for a good album. Right after Federal Funding is my favorite track on the entire album, Long Time. The song isn't about how its been a long time since they were relevant but I like to pretend it is when I listen to it, I always have been a bit of a sucker for great returns to greatness.

The rest of the album is just as strong in my opinion. From start to finish I really enjoyed every track on this album, of course I liked some more than others but thats to be expected. One thing I truly appreciated about this album was the return of the Cake instrumental sections (previously seen in Italian Leather Sofa) this time we get an amazing instrumental song entitled, Teenage Pregnancy. Then you have fun almost anthem like songs such as Sick of You. Meaningful but hilarious songs like Italian Guy. The pseudo ballads Cake is famous for, Got To Move. This album really has everything a Cake fan could really want.

John McCrea had said in interviews that this album would be a lot different than previous Cake albums which worried a lot of people. John was half right, this album is different but I would hardly call it “very different”. They did use reverb for the first time along with using an acoustic piano for the first time on a Cake album. Those things along with other minor evolutions does create a bit different sounding album than Cake fans may be used to but this is still a Cake album at it's core, which means that its a great piece of music that will entertain you throughout the rest of the year.