Disc #32: Cake (Comfort Eagle)

Artist: Cake
Album: Comfort Eagle
Released by Columbia Records in 2001

Once again, massive apologies for the 6 week sabbatical. The PC took another bad pill but she's back in service. I sincerely hope this doesn't happen again so that the experiment can continue to run smoothly.

Without further ado, we will continue our journey with a much anticipated review of one of my very favourite albums: Cake's Comfort Eagle. If you're not a big Cake fan, you may have no familiarity with any of the tracks on this album. Hopefully, you have at very least heard "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" as it is the theme song for the TV show "Chuck". "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" was in fact the only successful single from this album. They were about to release the title track as a single, but decided against it due to some of the lyrics lining up a little too close with the events of 9/11, which had just occurred. They released "Love You Madly" instead as the second single, which did not appear to burn up any charts. That's a real shame because it's a fantastic song and a pretty funny music video concept.

Sometimes I can't decide if I like this album so much because it's awesome, or because it brings back so many good memories. In the summer of 2002 we were picking corn in the States, and this was definitely part of the soundtrack of the summer. Being a relatively short CD (about 40 minutes), we were able to get through it a large number of times. The opening track, "Opera Singer", has some great hand claps in it. Hand claps were a big deal in the corn field. We loved singing songs together in their entirety, with full instrumentation being emulated as we picked corn. You add hand claps to that song and you've got yourself a winner in the field.

Memories aside, I think that this is a fantastic album. Musically, it's clever and well put together. I love the feel of the types of instruments they use on this album. The guitar sound is one of my favourites on the album. It sounds like he usually uses some sort of Gibson hollow-bodied electric guitar; probably an ES-330. It produces a wonderful funk sound in this rock band that makes some fairly funky rock music.

Lyrically, I find that there is great balance on this disc. Some of the tracks are straight-forward, like the two singles I mentioned earlier. Many others are cryptic and metaphorical, such as "Opera Singer", "Commissioning a Symphony in C", "Long Line of Cars", and "World of Two". The liner notes don't say explicitly who penned the lyrics, but my suspicion is that it was lead vocalist John McCrea. If so, he is a double-threat on this album as his way with words combine quite nicely with his creative use of vocal expression.

I could go on for a lot longer, but the best thing for you to do is just go out and get the album. You won't be disappointed. I've put a couple other friends onto this disc over the years with zero complaints thus far. I'm still trying to curb my generosity with the scores I give out, but I just can't ignore how much I love this album every time I put it on. Thus, I must give it a score of:

9

I hope you will join me again shortly as the experiment continues with Disc #33: Ben Folds (Way To Normal).