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Dinner hours during a weeknight provide viewers with a fertile option of TV nostalgia. With the exception of the incomparable Seinfeld, basic cable is littered with average sitcoms that ruled the airwaves during the 90’s and early 2000’s. From Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond to Family Guy and Two and a Half Men, one can leisurely eat supper, sip wine, and watch a half-hour comedy that proves funny enough to pass the time, but inconsequential enough to not become the centerpiece of the evening. A similar feeling reveals itself when listening to another 90’s juggernaut, Cake’s new album, Showroom of Compassion.
Coming off a seven year hiatus, the band breaks out their vintage sound often and early, charging out of the gates with album opener, “Federal Funding”, which features John McCrea’s droll delivery of sardonic lyrics aimed at the wastefulness and throwaway nature of these American times. Things become even more Cake-like as the album progresses, particularly on lead single, “Sick of You”, the nervy “What’s Now is Now”, and New-Wave influenced “Mustache Man (Wasted)”, three tracks that will have you out in the garage looking for your old college copy of Fashion Nugget.
The band members also must have been digging through the newly remastered Beatles catalog as songs such as “Long Time”, “Got to Move”, and “Bound Away” sway along gently and gracefully like some early Lennon/McCartney compositions from the Beatles For Sale and Help era. The album’s best track is found in the penultimate, “The Winter”. Here, the band slows the pace down as McCrea’s lyrics reflect back ruefully on the past and what once was. “Being in the places where we used to be/Somehow being there without you is not the same/It’s all behind you now”.
One can’t help but wonder if this is McCrea circa 2010, looking back on his band’s heyday and comparing the earlier glory to the difficult task ahead of starting over, attempting to acquire a new audience while at the same time inspiring a new group of fans who may have missed Cake’s previous chart-topping run of hits. Like the syndicated sitcoms, Cake may not be must-see TV, but they are good enough to get you through the evening.
