We’re not sure if Alf is the first person to ever use “precipitous” in a review of Hat-Man and the Cheap Suit Boys, but we’ll trumpet it anyway…
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[3.90]
Jer Fairall: The musical equivalent of making a stupid face until it sticks.
[2]
Martin Skidmore: Shambolic geeky US indie, with a bored sounding vocalist and a surprising variety of instruments, from military drumming to trumpets and what may well be bagpipes. Some credit for a bit of imagination in the arrangement, but it’s still a dreary mess.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: To one who came of age in the 1990s, Cake’s sound (which was fairly close to unique) is relaxing and reassuring; perhaps one day people of my vintage will call this their easy-listening comfort music. Sadly, the song on top has a bad case of dull; their last single at least had a chorus, even if it wasn’t very good. This is no “Frank Sinatra” or “You Turn the Screws”.
[4]
David Moore: I guess these guys are terrified of writing another hit or something? As understated bar-blooze goes, it’s not terrible, but I get the sense that everyone involved was looking over their shoulder to make sure the 1990s weren’t trying to creep into the studio.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Now that these wiseacres can claim a Number One album exactly twenty years after their founding, I have to take them more seriously than they no doubt do. Their har-har cover of “I Will Survive” from the mid-90s was one of my first inklings of the degree to which disco and its connotations discomfited white guys, and after one too many spins in friends’ cars I sent it and Cake into exile with Dave Matthews. The irony on their latest single is coated as thickly as butter on muffins, but at least they’ve figured out how to arrange “soul” horns instead of merely smirking at them. Before I hated myself too much in the morning, though, I read the news: not only was this the lowest selling Number One album in the history of Soundscan, it also suffered the most precipitous tumble from the top spot. Sometimes capitalists are right: the market is self-corrective.
[5]
John Seroff: “Federal Funding” comes on strong with clanky White Stripes swagger and a clever Talkin-Bout-Them-Board-Presentation blues refrain. Shame of the matter is that’s the song’s creative wad shot; three more verses don’t add anything we didn’t hear at the outset. Disappointingly diminishing returns.
[5]
Chuck Eddy: Starts out with the potential to wind up a 2011 equivalent of the Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper,” what with that Middle Eastern undulating and all, but where the Buttholes propelled all the way home, this never gets out of the parking lot. Subject matter has potential, too, maybe even relevance to an academic demographic rarely addressed in lead singles off albums that top the Billboard chart in one of the weakest weeks in music industry history, but the delivery is so smug and disinterested that it never takes root. Sax blat adds one point, maybe? A half?
[4]
Jonathan Bradley: This song is called “Federal Funding,” and that’s a bit zeitgeist-y, isn’t it? I don’t know if the zeitgeist actually is the gimmick they’re going for — Cake is a band for whom gimmickry is the starting point — but timeliness is timeliness even if it’s hollow. I’ve bumped them up an extra point in recognition. As Tea Party-bait goes, however, I’ll stick with Miranda Lambert’s “Time to Get a Gun.”
[3]
Anthony Easton: I really enjoy hearing McCrea’s voice.
[6]
Zach Lyon: Exactly what you’d expect a new Cake song to sound like.
[2]