Cake - Comfort Eagle • CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

trumpet, some blaxploitation wah-wah and the opening line: "I am an opera singer." Eras jostle and jumble; the Eighties get play on the robo-disco single "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" and on the title song, a sort of industrial party tune. "Shadow Stabbing" is mellow soft rock, while the wonderfully thrumming "Commissioning a Symphony in C" is vintage smartass low-fi, circa 1994. The best songs, particularly "Long Line of Cars" and "Pretty Pink Ribbon," exhibit a modern pop that is both mechanized and organic. Whatever McCrea is getting at, his sound, like the band itself, is highly developed and virtually unique.

ARION BERGER
(RS 875 - August 16, 2001)