Rocktrospectiva: The Exceptional "Cake" Turns 35

 

Released on 25 June 1990 "Cake" was the debut studio album by Scottish pop/rock band the Trash Can Sinatras, the album spawned three singles "Obscurity Knocks", "Only Tongue Can Tell" & "Circling The Circumference". The album peaked at No. 74 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was recorded at Shabby Road, the band's studio that was paid for with their record advance. 

Considered a pioneers, the Trashcan Sinatras were hailing long time before Travis with their enchanted college-aged anglophiles with their jangly brand of emotive Brit-pop. Unfortunately they've seen as a fluff for fans early in the 90s before the grunge revolution and then criminally ignored by late-'90s post-Nirvana alternative. 

Their debut album mixed intricately intertwined guitars, in the spirit of a more charming, less gritty Johnny Marr, with lush strings and sophisticated harmonies. Touchingly clever wordplay propelled by the clean production necessary for such elaborate orchestration that led into a warm and inviting sound. 

The band released cool singles like "Obscurity Knocks" and "Only Tongue Will Tell" as well as "Maybe I Should Drive"  these proved to be the tastiest pieces of pure pop pleasure, the bittersweet and laced as on "Thrupenny Tears" and "You Made Me Feel." But regardless of the relative mood, this debut is noticeably devoid of musical missteps. Cake was as filled and digestibled album that meant to be the precursor to early 21st century Brit-pop.

Critics were mixed but praised the album considered it full of  lush, layered guitars that strum and chime and also noted the "sharp-witted lyrics" which are "over-running with inspired metaphores and word-play, with a pristine sound and a certain light brush of cool jazz, loaded with bright splashes of guitar and vocal harmonies, the five-member Scottish group Trash Can Sinatras’ debut album was breezy pop with a backbeat and mercifully little attitude. Despite the band was crafting elegant neo-pop soundscapes from little more than vocal harmonies and chiming semi-acoustic guitar riffs and strums, they could not achieved mainstream success. 

 

Cake Track List: 

 

1. Obscurity Knocks

2. Maybe I Should Drive

3. Thrupenny Tears

4. Even The Odd

5. The Best Man's Fall

6. Circling The Circumference

7. Funny

8. Only Tongue Can Tell

9. You Made Me Feel

10. January's Little Joke