Prolonging the Magic - Cake
In my review of Cake’s album Comfort Eagle, I described their singer’s voice as “emotionless, almost mechanical.” For reasons beyond my knowledge, that is not true of the songs on this album. I would attribute the difference to an overall change in the band’s style over time, but from what I know of other music by them, that is not the case. For whatever reason, this album feels more relaxed, less precisely-arranged, and more emotionally expressive than other music by the same band. The subtle shift in style strikes me as appropriate given the songs, which tend more toward personal, relationship-driven subjects than in Comfort Eagle.
I bought this album less than a year ago, and haven’t had a lot of opportunity to listen to it until now. It was another impulse purchase from the dollar rack, although I’d been considering purchasing it for a number of years because of the song Sheep Go to Heaven (Goats Go to Hell). I’m a bit of a sucker for things that involve goats (on a related note, my favorite wine). Besides being goat-related, this song also contributes to a loose theme that seems to connect several of the songs: references to religion and mythology. The narrator prefers a life of fun sin (“I just want to play on my panpipes / I just want to drink me some wine / As soon as you’re born you start dying / so you may as well have a good time”) to one of responsibility, even if it means he’ll “go to Hell.” This casual acceptance of damnation is echoed in Satan is my Motor, and a more fatalistic reference to the theme appears in Hem of your Garment, which may be a biblical allusion.
Amid all these casual references to evil, the darkest song on the album (in my opinion) is You Turn the Screws, which I find myself listening to over and over. Unlike the fun-loving, relaxed persona described in Sheep Go to Heaven, the subject of You Turn the Screws is cold, calculating, and cruel - and worse, he assumes everyone else is like him.
Other songs are lighter, but still contain a curious mixture of darker elements. Alpha Beta Parking Lot describes a pretty sunset scene, but then contains the lines “Standing in the Alpha Beta parking lot / watching you leave me / not quite believing.” Let Me Go and Bound for Mexico are similarly bittersweet.
Although Comfort Eagle (the song) remains my favorite song by Cake, I think Prolonging the Magic might be my favorite Cake album.
Next: Bound to Go
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment