Cake has always been a hard case to make. Are they a novelty band, or is their fun brand of jokey, genre-laden music legit indie pop? This, their first album, is clearly a band having a balls-out good time. Probably enjoyed by an A&R dude in a Hawaiian shirt and sombrero with a margarita swaying drunkenly at a half-empty bar, he thought “now here’s a band that people will love to love.” I mean in 1994 everyone was sick of the heavy and wanted some horn-infused good times (that wasn’t ska, a la The Mighty Mighty Bosstones). This album was more all over the places, and less formed than their follow-up, Fashion Nugget, but that’s kind of what debut albums are for. Best enjoyed drunk in the background of a frat party.
