Cake

B-Sides and Rarities

(Upbeat)

Record Review by Alexis Roberts

When I received this CD, it smelled amazing, which is a really abnormal first reaction to something that is normally odorless. As it turns out, I was not just hallucinating; the rose scent that was enticing my nose. Cake has outdone themselves by releasing this B-Sides and Rarities album with scratch and sniff art work!

Cake has been around for quite some time now and achieved a relatively large amount of success sometime toward the late 1990s with their hits that played on major radio stations across America (“The Distance,” “Never There,” a cover of “I Will Survive”). Not only did the mainstream love Cake but the underground always loved them, too, because of their affable originality and quirkiness. Then throw in the fact their style can’t really be classified by one specific genre and you’ve got yourself the ultimate band that appeals to a large array of demographics.

As we all know, B-side albums can seem really exciting at first, but then once you listen to them enough you realize why they were B-sides. That isn’t really the case here. If you like Cake, you’ll love this collection; this collection is not to be missed if you are a fan, and it might even be a good introductory album. I bet you will hear at least one song that you like, and also it’s just plain cool to own a CD that smells like roses.

The live version of “War Pigs” is really impressive and the sound quality is out of this world. Another old favorite, “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” appears on the CD in an alternate version. But the cover of “Strangers in the Night” is really the pièce de résistance - it’s wonderfully awkward and precious.