Alternative rock has always seemed a bit vague as a classification for a band such as Cake. Now, alternative energy - that's an apt label to slap on them.
Recorded at their own studio in southern California, Cake's first offering in seven years, "Showroom of Compassion," is another dash of the band's idiosyncratic rock.
Rock it may be, but it also boasts a little bit of hip-hop, some funk and blues, country, and a dash of folk and jazz - and of course vocalist John McCrea's slacker-poet metaphors and monotone delivery.
"Federal Funding" kicks things off with a gloomy mid-tempo grind, "What's Now is Now" has a funky start-and-stop bass line, and the doom-filled "Mustache Man (Wasted)" relates a random hookup gone wrong through some hysterical imagery ("With the mustache man on the carpet of his van, you can feel your fatty tissues giving way to sweaty hands").
They bring some Carter family style country on "Bound Away" and use mellow trumpet to pine for lost loves on "The Winter" ("Being in the places where we used to be. Somehow being there without you's not the same").
Solid lead single "Sick of You" is full of contagious riffs and has Cake's trademark backing-band shouts, and the highs and lows of "Easy to Crash" make for one of their strongest tracks, with a guitar crunch that earns the right to be played loud.
Cake isn't branching out or breaking their mold on "Showroom of Compassion," but with so many styles seamlessly mingling through virtually every track, who's complaining?
Alternative rock? Hardly.
CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: The lo-fi funk of "Long Time" is vintage Cake, with a slight hip-hop backbeat, staccato guitar work, horns, minimal synth and contagious harmony vocals - and, hey, it's even got hand claps.