October 2008 Archive |
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The Sea and Cake
Car Alarm
Review By Chris Drabick
Originally organizing as a one-off Chicago supergroup to record a batch of tunes written by vocalist Sam Prekop, The Sea and Cake were never meant to be a band at all,. The band has proceeded to stick around for nearly 15 years now and has added the new Car Alarm as their eight full-length. Along the way, Prekop and his post-rock pals have touched on jazz, Tropicalia, and Krautrock. As recently as 2003’s One Bedroom, you could certainly hear far more “post” than “rock” in its sound, as that record was perhaps its most overtly Kraut-influenced. Lo and behold, the band regrouped after a lengthy lay-off to deliver Everybody last year, and that record found the band dropping the “post” in favor of “rock.”
Not “rawk,” mind you (Prekop’s gentle voice assures something that drastic could never happen), but still far closer to the driving sound it had been perfecting on-stage for years (and revealing guitarist Archer Prewitt to be a growing architect of the band’s sound). With Car Alarm, the band continues down the rockist path it’s taken and sound more vital than it has since 2000’s landmark Oui record. It’s still somewhat surprising to hear music so direct and straightforward from this band, but “Aerial” and the title track resonate better than anything from the somewhat tenuous Everybody. Elsewhere, the sound of highlights “New School” and “Down in the City” harkens back to its self-titled debut, splitting the difference between their newfound love of rock and its more cosmopolitan side. A simplified approach has brought The Sea and Cake to its finest work in nearly a decade.
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