Comfort Eagle

Cake’s fourth record is coated in sarcasm. Lead singer John McCrea invests even the most honeyed melodies with wryness. Biting lyrics undermine as they rhyme. Harmonies and hand clapping happen in the background, but this band won’t get mistaken for The Backstreet Boys anytime soon.

Unlike The Offspring or Blink-182, Cake don’t wreak vengeance on an uncool world through punk. Instead, they take classic propulsive American rock minimalism – and twist it until it sounds just as skewed as the characters that inhabit their songs.

After the early highlight of the quirky, melodic ‘Shadow Stabbing’, the songs pass by unremarkably until the album begins to peak with the instrumental ‘Arco Arena’. Spanish-style plucking is set against chunky power chords and the occasional, muffled shout whenever the rhythm ceases momentarily.

The tune proves a brilliant segue into the album’s glorious title track and standout. Even as the kind of riff you didn’t think guitarists made anymore drives the tune forward, McCrea’s voice powers out through what sounds like a loudspeaker. "We are building a religion," he says. "We are making the plan. We are the only ones to turn to when your castles turn to sand…We are now accepting callers". Quite simply, brilliant.