Was it fate or coincidence that happened to choose Cake’s ‘Fashion Nugget’ album to play after I listened to Pete’s album? Either way it seemed apt.
Vocally Pete’s voice is a mix of Edwyn Collins, David Bowie and.. well someone else I’m sure. Sounds wise I think Cake and the Coral are the first names that popped into my head, with a touch of early Cure kicking around in there as well, but I have to admit that “sort of offbeat 80s indie pop” is pretty accurate.
In saying that, it’s difficult to pigeonhole this as it’s obviously the fruit of a lot of experimentation in different sounds. With that, not all of the tracks work in their entirety, the song writing isn’t the problem but possibly a different vocalist would lift a couple of the tracks. Lyrically it’s clever enough to be able to be silly in places, I have to admit to a wry grin whilst listening to 21st Century Superheroes whilst sitting at work!
Production wise the mix is pretty good, with only a couple of places where I think the vocals get slightly lost, and the order of the tracks is nicely worked to ensure the variety of songwriting styles isn’t ever competing against itself. Ohh and if you consider that he wrote the songs, played all the instruments and only borrowed a few lyrics (in the minority I believe) then you can colour me impressed.
Finally, the scores on the doors. I’d say this is a 7.5 out of 10 kinda album, some good tunes in there, and only a couple of ‘filler’ tracks. And, of course, it’s considerably better than my album. Goes without saying really.
All in all not a bad way to spend £7. I’ll be chucking this round our musicclub at work in the coming weeks (I think my turn is the week after next). I’ll be interested to hear what my esteemed colleagues think.