Cake

Whenever the music industry is at a loss for trends, novelty artists prosper. And so, the mid-'90s were predictably ripe with one-off jokes -- still smarting from the emotional hangover of grunge, radio listeners wouldn't look a gag gift in the mouth. But despite Cake's quirky surface -- singer John McCrea's deadpan delivery and Vince Di Fiore's oddball mariachi trumpet initially sounded like a put-on -- the members of Cake weren't the one-dimensional wise guys their humorous singles suggested. As the surface of their songs became familiar, the humor faded to reveal a sense of pathos so strong, it was a wonder it remained concealed for so long.

That humorous sheen enabled Cake to discuss matters Modern Rock often ignored. Motorcade's "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle," for instance, mocked trust-fund scenester rebels, surreptitiously examining class relations right there on the radio for all to hear. The album's lyrics also twisted cliches, as with "You think she's an open book/But you don't know which page to turn to." Fashion Nugget is better still, distinguished by a broad taste in covers: In addition to a moving cover of "I Will Survive," Cake also exhumes Willie Nelson's "Sad Songs and Waltzes" and anticipates the Cuban-music revival with the Havana dance-band standard "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps."

The title of Prolonging was a good joke but a bad lie. The magic was gone, leaving competence in its wake. Offering fewer quirks, the newer songs seem emotionally overripe or intellectually strained. Yet Cake proved honorable even in its decline. The band could have dragged on forever as a novelty act. After all, Weird Al Yankovic hasn't told a half-decent joke since before Lil' Bow Wow was born, and it may take total nuclear annihilation, or at least an act of Congress, to stop him. (KEITH HARRIS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide