Everybody

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (201 ratings)
Everybody album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 36:32

eMusic Review 0

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Andy Battaglia

eMusic Contributor

Andy Battaglia writes about music and culture of various other kinds from a home base in New York. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Wire, t...more »

04.22.11
Chicago post-rock veterans return for another go-round of breathy, delicate pop.
Label: Thrill Jockey

Ever since they sashayed out of the Chicago post-rock scene in the mid '90s, the Sea and Cake have concentrated on a sound that plays like the rock equivalent of a pinky finger extended from the edge of a glass with a carefully mixed gin & tonic in it. The band's albums have all been delicate, precious, a little bit prissy — and masterfully made in a way that translates as invariably breezy and approachable. The same goes for Everybody, on which the Sea and Cake's considerable smarts settle into an urbane mix of summer songs. “Up on Crutches” has an insistent guitar strum evocative of Brazilian music, while “Too Strong” features a flecked and melodic lead that hints at charts learned in jazz school. Playing spot-the-influence is part of listening to songs so mannered — it certainly figures into the extremely African-sounding “Exact to Me” — but singer Sam Prekop keeps his allusions grounded with a breathy voice that sounds both dressed-up and desperate.

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Can't Not Like It

badtz-mari

Sure it sounds alot like their other albums but I like the other albums too. Sometimes I want to be loud but sometimes being quiet is nice.

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Soul in there somewhere.

tide.is.level

Sea and Cake are the functionally superficial musical journey. Pop in any of their stuff, and you'll have visions of dogs running on beaches, twirling cotton candy, the prismatic effect of sunlight through your girlfriend's hair; if it's hyper-sensory and fleeting then it's there. Good luck finding anything beyond the fluff, though. Considering this approach, 'Everybody' is the best result.

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Get "Car Alarm"

ottozap

Also get "Car Alarm," released October 2008 -- and not available on eMusic. It's more lush, textured, varied. Both are good records.

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Coming soon to a car commercial near you!

UnknownXPleasure

If mayo made noise, it would sound like this. But if you have a lot of laundry to fold...you could do worse.

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Still growing on me

ModernJazzGiant

I like this. So far it has mostly been background music but it keeps growing and growing on me.

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Top Stuff

Richtea

This is my 2nd S+C experience, I got the Fawn a while back which is good but this is soooo much better. On my 6th or 7th listen through now and it is really really growing on me. Have no idea what they are singing about but it sounds so great I really don't care. Best thing I've got from eMusic so far!

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Same old Cake

thelittlefield

This is basically an anthology of all of their past work. Its nothing new, but its still classic S&C material.

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Standard Fare

velvetjones

A fresh cut just in time for summer lounging. Sea and Cake doing what they do best.

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like a good chocolate mousse

digimonk

light and fluffy but rich in flavour that goes on forever...

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Fan-Freakin-Tastic

CAPTAIN-DELICIOUS

See above review title. Listen. Repeat title to friends. Repeat sequence.

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They Say All Music Guide

You could call the Sea and Cake classic underachievers, since they unerringly turn out the same album nearly every time (or simply apply shadings yet more subtle with every subsequent release), but two qualities get in the way of that diagnosis. First, the four members have so many outside interests — solo albums, production work, other bands, photography, comic books, etc. — that they could never be called lazy. Second, the Sea and Cake have continued making records that possess an exquisite beauty, a quality their fans would never want to give up for the sake of experimentalism. All this is to say that the band has produced another gorgeous album, just like the ones that preceded it, despite the early press reports that Everybody would be a straight-ahead rock album with few overdubs. (That is quite true, but it doesn’t change the sound a bit.) Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt indulge in the type of dual-guitar interplay that recalls Television more than anyone else, but the Sea and Cake’s revolution was always a quiet one, and it’s no different here. Waves of guitar — fuzzy, washed, or jagged but always impeccably lean — power the best songs: the opening “Up on Crutches,” “Crossing Line,” and, near the end, “Left On,” where John McEntire’s lively percussion serves to focus several minutes of clever guitar feedback and distortion. – John Bush

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