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Avg: 4.0 (54 ratings)
- Date Released: October 21, 2008
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Rock
- Label: Thrill Jockey
Fifteen years into a consistent career brings a major highlight
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We Say...
Chicago's Sea And Cake have clocked in 15 years and seven previous albums of jazz and world-inflected art-pop — the kind of muso-indie, Smiths-influenced thing that has only found a (relatively) mainstream American audience recently with the emergence of Vampire Weekend. But the band's eighth album is the least self-consciously clever of their career, and is, by some distance, their best.
The rhythm section of legendary Tortoise leader John McEntire and bassist (and talented painter) Eric Claridge is one of Sea and Cake's biggest strengths, and on Car Alarm they weave subtle and imaginative patterns around Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt's sweet melodies and arty jangles, driving when necessary, skipping lightly when required. By the time you've been charmed by the album's best moments — the edgy "New Schools," the blissful "Window Sills," the gently surging alt-pop of opener "Aerial" — you'll be amazed at just how much loveliness they can still mine from primary-color guitar-pop. Steel drums and twinkling synths provide textural variety, and the superb "Down in the City" even finds a way to be oddly bluesy.
As the variety might suggest, Car Alarm is a broader album than we are used to from Sea and Cake, and it deserves a wider audience than its typical college-rock fanbase. With this record, Sea and Cake are punching way above their weight, and they deserve an adoring crowd for the occasion. -
They Say...
Released 17 months after Everybody, a mere blink of an eye for this group of Renaissance men, Car Alarm represents an attempt by the Sea and Cake to be a working band -- for what may be the last time, what with family obligations to place among the vast array of outside interests. The album was written in a burst just after returning from an Australian tour, and recorded in a fairly quick span as well. The results seem to have refreshed this band of post-rock stalwarts, who may never need (or desire) a radical shift in sound, but should have already easily fallen prey to laziness -- an album where the adjective "workmanlike" becomes an insult rather than a compliment. Their brisk, efficient indie rock hasn't changed radically, but the insertion of an instrumental here and an electronics-heavy track there makes for needed counterpoint. The individual members of the quartet are still nearly telepathic in their group interplay; John McEntire's drums set the tone for each song while Eric Claridge's bass anchors the lower register, and the twin guitars of Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt scope out the higher frequencies.
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| 01. |  |
Aerial |
4:21 |
|
| 02. | |
A Fuller Moon |
4:11 |
|
| 03. | |
On a Letter |
3:48 |
|
| 04. | |
CMS Sequence |
1:08 |
|
| 05. | |
Car Alarm |
3:19 |
|
| 06. | |
Weekend |
2:45 |
|
| 07. | |
New Schools |
3:36 |
|
| 08. | |
Window Sills |
3:46 |
|
| 09. | |
Down in the City |
3:28 |
|
| 10. | |
Pages |
4:00 |
|
| 11. | |
The Staircase |
3:02 |
|
| 12. | |
Mirrors |
1:37 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 39:01 Total Length
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Credits
- Archer Prewitt - Guitar // Archer Prewitt - Guitar // Archer Prewitt - Keyboards // Archer Prewitt - Keyboards // Archer Prewitt - Drums (Steel) // Archer Prewitt - Drums (Steel) // Archer Prewitt - Design // Archer Prewitt - Design // John McEntire - Percussion // John McEntire - Drums // John McEntire - Keyboards // John McEntire - Drums (Steel) // John McEntire - Engineer // John McEntire - Mixing // Sam Prekop - Guitar // Sam Prekop - Keyboards // Sam Prekop - Vocals // Sam Prekop - Design // Sheila Sachs - Design // Eric Claridge - Bass
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