Cake - The Distance

When we say that this Rock Song of the Week pick has a little bit of everything, that might be the most true that statement has ever been. Mascot suits? A businesspeople chorus in an elevator? A trumpet? All this and so, so much more. It’s like a Where’s Wally book, except Wally is wearing a bucket hat and nobody refers to the decade he was born in as their favourite for rock music. 

Marrying heaping handfuls of oddball eclecticism since their debut in 1991, Cake really do love to fit everything in that they can. Since their first album turned the early 90s indie world on its head, the five-piece have tested boundaries in every direction, from baffling yet well-crafted lyricism to odd instrument choices (not the trumpet, though it’s never not used in an interesting manner). The Distance is an A* exercise in maintaining that ethos - you could probably count on one hand the amount of certified indie darlings who put mariachi-style flair into tracks, unless you actually live in Mexico.

That being said - if your alternative rock isn’t complete without generous lashings of trumpet, then your day simply isn’t complete without Cake. Divisive? Almost certainly. But there’s no denying the sheer charm that slides off the sides of a track like this one – a track that will lap at the shore of your eardrums until it erodes the resistance away. Give in with us and give this a hundred thousand listens before next week rolls around. You might get an email expressing concern from Spotify themselves!