With the same lineup but different guest performers, including 3D singer Denise Doughan and violinist extraordinaire
Alastair Galbraith, the Cakekitchen created a sophomore album that doesn't differ all that much from its predecessor but still offers more than its share of solid tunes. Things are a little less gentle and a tad more nervous. By no means is the band revisiting Jefferies'
This Kind of Punishment days, but there's a certain kinship in the musical tension created by such songs as "Don't Be Fooled by the Label," where a persistent piano line underpins the entire piece, aided and abetted by a lovely keyboard countermelody and a discordant viola. Jefferies unsurprisingly is still the main guy in the whole shebang, again embracing a combination of rock/pop trio foundation and unexpected touches and deviations from that particular norm. Interestingly, he treats his vocals to the slight echo/overdub combination which he often used before the Cakekitchen but had mostly set aside on the previous album. The approach makes for a welcome return, the title track especially benefitting as he sings over acoustic guitar and Galbraith's wraithlike strings. Bassist King and drummer Robert Key discharge their duties as solidly as before, yet Jefferies remains the standout performer. He fires up a searing end guitar solo on "Walking on Glass" and creates the scraping-nails string melody for "This Perfect Day." His lyrics still visit curious and sometimes melancholic, sweetly touching scenes at many points, as with "McCarthy," a musically-abrasive lament for a lost cat who had been "living like a sailor." The best couplet is from "Tomorrow Came Today": "I remember that you bet me a million dollars on the outcome of a TV show. How am I going to pay you back now?" ~ Ned Raggett