Cake: Prolonging the Magic 180g Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This remastered edition is pressed on 180g vinyl with a printed inner sleeve. Prolonging the Magic debuted at No. 33 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum within a year, carried by the single "Never There."

This edition

180g vinyl
Remastered
Printed inner sleeve
Lyrics included

About the album

When guitarist Greg Brown moved on before their third album, Cake didn't hire one replacement; they invited several. Tyler Pope, Rusty Miller, Chuck Prophet and Xan McCurdy all took turns on electric guitar, and McCurdy liked it enough to stay on full time. John McCrea wrote and produced the record, and the whole band pitched in on the arranging.

Vince DiFiore's trumpet, Gabe Nelson's bass and Todd Roper's drums keep everything lean and dry around McCrea's conversational vocals. "Never There" is the hit, "Sheep Go to Heaven" is a deadpan singalong, "Mexico" and "Let Me Go" slow things down, and the band remake "Walk On By" in their own spare style. "Hem of Your Garment" turned up in the 2000 film Me, Myself & Irene, and "Satan Is My Motor" opens the album at full throttle.

Asked whether "You Turn the Screws" was aimed at departed bandmates, the band said not really; it's a song about power dynamics. Some early copies wore a parental advisory sticker for reasons that had nothing to do with swearing, which may be the most Cake thing ever to happen to a Cake record.

Also at Kops: more Cake on vinyl · browse Alternative