The Sea and Cake

Related Content

• Stevie Nicks Turns 63 Tomorrow; We Look Back at Her Birthdays through the Years
  May 25, 2011
• Stevie Nicks' In Your Dreams: Yes, It Really Is Her Best Album in Years
  May 3, 2011
• Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks @ US Airways Center
  April 14, 2011
• Duos With More Chemistry Than Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher
  September 26, 2011
• Lindsey Buckingham at Celebrity Theatre, 10/12/11
  October 13, 2011

More About

• The Sea & Cake
• Stevie Nicks
• Donna Summer
• Stereolab
• Fleetwood Mac

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Chicago's The Sea and Cake continues to refine its unique bossa nova-tinged blue-eyed-soul dream-pop with Car Alarm. Though there are few surprises, it's a consistently captivating throughout. The opener "Aerial" and the title song charge from the speakers like outtakes from the Flamin’ Groovies’ Shake Some Action. A solid beat, lean, jangling guitars, and tantalizing pop dynamics build gradually, just enough to make you want to hear it again right away. The reflective mid-tempo “Pages” features a willowy, sultry melody (imagine pre-Stevie Nicks Fleetwood Mac playing bossa nova) with alluring, resolute Latin jazz-tinged guitar figures, and the gauzy, purr-like vocals are the cherry on the sundae. It’s easy to imagine the suavely bouncy “On a Letter” as an Adult Album Alternative radio hit, and the sleek “Weekend,” with its undulating drums and twittering electronics, evokes The Sea and Cake’s U.K. cousins Stereolab interpreting a Donna Summer disco hit. With its singular combination of flair and restraint, Car Alarm is the aural equivalent of a fine, leisurely meal with a charming, erudite companion.