I must admit that when I first heard that Chicago rockers The Sea and Cake had another new album out—just a year after their last one—I was suspicious. That kind of prolificacy is rare to say the least. I mean, who are these guys, Stephen King? I suspected they would have lost some stamina along the way.
But I need not have worried, since this album, Car Alarm, is every bit as energetic and enthralling as the band’s 2007 effort. A bit of background: At the height of Chicago’s mid-’90s scene, members of legendary groups Tortoise, Shrimp Boat, and Coctails came together to form the Sea and Cake, which, since then, has evolved into a jazzed-up post-rock band. The quartet’s eighth album finds the boys up to their old tricks, buzzing effortlessly from buoyant pop songs (“Aerial,” “Window Sills”) to dreamy steel-drum jams (“The Staircase”). This time, though, the buzz is subtle—think Sunday morning coffee, not nightclub. “Well I want inspiration/I keep it locked up, I want more,” singer Sam Prekop whispers in “Down in the City.” It’s that sense of holding back—the energy just beneath Prekop’s imperturbable cool—that gives this album its delicious tension. Contrary to its name, Car Alarm is anything but monotonous.
Read Stereogum’s interview with the Sea and Cake guys here.