Word: upbeat
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Singer Steve Perry led the charge Friday night, walking out in a dark purple suit and dancing frenetically around the stage as the band went into "Dr. Bones," a lightning-fast swing song with a blistering piano riff at the opening. Perry's morbid lyrics clashed with the upbeat music: "Shake, shake, shake and rattle-rattle them Dr. Bones," but you almost didn't notice as Perry leaped about the stage. This was followed later by the sleazy "Here Comes the Snake" which highlighted the sexual undertones lie beneath the band's songs...
...simple drum programming with understated saxophone notes will make you think you are walking down the Embarcadero with your special someone. The same can be said about "Eventide;" yet this time, the brothers add flute and something known as "wah wah" bass, making "Eventide" a much more dynamic and upbeat piece, created in a style reminiscent of the Yellowjackets jazz group. "Steppin' Out," the album's namesake, and "Someday" are also noteworthy pieces, for they contain poetic uses of the tenor saxophone...
...band that gave us the nineties' version of "I Will Survive" now shows us that they can do just that--survive. Titled Prolonging the Magic, Cake's newest release doesn't use the exact same brand of magic as its last album, Fashion Nugget. Things are a little more upbeat this time around. The Sacramento, California-based band's latest work will probably appeal to even more people than just those "The Distance" freaks, who might be disappointed that there is no similar song on the album. Prolonging the Magic doesn't have all of the same ingredients as Cake...
...Daysleeper" is reminiscent of "Try Not To Breathe" from Automatic For The People, and the entire album seems to lament lost love even in its most upbeat moments, just like in Automatic For The People. Stipe's upbeat chorus on "Walk Unafraid" challenges love with the words "I'll trip, fall, pick myself up and/walk unafraid/I'll be clumsy instead/hold my love me or leave me/high." Stipe even goes into obsessive love on "Hope" with lyrics like "At my most beautiful I count your eyelashes secretly...
...aforementioned "Hope" and "Walk Unafraid" will undoubtedly become favorites within the cult of R.E.M. fanatics, but the true test will come with radio airplay. "Hope" has the most "hope," because its upbeat style gets the legs moving with the beat, but the lyrics are actually supposedly about an AIDS patient. The somber topics raised in the song seem to clash with the actual tune, but this proves to be one of Stipe's lasting characteristics which surfaced on the group's first hit "The One I Love...