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My Friend The Chocolate CakeParade Capitol/EMI Ah, this takes me back: March 2000 and My Friend The Chocolate Cake play a sold-out Spiegeltent, treating a rapturous Fringe audience to a near flawless performance. And back further to 1995 when I hear my first snatch of The Red Wallpaper on a borrowed copy of 'Brood,' my first MFTCC encounter. Now while I'm normally unflinching in my disdain of 'Best Of' collections from bands with anything less than six studio albums under their belt, I can't help but embrace this one guilty pleasure as it combines thirteen years of music on one exemplary disc, albeit from just four albums and one live concert. Given that I came to MFTCC in their 1994 'Brood' phase, it's also great to finally hear the studio versions of earlier pieces from their self-titled debut album, Nanny's Farewell, The Romp and the wonderful A Midlife's Tale. 'Parade' balances the jaunty string-laden songs like Throwing It Away and their cover of Magazine's Song From Under The Floorboards with the melancholy of Here Come The Sirens, and even when it's just David Bridie and piano opening The Gossip, it's still a quiet magic Bridie hasn't yet managed to reproduce in his subsequent sans 'Cake albums. Listening to 'Parade' I'm reminded of just how good songs based on Australian suburban life can be, and MFTCC were to my mind always the perfect band to colour Bridie's lyrical tales of housewives, depressed workers and forgotten dreamers. For the unfamiliar this is kind of like a Michael Leunig cartoon to music. As expressed in The Gossip it's hard to escape that "...the bleak's quite beautiful". I couldn't ask for more in a 'Best Of' from one of my favourite Australian bands, except of course a band reformation. Unlikely I thought, until I heard new song Let's Go Walk This Town and two new instrumental compositions included here. And what's this I find typed plainly on the inner CD sleeve? "to be continued..."? Joy.  |
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