Published on Thursday, January 17, 2008

Track of the Day

By BEN BURR

Track of the Day

“Strangers in the Night” - Cake

Covered on commission from Wideload Games, Cake’s rendition of “Strangers in the Night” was first released on the soundtrack for the Xbox game “Stubbs the Zombie.”

The game, which revolves around the undead of the 1950s, also features 11 other versions of the era’s contemporary music, performed by artists like The Dandy Warhols, Ben Kweller and The Flaming Lips.

While each track is respectfully wrought and maintains its dignity through its transition to the modern age, Cake’s “Strangers” stands out as the most delicately considered and artfully interpreted.

While some of the tracks have a more modernized style than their earlier recordings (Death Cab for Cutie’s “Earth Angel”) and others delicately excavate the sound of the original song (The Walkmen’s “There Goes My Baby”), Cake finds the juicy center between the extremes.

Cake has made interesting cover decisions in the past, tackling “I Will Survive” on their sophomore album and “The Guitar Man” on their most recent.

Though these two examples appear on either end of Cake’s drastically changed style, which began country-fried and twangy and has become largely electronic, band frontman John McCrea always manages to strike a similar chord to that of the original vocalists: he’s staunch and powerful in “Survive” but melancholy and pleading in “Guitar Man.”

McCrea seems to deliver lyrics with an absorbent kind of inflection that sounds good no matter which style he emulates.

Though it may not sound like a positive characteristic, McCrea’s neutral vocals in “Strangers in the Night” achieve a respectable rendering of the Chairman of the Board’s famous performances, without a feel of pride or ambition that might rub longtime Sinatra fans the wrong way.

The instrumental scores a fine balance as well, using simple electric guitars and piano for a traditional sound, but emphasizing the bass for a slightly rougher feel.

Cake’s take on the big band standard owes its greatness to the talented but still modest reworking of the original music.