My Friend The Chocolate Cake - Fiasco

My Friend The Chocolate Cake have been kicking around since David Bridie and Helen Mountfort of Not Drowning, Waving began it as a side project in 1989. With Fiasco, the group’s seventh studio record, Bridie’s take on acoustic, musically intricate pop sounds as warm and fortifying as ever – while the ingredients have been refined, the cake mix hasn’t changed much.

There are no surprises here. The record functions as a showcase of the MFTCC sound, with Bridie’s thoughtful, literate songwriting wrapped in a slightly folky, almost easy-listening veneer that has characterised the group’s sound from the beginning. This is no bad thing; songs like ‘Everything We Need’ or ‘Measured Best’ provide stirring nourishment, with Bridie’s musings on the nine-to-five treadmill and the absurdity of suburban living (staple themes, best aired in 2007’s Home Improvements) wrapped in comfortingly familiar arrangements.

As in past releases, Mountfort’s elegant instrumentals give the string players the opportunity to show their chops between the clusters of Bridie originals. Even the cover art, an involving collage by Warwick Jolly (who also decorated their debut and numerous other releases), suggests continuity rather than evolution. Which seems to be what the group’s voracious cult following wants. Still, one gets the impression that Bridie wouldn’t mind putting his ‘Cake days behind him to focus on his musical work in Papua New Guinea and his solo career, rather than serving up more helpings of the same meal.

Fiasco is a generous plateful of quintessential chocolate cake, and really, it’s a pretty good recipe. Provided you like cake.


First published in The Brag, Iss. 412, May 16th 2011