Orange Cake Mix - Grapefruit (Blackbean & Placenta, 1996)

Voici un disque d'indie pop pur sucre. Doit-on parler de twee pop, d'anorak pop? Je n'ai jamais été doué avec ces étiquettes! Une chose est sûre, on ferait difficilement la même musique aujourd'hui. On nous dit que les temps sont durs, c'est la crise, il n'y a pas d'avenir, les jeunes sont de plus en plus violents de plus en plus tôt (bientôt les nouveaux-nés agresseront les sage-femmes à la maternité), l'époque n'est plus à la naïveté ou à l'optimisme. Dans le même temps, le succès d'un groupe comme les Pains of Being Pure at Heart contredit ce que je viens d'écrire! Pour en revenir à cet album, c'est un peu comme écouter un disque de Sarah Records aujourd'hui, à la fois touchant et dans le même temps embarrassant.

Orange Cake Mix
Grapefruit
CD Blackbean & Placenta BBPTC 024 (USA, 08-1996)

01. Feel So Cold
02. When I Needed You Most
03. Watching the Cars
04. Snow White Opinions
05. Mary Jane's World
06. Ready to Fall
07. 90 Day Crash
08. Open up your Heart
09. Suicide Watch
10. L.A. Dreamer
11. Tommy James
12. Val
13. How I Feel
14. I Sometimes Wonder Where You Are
15. A Wish to Wonder
16. Lost in Dreamland
17. Mercury Turnpike Cruiser

Note : A collection of 17 pop songs electric/acoustic/casio tones.
Orange Cake Mix is the nom de plume of Connecticut resident Jim Rao. A prolific singer/songwriter, Jim began scribbling lyrics and humming his own melodies as a child; in the early '90s, he started recording his compositions on cassettes. He thought of the name Orange Cake Mix while stocking shelves in a supermarket. In June 1995, Jim released his first album, More Mellow Hits. True to its appellation, More Mellow Hits was a collection of acoustic pop inspired by the '70s soft rock of Bread and America.  He would eventually explore other genres of music, embracing the synthesized rhythms of Depeche Mode and New Order, as well as the otherworldly sonic landscapes of Brian Eno.  A second full-length, Grapefruit, followed a year later. Jim's 1997 album, Another Orange World, drew comparisons to David Bowie</b>'s early '80s work, while 2001's A Shadow of Eclipse and Other Phases of the Moon recalled Robert Fripp, Brian Wilson, and Saint Etienne.  By juggling easy listening music with excursions into electronics, Jim Rao has carved his own niche in the independent scene. Orange Cake Mix has also been included on numerous compilations; moreover, Orange Cake Mix have released a number of songs — as well as entire albums — available only on tapes.

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