Orange Cake Mix - Silver Lining Under Water (CD)

All Music Guide

Orange Cake Mix's Jim Rao could be accused of making the same album over and over again, alternating between gauzy guitar strumming and Casio noodling with fey, reverby vocals on top. Silver Lining Underwater breaks with tradition and eliminates the latter, leaving an instrumental album that is more ambient and less rhythmic than OCM's other efforts, but built from the same materials. The album, while pleasant, leaves one with the feeling that anyone possessing basic competence on a handful of instruments could achieve a similar result. Serious consumers of Rao's prolific output might enjoy Silver Lining Underwater as background music, but it is otherwise the indie pop counterpart to those anonymous mood music CDs you might find in a grocery store bargain bin.

- Greg Adams, All Music Guide