Cake Layers Romantic Fatalism, Playfulness

John McCrea, the singer for the Sacramento rock band Cake, likes to wallow in the disappointments that accompany long-term relationships. However much he may hold out hope for emotional sustenance, he knows he’s eventually bound to feel the sting of the jilted lover. At the Troubadour on Monday, Cake mixed McCrea’s fatalism with a healthy dose of affable cynicism and a bunch of stylistic change-ups, turning in a performance that struck just the right balance between bitterness and goofiness.

Cake plays a highly evolved brand of pop, lacing its sharply etched narratives with touches of lounge kitsch, fun and guitar-driven rock, while McCrea delivers his biting missives in a deadpan voice. At the Troubadour, the quintet came on like wise-guy pranksters as they veered from the fake bossa nova of “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” to the witty novelty-noir of “Satan Is My Motor,” a track from Cake’s terrific new album, “Prolonging the Magic.” Guitarist Xan McCurdy was a standout--his crisply articulated melody lines kept everything in sharp focus.

After the playful pessimism of such songs as “Friend Is a Four-Letter Word” and “Never There,” the band’s encore--Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic “I Will Survive,” recast as a hangdog shuffle--provided a small ray of light at the end of the tunnel.