It is surprising that it’s been just six years since Cage the Elephant’s debut album caught the attention of the masses with its jamming rhythms and mutinous attitude.
Since then, Bowling Green’s own have released two more wildly intriguing albums, expanding upon their eclectic sound. Their staunch melodic choruses have made them festival favorites, but it’s their awry arrangements and musicianship which make them one of the strongest forces in the dwindling world of alternative rock.
On their fourth album ‘Tell Me I’m Pretty’, the band officially become a four-piece, and have switched streets in Music City, trading in their longtime producer Jay Joyce in favor of The Black Keys‘ Dan Auerbach; Auerbach amalgamates the group’s 90’s alternative rock moxie by augmenting their shared influences of psyche-blues, soul and funk.
Bubbling up with a bluesy psychedelic jangle, ‘Cry Baby’ opens the album with tumbling drums and a swirling vocal melody sung by Matthew Shultz. A fat bass walk down troughs the listener into a swampy sedated outro, before the fuzzy spunk of ‘Mess Around’ snaps you out of the humid haze. With a bluesy shuffle, the latter is clearly influenced by Auerbach’s day job, but he admirably both captures and highlights the group’s signature kooky temperament. Soulful emotion and bashful rock n’ roll fun aid the similarly zany, honky-tonk tinged ‘That’s Right, while the twinkling bobbing ‘Trouble’ has a hazy understated anthemic quality that has made alternative contemporaries Portugal. the Man famous.
The tie-dye blending influences that characterize most records come from the kaleidoscope of sounds that were born out of the late sixties. The cryptically soulful ‘Sweetie Little Jean’ bounces with woozy keyboards and stomping drums while Shultz’s falsetto details a decaying relationship. Auerbach rounds the edges a little too smooth on the twaggy voodoo riff led ‘Cold Cold Cold’, this garage rock jingle unfortunately coming off as a little too pastiche. However, on the swaggering, bruised femme-fatale tale of ‘Punchin’ Bag’ he injects a vital energy by enunciating the Schultz duo’s angular guitar riffs and Daniel Tichenor’s rumbling bass. Nearly ten years into their career, it’s encouraging to know Cage hasn’t lost its ability to stir up a boyish ruckus.
The best songs on ‘Tell Me I’m Pretty’ see Cage and Auerbach blending their talents to create something distinguishable outside their usual artistic territory. ‘How Are You True’ has a night-time blues feel but its ‘Abbey Road‘-esque instrumentation unfolds tastefully, as subtle strings elegantly shimmer underneath a mid-tempo trudge. The watery western groove of ‘Too Late To Say Goodbye’ features cackling high-hats and exceptional bass work, its mic swaying chorus refrain perhaps the album’s most rewarding moment, after which ‘Portuguese Knife Flight’ concludes on a high note with its spooky strut.
After the success of ‘Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked’, Cage The Elephant could easily have settled into a career of recycling similar sounds and rewrites, but to their credit each time they have stepped into the studio they have been willing to experiment and explore. For a band that is so notoriously rowdy and loud, they have sneakily created a remarkably steady career for themselves.
Schulz and co. have always been synthesis at heart, mismatching a variety of genres without really settling on a specific sound, but with Auerbach acting as an auteur, here they have produced their most realized and consistent work.
(Trey Tyler)