Tell Me I'm Pretty

Originally posted on December 7th 2015 on the Sustain & Resonance blog.

TELL ME I’M PRETTY! The mantra of every white girl whose wasted, who literally can’t even. Unlike girls who can’t even, the fourth album from rockers, Cage The Elephant, is not a war cry for attention but delivers rumbling rock that is hard to do anything but pay attention, belting out psychedelic and funk-ability groove after groove. This record definitely demonstrates the boys’ respect for the roots of electric rock. There is a heavy influence of sound between an early Yardbirds mixed with the Black Keys, which makes sense seeing as Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach is the producer on the record. If you are a fan of 60s rock, fuzz-faced tones, and heavily reverberated guitars, you will not be disappointed by the latest from Cage the Elephant.

There is a strong element of blues within the mix. Strip away the fuzz box on the solos and you have a tasteful blues number. Matt Shultz sings arguably the band’s darkest words to date, ex. Trouble‘s lines of asking God to help him keep his mind from going insane. With this album, his lyrics show a different side of what is traditional of this “genre” and, simply put, they are beautiful. The album’s solo acoustic number, How Are You True, brings an interesting change of sound hidden between heavily reverberated guitars that provides an escape from the dream-like sonic orchestra of the rest of the album.

However, as beautiful daunting and emotional as the album is, the songs seem to blend together from one to the next; and not in the crafty sense that Jerry Garcia or Brendan Bayliss creates. No, the blending together of each muse is created by a sonic palette of each song resembling the tone texture of the previous song. Not necessarily a bad thing, because they do the retro rockability thing well on this album, just not my cup of tea and certainly not for 10 straight songs.

I wanted to like this album, I really did. I have enjoyed Cage The Elephant since I first heard Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked on the radio and loved seeing them live on the beach at Hangout Music Festival. However, this album doesn’t capture my attention. To quote a previous song, this album “goes in one ear and right out the other”. So sorry, Cage The Elephant, I literally can’t even begin to tell you that you are pretty on this album.

Until next time, let the music play!