The band's sixth album deals with psychological difficulties and personal loss
“Like loaded gun, my love/I lost control of the wheel/Double cross from a neon pill,” sings Cage the Elephant's Matt Shultz on the title track from the Kentucky band's sixth album. The sound is familiar, a smart, understated garage-rock swagger that's a prime example of their ability to pull off a throwback style. But the lyrics are far from burnout boilerplate. Several years ago, Shultz experienced a psychotic reaction to prescription medication and in 2023 was charged with criminal possession of a firearm. Describe what happened Rolling rockEthan Millman as “an unstoppable horror film.” Two songs earlier, on “HiFi (True Light),” when Shultz sings “ok, I'm fine” as his brother, rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, and lead guitarist Nick Bockrath hold a TV-like guitar conversation , even that. The tossed off bravado seems intensely scared, like it's music where there isn't much emotional room to breathe.
The process of what another song here calls “shadowboxing shame and self-inflected mind-games” has given Cage the Elephant's music a much-needed urgency. Their latest album, from 2019 Social cues, which revolved around the theme of stat rock's malaise, a non-universal idea that the band rescued with a set of songs that cleverly combined '60s traditionalism and '80s revisionism. Apparently, the mental strain Shultz sang about has been contrasted more sharply than his recent troubles. Once again, they team up with producer Jonah Hill, whose Grammy-winning resume (Eminem, Rihanna, etc.) might seem a bit unlikely for a rugged, versatile guitar crew. But his light touch is matched by a supple sound that shifts from the introspective '70s piano-pop of “Float Into the Sky,” to the stripped-down glam-rap of “Good Time,” to “Rainbow,” a snapshot search for salvation. psychedelic soul-pop. A son Social cues, the band pulls off a neat trick of historical refashioning, often suggesting a late 1970s funky Southern rock band that just fell in love with UK punk and New Wave. “Ball and Chain” is a dark grid of guitar over a murky groove. “Shy Eyes” sounds like Iggy Pop making an album for Factory Records in 1980.
What evolves among all of the album's many genre tweaks is the sound of a band using sounds they love to pull themselves through real drama. “Silent Pictures” is a haunting picture of a life on the edge (“I don't wantna think about it/I just want the world to disappear,” Shultz sings), set to tense drums and a searing guitar that stretches to horizon even as the lyrics hint at oblivion. They end the album with “Over Your Shoulder”, in which the band deals with another deeply personal matter, the death of Matt and Brad's father. “Seeing the image of it rippling past/Just a drop, life moves fast,” Shultz sings over a somber acoustic guitar. It's this sense of pain and perseverance that pushes this music beyond clever modern rock and roll into something deeper.
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