Review Summary: It's not my birthday, but thanks for the gift! Hey...did you happen to keep the receipt by any chance?
Close to a year back now I saw Cage the Elephant live at St. Andrew’s Hall with a group of my friends. I attended not out of my liking for the band, but more or less out of boredom, the camaraderie factor, and the fact that my ticket was free (that alone probably would've been a good enough excuse to go). And even though all I knew about the group were two particularly annoying singles released around that time, and even though I found the rest of their material rather tame, they
did put on a pretty damn good live show. Despite their radio friendly, rednecky alterna-punker, faux Kid Rock-esc cockiness sound they presented themselves as a gang of rowdy noise makers who you would expect to be playing ugly, dissonant, and agitated music. Hell, lead singer Matthew Shultz even seemed to have an "Iggy Pop complex" going on throughout the show (though that may have just been because of the fact that they name dropped The Stooges several times during the show and decided to cover "TV Eye" and "Search and Destroy" in order to pander to the ravenous Detroit rock crowd).
In short, I never did find this band to be very impressive, and at their worst, I found them to be obnoxious and fairly boring. So naturally, I was surprised to find out that about a year later Cage the Elephant was on the cusp of releasing a sophomore album and that they had decided to infiltrate my mind and listen to my internal complaints that I had expressed towards their debut and that they had taken those complaints into consideration. Say "goodbye" to the dusty slide guitars and amateurishly snide ramblings of Matthew Shultz and say hello to the "new" Cage the Elephant and their..."post-punk" sound? Huh?!
Okay, to be fair, they're really not crossing over into Gang of Four territory just yet. Their music is still perfectly enjoyable to any fans they made with their first album. Consider this an "In Utero" type deal, where the band is just a little rougher around the edges, a little more interesting, and a little more abrasive than before. The first track here is a suitable introduction to this new sound. "Always Something" chugs along on a robotic dance drum beat, funky bass lines, dissonant reverberated guitar noise all with plenty of "empty space" tossed into the mix. On the flip-side of their new sound, the band dabbles with indie rock, such as in the lead single "Shake Me Down" which is carried along through sincere chord changes and an anthemic chorus. Hell, it's actually almost reminiscent of a long lost Pixies b-side.
Despite my half-assed praise thus far, there are still some qualities from the debut album present that continue to hold the band back. They
still struggle somewhat with the production of their songs, production which gives me the impression that they hired some Garageband and Pro Tools session musicians to take over some of the instrumental duties on the album. What also hurts the album somewhat is the feeling of hypocrisy in the lyrics of some of these songs. It's sort of the "big elephant in the room" so to speak (pun, only partially intended) and it just so happens to harm two of the songs I liked the most on here.
"Indy Kidz" and "Sell Yourself", are both oozing with ironic fluids. The former mocking the current Pitchfork fueled trends of hipsters (
"I wanna be just like you... drawls out Shultz at the beginning of the song.
"It's so easy to step aside and walk in line like all the rest" declares Shultz during the first verse) in a song awfully similar to Sonic Youth with its swirling guitar feedback and "cooler than thou" attitude. The latter presenting hypocrisy right off the bat. With the name "Sell Yourself", you can't help but remember that this band got their big break from selling their hit single "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" for use in a video game trailer. While none of this is enough to make me dislike either of these songs, it does radiate a sort of "lameness" that makes me wish I could send these boys a few Zappa albums to show them how snide social satire and commentary is
really done.
Cage the Elephant never do cross into confrontational territory on this album (for every risk taken there is a precaution taken to assure commercial viability remains intact) however, it is good to see a band this early into their career and right off the cusp of success willing to change their sound almost completely. They've managed to grow artistically and write an album that is enjoyable, if only averagely so. Maybe before they attempt to be self-righteous and criticize other trends they should stop being one themselves, and in the process, they should maybe write more memorable songs. Besides those mentioned, most of these tracks while not necessarily bad, leave almost no impression. It's an average album throughout with some slight indications that there is yet hope for this young band.
"Thank You, Happy Birthday" finds Cage the Elephant moving in the right direction, even if they seem a bit reluctant to fully leave their past behind. Who knows, maybe in a few more albums they'll pull a
Kid A and start making Arabian Folk Techno music. You never know.
