Cage The Elephant - Cage The Elephant
'Lotus' begins like the start of a funky disco number by The Music in their early days, then mutates into a soggy chorus which disappoints.
Cage The Elephant hail from one of those infamous American Southern States. This time it's the turn of Kentucky, nicknamed the 'Bluegrass State' for its traditionally favoured musical style – and its bluegrass. They're yet another band clinging to the coat tails of Kings Of Leon's fame, over emphasising the southern style vocals, deliberately maintaining unkempt beards and grunge hair and - even worse - they claim to be this year's rock n roll heroes.
To be fair on them though, they have crafted some catchy tunes. Elements of every massive rock n roll genre can be detected in the melody driven songs which point to an upbringing likely to have involved some nu-metal amongst grunge, funk and a grand dosage of rock. 'Ain't No Rest For The Wicked' sounds ominously like a troubling mixture of Kid Rock and Anthony Kiedis (a vocal style which reappears throughout the album) set to a backdrop of sliding blues guitar and acoustic melody. 'Lotus' begins like the start of a funky disco number by The Music in their early days, then mutates into a soggy chorus which disappoints.
Musically, 'Back Against The Wall' displays the greatest example of rhythmic undertones reminiscent of 'nu metal' and an unusual sophisticated use of percussion obvious in 'Back Stabbin' Betty' concretes the feeling of a band drawing on multiple influences. Sadly, instead of continuing this individual musical style, the lyrics at times seem to have been substituted for pointless strings of expletives. Instead of demonstrating the intelligence they so obviously possess, it's as if they've chosen the 'cool' option and opted instead for middle-of-the-road Monkeys-esque whines: "they think they know my thoughts, but they don't know the least". The band doth protest too much. However, after a few listens, the album definitely grows and every song begins to sound like another you've heard somewhere before. A good thing?
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