Jacob Cooper reviews Cage The Elephant's 2019 album Social Cues.
Cage The Elephant seem to have seen yet another shift in musical direction as a follow up to 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty. This was an album that projected the band even further into the mainstream by incorporating sounds from the likes American garage rock bands The Black Keys and The White Stripes. However, with Social Cues, they seem to have created something that may leave some of the fans that got on board with the last album unsatisfied…
From the outset, this seems like a very different kind of album; where Tell Me I’m Pretty kicked off with the bluesy rocker ‘Cry Baby’, Social Cues starts with the raucous and hard-hitting ‘Broken Boy’. By contrast to ‘Cry Baby’, this song seems to have much more space in it, emphasising Shultz’s aggressive delivery throughout the track. Even the guitar parts seem sporadic, leading to a sense of joyous unease throughout the entire track. Cage The Elephant have always been a band with a talent for setting the tone of an album with its opening track and yet again, this album does not disappoint.
The second track seems to divert from this high-octane chaos into this much calmer and more controlled ‘Scary Monsters’ era Bowie-esque track. In line with this, lyrically the track appears more focused on the desperate anxiety felt by Shutlz as he wonders if he can continue to ‘play this part much longer’. This, quite coincidentally, appears to follow some of the lyrical motifs in Bowie’s later works (a particular track that springs to mind is Bowie’s ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’) focusing on the relentless life in the public eye. The juxtaposition between the high-octane and lyrically ambiguous ‘Broken Boy’ and the more direct and controlled Social Cues is a metaphor, a repeated sense of unease felt throughout the whole album.
This album features a notable number of slower ‘album tracks’ than previous records (particularly its predecessor) including ‘Black Madonna’ and ‘Love’s The Only Way’; the former feeling like a comparatively weak point in the album and the latter being instrumental in maintaining the tone of the album. The intimacy of both ‘Love’s The Only Way’ and ‘Goodbye’ serve to show a different side to Cage The Elephant than seen before, both songs feel much more personal than songs such as ‘Trouble’ and ‘Cigarette Daydreams’ from the previous two records.
Beck-collaboration ‘Night Running’ and track ‘House of Glass’ are particular highlights of the album and were correctly recognised as two songs that fans would appreciate as singles. Both songs are heavily bass driven, with ‘House of Glass’ following ‘Broken Boy’s aggressive delivery and explosive choruses. By contrast, ‘Night Running’, featuring Beck’s slower, rap-like lyrics almost feels like it belongs somewhere else, perhaps as a standalone single due to a notable deviation from the rest of the album’s vocal delivery. Having said that, it serves to enhance the album and is definitely one of Cage The Elephant’s most interesting tracks to date.
There are very few tracks on the album that are reminiscent of the band’s previous two records, something of a tribute to the band’s desire to continually evolve their sound. Tracks ‘Dance Dance’ and ‘Ready To Let Go’ are welcome additions to the album, combining warm hints of the past two records with the new edge that they appear to have developed. Interestingly, the guitars seem to take a lower priority in the mix on both of these tracks, to allow a greater sense of space, in line with what we have come to expect from Social Cues.
In summary, Cage The Elephant’s fifth, Grammy award winning album is their most sonically ambitious, yet revealing piece of work to date. This one may not have gone down as well as previous releases with their fans but proves to be artistically complex and an interesting listen, start to finish. While many bands run out of ideas after being around for this length of time, their sound is as fresh as ever, showing their strong desire to still be relevant and interesting for their fans.
8/10
Jacob Cooper
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