Cage The Elephant
Thank You, Happy Birthday

I am reviewing this latest work by Cage The Elephant, not so much to write a good review in itself, but rather to "apologize" to this excellent band, which I have always liked from the first listen and which I have never managed to describe as they deserve.

So, the album in question was released about 4 months ago (January 11, 2011) and is the second studio work for Cage after their self-titled debut CD (2008), from which they have mostly taken the musical styles that characterized it the most, namely Punk-Blues and Garage-rock, but this time combined with other genres, such as alternative rock.

The first track, "Always Something," generally summarizes the entire work: without mincing words, these 5 guys, aware of their (moderate) success, have started to feel part of that consumerist and hypocritical society so much criticized by their own songs and have decided, therefore, to release all their anger and frustration at what they had become in these 12 songs. The same leader Matt Shultz said: "but on this record, I realized I was part of the hypocrisy. And I was like, wow, I'm a real piece of shit."

Thus the apparently useless and artistically senseless confusion becomes clearer and more understandable, thus the instruments do not play random notes, but have a close bond with each other, the background noises mean something, something very frantic and powerful.

The album always flows very strong and finds only 3 small "interruptions" with "Shake Me Down," "Right Before My Eyes," and the closing "Flow," which even though they slow down in rhythm and intensity, do not lose credibility in the lyrics.

In my opinion, the bass and guitar melody lines are very good. The drums are decent, and the singer's voice is excellent, interpreting each song well and giving an original shade between a scream and a slow, melodic "singing."

As for the artistic influences, besides the famous Pixies (as someone had suggested in the comments of the other review), I would also say that in this "thank you, happy birthday," bands like Mudhoney and the Butthole Surfers can also be found.

Please do not rate the album unless you have heard it or if you have only listened to 1 or 2 songs, because it is not a simple album and requires several listens... thank you and... Happy Birthday!!!!