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AlbumReviews: 'Tell me i'm pretty' by Cage the elephant
On their fourth full-length release, Tell Me Iâm Pretty, American band Cage the Elephant sheds studio production trickery and serves up a raw blast of melodic garage rock that goes straight for the gut
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On their fourth full-length release, Tell Me I'm Pretty, American band Cage the Elephant sheds studio production trickery and serves up a raw blast of melodic garage rock that goes straight for the gut.
It's an unflinching listen, with each song rounding up swiftly and effectively. The production style of Dan Auerbach, from garage-rock duo The Black Keys, favors looser rhythms and a fuzzier sound, reminiscent of the producer's own band. But thankfully Cage the Elephant still manages to express its own individual identity with 1960s-1970s melodic hooks.
Early Beatles playing through crunchy fuzz-effect pedals is a good summary of how TMIP sounds. There are other elements of classic rock of course; everything from Neil Young, Cream, to America filtered through modern Blues-based rock.
Opener 'Cry Baby' contains all galloping Ringo drums and Lennon-McCartney harmonies and lyrical whiplash ('Open up your eyes or life will pass you by' sings vocalist-guitarist Matthew Shultz), while the childlike hop and sneer of 'Mess Around' is more White Stripes via Tame Impala in its amalgamation of the old and the new.
'Cold Cold Cold' delivers tambourine splashes with plucky clean electric guitars and melodies made for the long road. 'Trouble' contrasts with laid-back melodies and electric piano tinkling throughout, shuffling between 'woohoos' and country-fied lyrics.
The song's gentle acoustic end leads into the whispered strums of 'How Are You True', an acoustic-folk ditty whose plucked bass and dry drums are reminiscent of alt-country precursors like early Son Volt or Uncle Tupelo.
Auerbach's crunchy production lends itself well to Cage The Elephant's penchant for classic rock and pop, and by peeling back the bells and whistles (not that the band were ever overtly polished), the production lets the songs' immediacy shine right through.
The band's songwriting has always been straightforward, with subtly arena-ready verses and choruses. It's easy to imagine tracks such as 'Sweetie Little Jean' and 'Mess Around' on the big stage; non-cerebral blues riffs and sing-a-long vocals.
The record ends with a duo of its strongest tracks, and relative to the album's straightforward quality, its most adventurous ones. The blues machismo of 'Portuguese Knife Fight' blasts with bonehead riffing atop a stuttering martial rhythm, with a good dose of distortion blanketing everything from the vocals to the drums and the organs.
Meanwhile, the ambient feedback that opens the seemingly anti-domestic-abuse track 'Punchin' Bag' makes way for simple 1/1 drum poundings and attitude-filled vocals.
For enough music fans, Cage the Elephant's riff-and-radio ready Blues rock provides a good dose of simple pleasure that makes for the best kinds of rock record.
The band's gold records attest to this. There's a minimalist, even wallpaper-like quality to the band's approach, and it is often difficult to discern between some of their tracks, but 'Tell Me I'm Pretty' is sure enough of itself and what it set out to do ' namely, provide melodies to bop your behind to ' and no matter its boneheadedness, it's difficult not to give it an A for effort.
