The Dec. 18 release of Cage the Elephant’s fourth album, “Tell Me I’m Pretty,” was the best early Christmas present any ardent fan of the indie-rock band could have asked for. After the wild success of the band’s first album in the rock and punk scene, Cage the Elephant grabbed attention in other spheres of music and leaped onto pop charts in both the UK and the States. After the band released two more successful albums in 2011 and 2013, many of their avid fans have had their hopes set high for “Tell Me I’m Pretty.”
Upon listening to the whole album, many parallels can be drawn between “Tell Me I’m Pretty” and other bands’ work, such as The Black Keys and The White Stripes. The reason behind this is pretty straightforward: Dan Auerback of the Black Keys produced the album, and the touches he made to the band’s sound are blatant. The single for the album, “Mess Around,” showcases the similarities strongly, with a harmonious, layered chorus belted in an anthem-like way. This may have attracted Black Keys fans to the album, yielding a wider fan base.
As the album goes on, you can’t help but notice its overall gloomy tone. On tracks like “Cry Baby” and “Too Late to Say Goodbye,” the melancholy feelings are clear and pervasive from start to finish. In previous albums, lead singer Matthew Shultz delivered his songs in a rowdy, confident way that could get any crowd or private listener feeling rambunctious. However, Shultz has switched his rock ‘n’ roll, disorderly singing to a more somber and defeated-sounding approach.
Quieter vocals and more acoustic guitar than usual add to this pensive, depressing tone, and questions what kind of breakup Shultz may have gone through lately. Lyrics and song titles allude to despair and heartbreak, with him singing, “and I try to find the will to carry on / wonder how much longer I can carry on” in the track “How Are You True.”
Along with some objections to the dreary lyrics, many claim the songs on this album sound too similar to one another. With fewer “punchy” songs, such as their first real hit “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” it’s hard to distinguish one sad song from the next. Interestingly, Auerbach also produced an album for Lana Del Rey, whose similarly forlorn tone seems reflected in this work, as well.
Certain tracks, however, give fans a taste of the band’s past flair. “Punchin’ Bag,” for instance, is far more reminiscent of the “old” Cage the Elephant, with a faster pace and unruly feel to it. “Trouble” has proved to be a favorite of many. The instrumentals on this track and the falsetto vocals from Shultz are more impressive on “Trouble” than on any other song, and the lyrics, while still a bit glum, are far more relatable to the average listener than most of the rest of the album.
The overall feeling of the album corresponds to the sort of winter we’ve had: dark, gray and moody. The strong fan base, however, will be able to get past the shift in Cage the Elephant’s tone if they can appreciate the musical prowess the band still possesses.
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