It’s been 10 years since the US release of Cage The Elephant’s self titled debut album and the London based Bowling Green, Kentucky sextet has been on a steady trajectory ever since. After showcasing at the 2007 South By Southwest music festival they secured their first ever tour as a support act for Queens Of The Stoneage. The following year they scored a Top 40 hit in the UK with their second single “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”. In early 2011 their sophomore album Thank You, Happy Birthday debuted at Number 2 on the Billboard 200 helping earn the band top spot on Rolling Stone magazine’s Readers Poll: Best New Artists of 2011. Prestige music fest dates followed at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella and Glastonbury culminating with a Grammy Award nomination in 2013 for their third album Melophoria. The best was yet to come with their 2015 Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) produced fourth album Tell Me I’m Pretty which went on to win Best Rock Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.

Released earlier this year Social Cues is the difficult follow up album. In choosing John Hill to produce (Rihanna, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Natasha Bedingfield, Demi Lovato, Portugal. The Man, Imagine Dragons, M.I.A.) Cage The Elephant seem patently intent on chasing the money and who can blame them? One quick glance at any recent Billboard 200 is perhaps the best indicator that ROCK is now a four letter word in the modern business of music. As far as big game music money is concerned rock n roll may not be dead but it’s definitely on life support. Cage The Elephant sound painfully aware of this fact on their latest record. Gone is the rock n roll edge of it’s Auerbach produced predecessor replaced by the polish and pageantry of blatant commercialism. Perhaps before recording Social Cues Cage The Elephant should have studied The Voidz (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes) exquisite 2018 Virtue LP in order to learn that one doesn’t necessarily have to sell their soul to rock n roll despite what their accountants might have to say regarding Virtue‘s dubious chart performance (Number 151 US Billboard 200).

The straight dope? There’s a few good songs on Social Cues but nothing great. The album starts promisingly enough with opening track Broken Boy which finds CTE picking up where they left off on Tell Me I’m Pretty. It doesn’t take long however for the rest of the album to get mired down in an array of programmed beats and synthesizers. At their core Cage The Elephant are a guitar based rock band in spite of the fact that the guitar is somewhat of an endangered species in today’s music charts. Burying what they do best in the mix is both a disservice to the band and to the album itself. House Of Glass is a standout track with it’s return to the bands edgy guitar roots followed by a deliciously delicate string arrangement for the tender ballad Love’s The Only Way. And so the best of CTE’s latest plays out. With the album ultimately charting at a very respectable Number 21 in the US Billboard 200 fans should expect more of the same for future releases. Or less, depending on how you look at it.

Rating 6/10

Star Rating 2/5

2019 Song Of The Day Club 15/52