Considering how
Cage the Elephant
brought home the Best Rock Album Grammy for
Tell Me I'm Pretty
in 2017, it's a bit startling that its successor,
Social Cues
, abandons the rough-and-tumble aesthetic producer
Dan Auerbach
brought to the band.
Auerbach
helped
emphasize the bash-around garage elements lurking within their music, a sensibility that is absent on
.
CTE
work with producer
John Hill
, who previously helmed albums by
Florence + the Machine
, for this 2019 album, but a better touchstone for what they're attempting to achieve is
Beck
, who appears on the single "Night Running" and joined the group on a co-headlining tour in support of the album. Particularly on
Colors
, the 2017 LP that snagged him a Grammy for Best Alternative Album,
specialized in a bright, vivid pan-cultural pop, echoes of which can be heard on
also paints
with bold hues swiped from a primary palette, but they aren't especially interested in the here and now. While there may be some hints of modern flair on the margins -- they exhibit a particular fondness for drum machines --
beats to a neon-lit pulse appropriated from the glory days of MTV. Such a bright glare evokes the '80s, but like all
albums,
is a canny blend of familiar elements whose origin lies just out of reach. By making such a decisive shift in direction,
wind up dampening the squalls of
White Stripes
,
Strokes
, and
Pixies
that defined their first decade of records, but that change also emphasizes how the group are at heart pop-pastiche artists, favoring style and sound over a finely honed song. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine