The wicked may have not found rest, but they sure slowed things up a bit.
Cage the Elephant manages to show a different side of the group, as well as keep its unique sound. In its new album, “Thank You Happy Birthday,” the group also shows off its over-zealous lead singer Matt Shultz.
Once “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” was overplayed on Cage the Elephant’s first album, I felt I had to be in a certain mood to listen to the alternative band from Kentucky.
But its sophomore album has songs for my mellow side, angry side and the side that wants to scare the driver next to me, by banging my head a lot and shouting nonsense words at the top of my lungs.
Consisting of 12 (and one-half) songs, “Thank You Happy Birthday” definitely surprised me.
The band’s first album featured a happy medium between in-your-face loud anthems and songs with actual messages in their lyrics.
In this album, there are only a few songs in that middle — the rest are polar opposites, in both sound and meaning.
With songs like “Indy Kidz,” “Sabertooth Tiger” and “Japanese Buffalo,” you’ve got fast-paced songs you sometimes can’t understand and metaphor-filled lyrics you may live your whole life without ever really grasping.
Also, along with the screaming, there is what I can only describe as panting, which is always an interesting touch.
Then there’s “Aberdeen,” “2024” and “Around My Head,” the CD’s affectionate songs. They’re still fast-paced and witty, but there’s a touch of sentiment not heard in the first album.
Even though the band is dramatic, Cage the Elephant shows its meaningful side a bit more in this album.
In “Right Before My Eyes,” the group talks about something stressful, taking it seriously with lyrics like, “Right before my eyes I saw the whole world lose control/The whole world lost control before my eyes/I fell through the floor I couldn’t take it anymore/I can’t take this anymore, it breaks my mind.”
Two songs that stuck out the most — not necessarily for good reasons — were “Sell Yourself” and “Rubber Ball.”
These songs I listened to back-to-back, and they are the complete opposite of each other.
Once I was done with “Sell Yourself” and contemplating taking an Advil before the headache kicked in, “Rubber Ball” started playing.
Because it was so calm, it sounded like it could have been on the “Juno” soundtrack.
As I was approaching the end of the album, I noticed that the last song was more than seven minutes long. I was curious to say the least, since most of the previous songs were less than three or four minutes.
I played “Flow” and unlike the other meaningful songs — which sounded defeated — this one sounded hopeful.
With “Flow” you feel you should push forward because of all the things you can discover in this world, even if things seem bad at one point.
“Flow,” though displayed as 7:43 long, ends at 3:23.
Then there’s silence for about 25 seconds and a familiar sound pops up with acoustics.
If you wait patiently, you find you’re listening to half of the 12th song, an acoustic version of “Right Before My Eyes.”
Clever, CTE.
I’m not sure what the band was trying to pull with having a surprise track within a track, but Cage the Elephant has always been good to its fans, so it doesn’t surprise me they would throw an extra song in there as a gift.
Grade: B