It had been five years since Social Cues. As an avid Cage The Elephant fan, the near silence from the band was concerning — were they ever going to make music again? Finally, the band announced they would be releasing Neon Pill in May of 2024. I anxiously awaited the album, thrilled to hear new music with that classic Cage sound. On release day, I tuned in … and while that was definitely Matt Shultz on the mic, what I heard didn’t sound like a Cage The Elephant record to me. Don’t get me wrong — the band still sounded great. But after the (more than warranted) hiatus and subsequent drought of new music, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing from Neon Pill. After a few more listens and a return to their earlier music, I realized what that was: nostalgia. Cage was one of the very first alternative rock bands I listened to, and that meant my early encounters with them involved their oldest records: their namesake debut album, Thank You Happy Birthday, Melophobia and Tell Me I’m Pretty. So, to celebrate their return and experience that nostalgia, I gave Melophobia another listen.
“Spiderhead” is an aggressive start to the album and one of my favorite songs off Melophobia. The chaotic, grungy sound of the song perfectly captures the confusion that is created by a toxic relationship. “Come a Little Closer” is less in your face than “Spiderhead” but still maintains that signature grungy sound. It has a catchy chorus with a creepy vibe that completely works. According to Shultz, he was “inspired by the thought of things appearing different at first and then seeing them in a new light.”
“Telescope” is slower and softer, providing the album with a bit of diversity. It features pretty but simple instrumentals, and Shultz has explained that “it has strong roots in that feeling of imminent doom”; in other words, it’s the quintessential moody Cage The Elephant track. Melophobia picks back up with “It’s Just Forever” featuring Alison Mosshart who comes in during the refrain. It’s rare to hear a female voice in a Cage song, so “It’s Just Forever” is definitely a refreshing addition to the record.
“Take It or Leave It” picks up over the course of the song along with Shultz’s voice. Here, he tells his partner to stop playing with him and commit to their relationship, continuing the theme of confusion presented in “Spiderhead.” He sings, “Maybe I’m fooling myself and you’re already gone / Watching the flames wither and fade / Trying to make sense of the look on your face / I’m down on my knees just praying that I can hold on.” “Halo” is another one of my favorites from this album, and is also similar to “Spiderhead,” both in sound and theme. Shultz said of the song, “I wanted to write about something that you struggle with and battle to get away from, but I wanted to make it sound like it’s about a relationship, even though it’s not.”
“Halo” is followed by “Black Widow,” an upbeat track featuring a falsetto-pumped chorus and a fun horn element. “Hypocrite” is another soft track where Shultz’s voice is the song’s centerpiece and has a clear quality that can’t be found elsewhere in the album. “Hypocrite” also includes an allusion to The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” in the line: “I won’t ever do that again, I’ve been all over the place / I watched the strawberry fields dry up and wither away,” suggesting the disappearance of childhood innocence. This song stands in stark contrast with “Teeth,” a louder, more punk-infused track with a long monologue outro. Shultz shared that this track “is about the vibrancy of life and how things are changing,” going on to say that for the monologue, he conducted an “experiment” where he told his friends to “just speak from their hearts” and took words out of that experiment.
Melophobia concludes with “Cigarette Daydreams,” one of Cage The Elephant’s most well-known songs. “Cigarette Daydreams” is a completely different animal than the rest of the Melophobia tracks — it’s not Cage’s usual style, yet I couldn’t imagine anyone else performing this song in such a right way. There’s a reason for this: Brad Shultz, Matt Shultz’s brother and rhythm guitarist for Cage The Elephant, explained that Matt “was talking about maybe using it for something other than Cage … this was a moment of realization like, ‘Why do we have to write Cage The Elephant songs? We can just write songs, regardless of what style of music they might be.’”
I truly could not be happier that Cage The Elephant is continuing to make music. Even though Neon Pill doesn’t give me the same feeling of nostalgia that earlier Cage albums like Melophobia do, that’s ok. There’s beauty in being able to revisit earlier, nostalgia-filled Cage records and experiencing this new era of Cage The Elephant — and if there’s one takeaway from Neon Pill, it’s that they’ve still got plenty left in the tank.
Test Spins is a weekly throwback column reviewing and recommending classic and underrated albums from the past. It runs every Friday.
Sydney Levinton is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].