Cage The Elephant: A Tamed Return
2024 has brought many surprises for us all. One highlight in the American rock sphere has to be the release of Neon Pill, the sixth installation from the band from southern Kentucky, Cage The Elephant. Remaining mostly silent through the pandemic years, Cage’s return not only marks a breaking of that silence, but also a new chapter for the group. All twelve tracks are for CTE purists. They reflect the band as a whole, and the style they have carved out for themselves over their career in the industry.
Hi-Fi (True Light), the first track on the record, opens with an electric guitar strum. The drums and other instruments then kick in all at once with accompanying lyrics. It tells a story of a broken relationship with a repair bill that “comes at a high price, a price I can’t pay…” By the second song, however, the script is entirely flipped. The aforementioned relationship isn’t healed, and this seems to be an entirely different relationship altogether. The chorus echoes, “You lift me up when I get down, Right 'round, got me floating like a rainbow…” which is opposite “Up down, turn around, left and said it’s alright [all right]…” as found in the first song. “Rainbow” indeed seems to be a love song of a different kind, one that wanted to be written. It’s a love song born from maturity, and noticeably different from those written prior.
Skip a few good tracks and you’ll wind up on “Out Loud”. This story mimics that of the prodigal son found in the Bible (Luke 15:11-32). It’s about a son who demands his inheritance from his father, then squanders it as he lives a reckless life of gratification. With nothing left and being found with the pigs, the son returns to his father who welcomes him with open arms and is glad to have him safely returned. “With angry wings I flew out of that town, I promised you I’d never turn around…Cocaine buzz and a caffeine high…Chasing down a dream.”
By the second stanza, the tune of the runaway has changed. “From a thousand miles away, wish you were right in front of me…Man, I really messed up now…Clipped those wings and I came back home.” The nonchalant lifestyle is now meaningless and found to have led to emptiness. “Stick-and-poke tattoos meant nothin’ to me, as far as east to west and not a memory.” This implies the lifestyle once lived is forgotten entirely. When traveling, if you travel north, you will eventually be going south. If headed east, you will never go west (and vice versa). Also in the Bible, it is said of sin: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12, ESV) As Shultz writes in his song, it (the lifestyle) is “not a memory”. The life once lived in the song exists no more.
Speaking of “out loud” not once on the entire album does Shultz raise his voice. There’s no yelling or screaming like the Cage The Elephant some fans recognize and love. This is why the album is really for the traditionalist fanbase. The lyrics all through this record reflect solely the band, as influenced by no one. It’s one that doesn’t try to overshadow their accomplishments of the past. Rather, it turns a new page or writes a new chapter in their book. It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Cage. They didn’t come back with a bang, and that’s okay. They returned, and that’s all that matters.