This selection was chosen by Gen Z son.

Gen X dad says… Cage The Elephant are one of those bands that has always seemed to be around in this century, but in reality their first release came out in 2008. They’re also one of those bands that when I look up a song I think is kind of OK and I realize that it is them my reaction is always “oh right, Cage The Elephant.” Maybe it is the name and/or age, but I also tend to confuse them with Portugal, The Man.

Band names can be a challenge. According to the band, their name comes an incident in which lead singer Matt Schultz was approached after a show and hugged by a mentally disturbed man who repeatedly said “you have to cage the elephant.” So there’s that.

The band hails from Bowling Green, Kentucky (site of the widely known, but non-existent Bowling Green Massacre of course) and Tell Me I’m Pretty is their fourth album. It was released in 2015 on RCA Records and won “Best Rock Album” at the 2017 Grammys. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys was the producer. The Black Keys are another band that I often find myself remarking on with “oh right… The Black Keys.”

There’s a certain quality and sound with bands like Cage The Elephant, The Black Keys, and others from the 2000s that I can’t quite put my finger on. The songs are all well played and produced. But they tend to blur together when I listen to them. They’re instantly enjoyable and quickly forgettable all at once. Hence my frequent refrain of “oh right, {insert band name here}” with them.

Auerbach’s involvement on Tell Me I’M Pretty results in a collection of songs that sound to varying degrees like his own band. This is particularly true on songs like the lead single Mess Around and Punching Bag. Elsewhere the band breaks out of that mode a bit on tracks like Trouble, How Are You True, That’s Right, and Sweetie Little Jean. According to Schultz, the band took inspiration from David Bowie’s “eclectic and ever-changing style.” I don’t really hear that, but it is a nice thought. Probably the closest they get to really mixing things up is with the glam rockish closing track Portuguese Knife Fight, which is my favorite of the bunch.

Gen Z son says… Around the time when I first moved from Dallas, TX, which was my birthplace, to Chicago, IL, I started to listen to the radio more – mostly this one station (WXRT) that played a bunch of music by well-known rock bands. Among the bands I got introduced to were Of Monsters And Men, who I’ve seen live twice, Foster The People, and Cage The Elephant, who are from Bowling Green, KY. The story of how they got their iconic name is actually pretty funny if you want to look it up yourself. 

Their fourth album, Tell Me I’m Pretty, was released in 2015 and spawned the singles Mess Around, Trouble, and Cold Cold Cold. It also won “Best Rock Album” at the Grammys. It’s not hard to see why it won that award, seeing as it is indeed a very strong set of songs – one thing noteworthy is their unique combination of Blues, Indie Pop and Garage Rock, among other genres, backed with band member Matt Shultz’s recognizable vocals and, to be frank, pretty dark lyrics.

Overall, Tell Me I’m Pretty is an amusing, if not slightly compelling record. The songs themselves are pretty well-written and enjoyable, but the main highlight for me is the lyrics – they are very well written, and they do manage to talk about certain difficult subjects without bringing down the otherwise upbeat feel of the album. Definitely a recommendation.