7/10
Favorite Track: "Come a Little Closer" Least Favorite Track: "It's Just Forever"
Melophobia ; the fear of music. Melophobia is the third studio album by American rock band Cage the Elephant. While not necessarily my favorite effort from these Kentucky noise rock kids, Melophobia is more of a mixbag compared to their previous projects up to the point of its release ; their debut, self-titled, LP Cage the Elephant, and their second studio effort in Thank You, Happy Birthday were both more of a sticky key to one specific niche style garage rock sound. However, Melophobia offers some tracks that are a little more punk than anything they had done so far and some tracks that are a little less punk than anything they had done up until that point. One outbring Melophobia did bring was a much needed improvement in the lyrical department for these guys. One of my biggest complaints regarding their discography up until this release had to do with some of the cringier lyrical approaches in subject matter they would take. For example the unintentional hypocrisy presented in “Indy Kidz” off of Thank You Happy Birthday, and admittedly I had this same issue with their wildly popular cut off of their debut LP ; “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”. From cover to cover Melophobia mostly eliminates this as an issue. For example the intro track “Spiderhead” is pretty solid lyrically. I really like the themes of inner conflict presented by Matt Shultz when he shrieks about “Spiders in my head, spiders in my mind”. Most certainly better thought out than some of the cringier and less appealing trends in subject matter in their previous efforts. I also love the noisy and rhocus take on this track, the instrumentals fit the lyrics very well. The subtle xylophone notes provide a solid backing for the distorted and harsh guitars throughout. “Come a Little Closer” is another great track in the first half. The steady and epic baseline gets stuck in your head like glue, as do some of the intense drum fills that connect the verses and the chorus. Jared Champion and Daniel Tichenor’s rhythm section couldn’t of done a better job with this track. The way the song progresses in and out of the some of the slower sections gives it sort of this ballad feel, like something you would hear out of an adventure movie. Some more of the lyrical improvement on the project is presented on the next cut “Telescope”. I truly believe this is one of the first tracks that Cage has given me where they have presented a character that works well lyrically and the way they paint the picture on “Telescope” is a home run. Shultz, tells the story of a recluse and his confusion about his future and just the dynamics of his mind and his shortcomings. It’s a rather sad and emotional story. However, the road doesn’t stay this mild and smooth for the whole record. “It’s Just Forever (feat. Alison Mossheart)” didn’t sit well with me at all. In my opinion Mosshart's and Shultz’s voices really do not mix well together, especially on the chorus where they combine to sort of build this raspy refrain that sounds less punk rock and more just annoying. It was enough to pretty much ruin the track for me. “Take it or Leave it” and “Halo” are both notable tracks that go over rather well. The hook on “Halo” is a pretty fun earworm. Track #9 ; “Teeth”, drags on an awful lot. The noisy mix on the cut is okay for about the first two minutes until it kind of hits this loop where it becomes anything but pleasant. There is this sort of spoken word passage about storytelling at the end that’s pretty intriguing. More than anything it provides an interesting contrast and transition into the closing track ; “Cigarette Daydreams”. The boys go full ballad in this one about the confusion that two people can feel in a relationship without really knowing why. At least that's the way I interpreted it. Shultz talks about how “You can drive all night
Looking for answers in the pouring rain”. Quite a few lyrics in this track continue to talk about things like confusion and looking for answers. It’s a decently powerful track presented over some beautiful acoustic. Melophobia is a fun listen. I think it was more of a stepping stone for the bands next project (which is my favorite from them) but, a much needed and rather enjoyable stepping stone nonetheless.