Cage the Elephant entered the spotlight on a fun enough note when "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" first invaded the airwaves. On their second album, the band appeared to have made the great artistic leap forward, gaining legitimate comparisons to the Pixies. And now, with record number three, the Kentucky alt-rockers continue to progress and press onward.
Melophobia engages from track one, the crawling "Spiderhead." Minus a few dips in quality here or there (Alison Mosshart's vocal entrance on the otherwise wonderful "It's Just Forever" feels a bit too off-Broadway for the song's style), the entire work maintains a vicious sonic edge. Frontman Matthew Shultz's voice switches octaves and inflections in furious bursts. Although he is never quite as unrestrained as the Pixies' Black Francis (or as lyrically wild), he does once again uncannily incorporate many of the aspects that made the Pixies so memorable.
Cage the Elephant, however, are not the Pixies. They are a band with merits to be taken on their own terms. Though on the experimental "Teeth," Shultz may mention a character who "only speaks to hear his cheeks slap together and worship the sound of his own voice," the vaulted voice of Cage the Elephant itself is one well worth hearing. Melophobia's crunchy chords wind in playful twists of sound, making for an exciting and addictive album.
Grade: B+
