Ready to…Review: Social Cues by Cage the Elephant
Not everyone can channel their emotions stirred from a divorce and the loss of two friends to suicide and create something vibrant - but Matt Shultz isn’t just anyone. The Cage the Elephant frontman turned his expression into experimentation creating the band’s fifth studio album, Social Cues.
I’d like to begin by unpacking the name of this album, Social Cues. To me, this title is a bold choice because of the weight the phrase holds - social cues play a role in our lives whether or not we abide by them. I find there to be a prominent absurdity within our current society; a mess and mirage of feelings and words and acceptance and rejection that creates an outlook that we project onto ourselves and then back onto life. It’s all quite cyclical.
Thus, since I appreciate Cage’s music in general, I was eager to hear their take on social cues. Even after just a few listens, I was very satisfied to have found what I was hoping for.
The album opens with a stand-out track called “Broken Boy”, personifying the word eccentric with an accelerating tempo backing spiking vocals.
Moving into the angsty, yet upbeat self-titled track, Shultz sings:
“I don’t know if it is right to live this way, yeah
I’ll be in the back room,
Tell me when it’s over,
People always say, ‘man, at least you’re on the radio’”
While I am not on the radio, these lyrics completely resonate with me because they portray a point blank expression of a part of the human condition often left unembraced in our society - the part where confusion meets guilt because we “should” be happy from an onlooker’s perspective. This song justifiably embodies the theme of album; it’s reflective, but not sad; it’s mature, but not boring. “Social Cues” feels like an active acknowledgement of the need to change, which, I think, is the only way growth can take place. While it may not be pretty, it’s honest.
“Ready to Let Go”, the first single off of this album, screams familiarity and frustration. I’m a sucker for self-reference, and was very happy to hear Shultz sing “I was blue, your dress was red” in reference to Melophobia’s “Hypocrite” - “Your favorite color red...you call me baby blue”. In addition to lyric reference, it audibly hints at Tell Me I’m Pretty’s “Too Late to Say Goodbye”. This was the perfect, accessibly familiar first single and is well housed in the center of the album.
In “Love’s the Only Way” Shultz expresses the hope and salvation he finds within the existence of love. The soft vocals are accompanied with harmonic and almost ethereal instrumentals. It acts as a reminder to breathe during this intense album, and it makes me feel like I’m sitting outside on a warm day.
Flowing from track to track, “Dance Dance” brings a groovy escalation of voice matching the rhythm, creating a layered texture of sound. I distinctly enjoy the lyric “Five-star paranoia, Hi-Fi superstition”, as I find it to be a clever play on Shultz’s position versus his perspective.
Slowing down into my current favorite, “What I’m Becoming” is glittery and endearing. Repetition of “I’m so sorry, honey” is met with the ironically unapologetic “for what I’m becoming”. Earlier in the album, “Black Madonna” follows a similar theme to a different drum reading, “Call me when you’re ready to be real”. Shultz is at a point where he demands authenticity of both himself and others.
Towards the tail end of this album, the rockstar offers a reflection in the form of an upbeat monologue. Speaking of his trials and tribulations navigating life thus far, “Tokyo Smoke” resembles a set of instructions to a pingy beat; this one is also among my favorites.
After 10 days of absorbing Social Cues, I can safely say that I’m very fond of it. Shultz has developed his feelings into a commentary on the (ongoing) process of figuring oneself out in relation to their surroundings and society. The rawness of this album is not only sonically encapsulating, but lyrically stimulating. Rather than a break up album, he’s created a masterpiece highlighting themes of growth and authenticity through his hardship.
With Social Cues, Cage the Elephant have created a story that I would define as a “coming of age”. I usually reserve that phrase to describe a teenager in a movie experiencing and then rising above growing pains, but Shultz, at the age of 35, is doing exactly that, just to the tune of rock music. All kinds of it.
- SJ
Stream Social Cues here
Get tickets to see Cage the Elephant with Beck and Spoon this summer here