Cage the Elephant
Tell Me I’m Pretty
(RCA)

Cage the Elephant’s newest record, Tell Me I’m Pretty, takes the blues and psychedelic rock, fuses them together, and does what can only be described as one of the most peculiar and enjoyable assaults on the ears of listeners. This album may be the greatest record that this Kentucky-based band has released. Maybe, it is because this album was produced by Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys or perhaps because this band has the experience of releasing three other records. Regardless, they are aware of their brand and the sound they create as a band, but because of their maturity and Auerbach’s guidance, they reach an entirely different stratosphere on this record than they have on their previous albums. The vocals of lead singer Matthew Shultz are darker and more earnest while the guitar still maintains the twang of any good blues song, but intermittently goes to explore the dreamy, unrefined qualities of psychedelic rock. Tell Me I’m Pretty is undoubtedly bizarre in the way that only Cage the Elephant can pull off, but because of their strangeness and the utterly prefect marriage they create between blues and psychedelic rock, the listener is left with a head full of brooding lyrics and crackly instrumentals that every 1960’s band dreamed and yearned for.