“Ready To Let Go“ - Cage the Elephant

Originally published by Alt Citizen 

I’ll admit, for a while there Cage The Elephant was a kind of a guilty pleasure, especially their early singles that came perilously close to one hit wonder status. They’ve all but shed their early novelty-rock tendencies and have grown into one of the most unique and engaging bands on the scene today. It’s been a little bit since their last proper album, 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty, and the live and mostly unplugged Unpeeled release of 2017 was an arrestingly beautiful and mature retrospective of the band’s back catalog that set the level of anticipation for new music pretty high.

Boy, does this new single deliver the goods. Lyrically musing on the temporary nature of existence and a failed relationship sabotaged by his own nihilistic tendencies, Matt Shultz is in full on Iggy Pop mode in the new video; wiry, muscular, and dangerously androgynous. Some of the imagery can be a bit heavy handed with visible influences drawn from Kubrick and giallo films, but even with eyes wide shut the song is a great lead single. I think we’re in for a treat when Social Cues releases in full on April 19th.