Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 26/01/09
Label: Relentless

Guitar music, we are reliably informed by the kind of people who view the ephemeral fluff of Lad GaGa as some culture for good rather than the spectacular misfire that it is, is dead. It's over, finished, done with and thrown away like so much garbage. They are, of course, only partly correct as time has run out for the lightweight guff as peddled by the likes of pretenders The Wombats, the execrable Courteeners and their tedious ilk.

This, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether. Cage The Elephant are a rock'n'roll band and the urges that drive them on are as powerful as they are palpable. Crucially, they aren't touting the formulaic perception of rock'n'roll but instead take its template of shooting from the hip, surrendering to primal urges and giving the sound a firm boot up the backside as its dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

So let's get this straight: guitar music toted by unimaginative upstarts more motivated by fame as an end in itself are dead and buried and we spit on their grave. As a wise man once sang, "Rock'n'roll will never die" and here's the proof.

    by Julian Marszalek