Cage The Elephant

Jun 18 2008 12:20 pm,

3.5

Cage The Elephant

‘Cage The Elephant’

(Relentless)

As anyone who’s been to one of their gigs will testify, Cage The Elephant’s shows are feral, riotous affairs. Which poses a problem for the Kentucky five-piece’s self-titled debut – namely, how do they go about, umm, caging the beast? Well, they tame it, naturally. If their live show resembles Iggy Pop smashing his skull into The Rolling Stones, then here he’s just giving ‘em knucklehead. And given a bit of room to breathe, the songs shine – opener ‘In One Ear’ is their riff-laden, bile-spittin’ manifesto, ‘Lotus’ drives on a pulsating, adrenaline funk groove, whilst ‘Soil To The Sun’ is big-chorused, scuzz-rock blues. The only disappointment is the weak recording of devil-blues live favourite ‘Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked’, but it’s a minor gripe on a hugely promising, highly octane debut.

Niall Doherty

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