Cage the Elephant's lead singer
Matt Shultz entered a period of psychosis some time after the release of
Social Cues, the 2019 album that won the Kentucky band its second Grammy for Best Rock Album.
Shultz's dark night of the soul culminated in an arrest for felony firearm possession in January 2023, a rock bottom that allowed him to enter recovery, after which he reunited with the band to continue work on
Neon Pill, an album he began writing before his breakdown.
Neon Pill doesn't necessarily reflect all this personal upheaval, at least on its shimmering surface. Working again with
John Hill, the producer who helmed
Social Cues,
Cage the Elephant once again cannily synthesizes a variety of alt-rock eras, marrying a neo-garage rock bounce with washes of psychedelia, punctuating the proceedings with new wave flair and the occasional earnest ballad. Six albums deep, it's a combination that feels familiar but
Cage the Elephant delivers their alt-rock pastiche with panache, concentrating as much on feel as hooks. It's an approach that's worked for them since their 2007 debut and continues to work on
Neon Pill since the shape-shifting sounds places an emphasis on the surface. This approach extends to
Shultz's delivery. He molds his vocals to the fuzz-toned guitar and analog synths, a skill that helps realize the sound of the song even if it doesn't necessarily encourage lyrical exploration. All this means is that it's easy to listen to
Neon Pill without decoding the confusion that lies at the heart of the songs. The album may have been written during a dark night of the soul but it was recorded with precision and concentration, ultimately obscuring the pain at the point of origin. It's an approach that hardly does a disservice to either
Shultz or
Cage the Elephant: it gives
Neon Pill an alluring, subdued pulse that soothes instead of stirs. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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