Cage the Elephant released an album that is viewed as a form of alternative music — “Neon Pill,” released May 17, contains a variety of different elements that are seen throughout the entirety of the album:electronic beats, indie rock and psychedelic vibes. This album consists of 12 tracks with a run time of 39 minutes. This is the first album that I have listened to from the band Cage the Elephant and I really enjoyed it. A variety of the tracks I listened to on this album were passionate songs and had a lot of emotion and energy within them.
I enjoyed a variety of songs on this album. Songs such as “Rainbow,” “Neon Pill” and “Metaverse” were songs that stood out to me. These pieces show a lot of vulnerability throughout the lyrics while also showing amazing beats and melodies throughout all three of these songs. Each piece also incorporates the elements of rock music and an electronic vibe. These elements made the songs cool and entertaining to listen to.
When I listen to the song, “Rainbow,” it is a very vibrant, euphoric track. That for me personally embodies the ideas of happiness and resilience. With a very catchy melody and lyrics that are very uplifting such as, “you lift me up when I get down,” or “right round got me floating like a rainbow.” These lyrics are very positive but also motivational, which put me in a better mood when hearing these lyrics. The production on this song was also just very upbeat with vibrant synths and infectious beats, which adds to the very energetic vibe of the song. Which made this song standout because I thought it was so positive and made me feel good about myself and had a very good vibe to it.
“Neon Pills” is sort of the opposite of “Rainbow.” It’s a moodier, more aggressive song then the very upbeat song that “Rainbow” is. “Neon Pill” has a variety of very haunting melodies, with a blend of elements of alternative rock. This song kinda gives you that feeling of urgency and intensity. It was a really powerful song that I thought was just put together very well. It had a good balance of raw/edginess to it and was also orchestrated very well. I thought this song expressed a variety of different themes to it like struggle or resilience that I could resonate too, which made the song even better.
“Metaverse” was a very captivating song filled with many influences of rock and electronic music. This song starts off with very strong beats and an amazing solo from the guitarist which gives a very energetic start to this song. I just really liked it again with the other two songs that this song has, which is a variety of different styles of music put into these tracks on this album. Again I thought this song stood out because it tackled a different theme compared to the other two songs where this one was aiming more at the theme of the digital world and how technology is becoming increasing in our society.. With lyrics such as, “bound to the pixels, were falling in between” and “ living out our lives in a cybernetic dream,” it was a really cool message to speak on.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this album for not knowing much about Cage the Elephants and being a bit hesitant to think that it would be good since I do not listen to much alternative music, which this band is known for. The tracks on this album were very creative, sounded good and had a lot of passion in them. There were definitely some tracks in the album that I would not listen to again, but a majority of the album is very solid. I would highly recommend you listen to this album at least once — I will definitely download the album or add music from the album to my next playlist.
“Neon Pill:” ★★★★☆
