Thank You, Happy Birthday

Although you’d never guess it from the poppy sway of their breakout hit ‘In One Ear’, Cage The Elephant are as unhinged as bands come. On their eponymous debut, the noise-rockers sold us a radio-friendly brand of grunge lite, but nowadays, their sound bears a stronger resemblance to Blighty’s rock luminaries (Blur and The Clash for starters) than anything to come from their native Kentucky.
Borrowing from the Brits seems to have paid off for the rowdy quintet of late, as Thank You, Happy Birthday debuted at No 2 in the US charts. When an album as experimental as this one sells 39,000 copies in its first week and out-Billboards Rihanna and Katy Perry, it’s pretty big news.
Thank You, Happy Birthday is nothing if not tempestuous – ‘Sabertooth Tiger’, a furious, snarling, gear-smashing number, is immediately followed by the subdued shoops of ‘Japanese Buffalo’, which promptly collapse into blazing screamo yelps. Tender acoustic number ‘Rubber Ball’ borders on ambient rock, while ‘Where’s My Mind?’ soundalike ‘Aberdeen’ echoes the Pixies in their harsher moments.
Elsewhere, the certified Anglophiles indulge in straight-up freak-out rock, but as evidenced by sinister opener ‘Always Something’ and tuneful single ‘Shake Me Down’, there’s always a singable melody at the core, spluttered out by frontman Matt Shultz in a messy, defiant growl.
Regardless of which side of the pond Cage The Elephant have been drawing inspiration from, Thank You, Happy Birthday is brash, sexy and fearless. And really, isn’t that what those pesky charts have been missing?