My Amazon Reviews: Cage The Elephant

Elephant's memory
4 Out of 5 Stars 

I guess now that Kings of Leon have proven that there's still an audience for loud, sloppy rock and roll, labels are tripping over themselves to find the next KoL. Seems they didn't have to look very far. Cage The Elephant hail from Kentucky and make a glorious, unbridled back-to-basics guitar racket that hails from the long buried collective memories of The Rolling Stones, The Faces and others that turned their amps up and started shouting at the world.

The main draw here was "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked," a snappy moralizing number that asks why people do devious things to survive. That survival theme runs through most of Cage The Elephant's music, with the kick start of "In One Ear" and the crossroads-type saga on "Drones In The Valley." There's plenty of old fashioned Us V. Them power that drives their music and more than enough unbridled energy to go around. No pretense, little gloss, good playing and good singing with no auto-tune in sight. Along with Crash Kings, one of the best of the current crop of new rockers.