Cage the Elephant’s new album, Melophobia, released a little over a month ago, impressed fans of the band’s twist of style, witch switched back and forth from light indie sounds to dark sounds of alternative rock throughout the album.

The album was said to consist of sixties garage rock, seventies punk and eighties alt-rock. Its mix of genres attracted a wider audience, whether they were more of the grungy rock type or the melodious indie type. The album transitions from sounds of hard guitar and drums to more fainted sounds which fade behind the lyrics. “Spiderhead” opens up the album with the band’s traditional music and songs like “Come a Little Closer” make the album take a turn to new sounds which introduce a calm vibe from a guitar and gradually pick up the beat with blasts of drums and electric vibrations.

I was not only pleased by the music of the album but also the name. “Melophobia” is of course a non-existent word but I had guessed that the prefix, melo-, stood for a melody and of course phobia means a fear of something. I put the two together and came to the conclusion that the name of the album was a fear of music.

The band had put together sounds of nostalgia for old music from the greats. They take sounds and references from the Pixies and The Beatles in order to form this nostalgic creation.

Melophobia’s instrumental sounds feature low brass tones from “Black Widow” and creaky cello noises like in “Telescope” which both fade out and plunge in. All these sounds portray the shifts in the band’s musical mood throughout the album.

The main theme of the album is regretting and longing for the past, wanting to freeze in the present, and dreading the future. Questions arise of whether everything will turn out alright and an alternate universe comes up of how life would be in the present-in a different atmosphere and environment. Memories of the past are missed yet mistaken. Matthew Schultz, the leader of the band expresses himself through lyrics of this exasperated theme.

This album is definitely one which should be looked at more deeply and replayed from beginning to end more than once. I have not only enjoyed the new sounds of Cage the Elephant but have also picked up on their new intentions for their music and I’m yearning to hear of their future album to come. Listening to this has not only made me nostalgic for old sounds from the greats but has also given me a true fear for their music, a chilled and yearning fear.