Listen Up! No. 89: Cage the Elephant - Shake Me Down

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Bemused as you, me or anyone else - besides whoever is buying the records, ofcourse - may be that this Kentucky quintet's middle-ranking, wholly derivative alternative rock has pierced the upper echelons of the Billboard charts with second album Thank You, Happy Birthday (currently sitting at #2), you can't help but admit their stones. They are to Jay Reatard's earlier output what Tokyo Police Club are to Sunny Day Real Estate: a streamlined model, shorn of the insouciance and character but boosted by instruments you can hear and songs you can sing. Not to mention fans too young to know of or care for the difference. Come to think of it, a bit like Jay Reatard's last album was to Jay Reatard's earlier output. The UK doesn't get the record 'till March 21st, with trailing single 'Shake Me Down' dropping the week before.