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Entertainment WeeklyApr 29, 2019The album's introspection paired with its urgent energy make Cage The Elephant sound more passionate than ever. [3/10 May 2019, p.95]
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Apr 30, 2019Social Cues is Cage The Elephant’s darkest and most personal album yet.
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UncutApr 18, 2019This audacious album succeeds not by altering Cage's distinctive identity but by exponentially amplifying it. [June 2019, p.26]
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Apr 18, 2019But even as the lyrics detail troubled thoughts, the music staves off self-pity with distorted tones, obstinate drumbeats and unhistrionic vocals.
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Apr 18, 2019The band’s best work to date.
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Apr 18, 2019While Social Cues contains copious amounts of their signature buzz-saw guitars and frenetic, energetic vocals, it also shows Cage The Elephant's willingness to push the envelope and take some chances, although it's more like coloring outside the lines than it is a brand new drawing.
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Apr 18, 2019This is the sound of Cage The Elephant exploring every corner of what they are.
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Apr 17, 2019If this is an old story, Social Cues is a dynamic, uncommon telling.
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MojoApr 16, 2019Musically, it's a radical rethink. [May 2019, p.89]
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Apr 22, 2019Social Cues not an overly adventurous record, but it's the sound of a band who know their niche in contemporary alternative rock and how to deliver every time.
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Apr 19, 2019By making such a decisive shift in direction, CTE wind up dampening the squalls of White Stripes, Strokes, and Pixies that defined their first decade of records, but that change also emphasizes how the group are at heart pop-pastiche artists, favoring style and sound over a finely honed song.
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Apr 16, 2019Social Cues shows the group maturing musically without losing its grip on their ability to craft haunting, accessible tunes ready for the larger venues they have rightfully graduated to.
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Apr 16, 2019A satisfying collection of glitzy anthems, breezy vibes, and even some earnestly introspective highlights that showcase technical and creative maturity amid a continuation of that efficacious recipe.
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Apr 22, 2019If Social Cues isn’t a bad album by any stretch; it’s nonetheless, in the band’s discography, surprisingly generic.
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Apr 19, 2019It would have been fascinating to see the band take a drastic turn and lean into experimentation, but instead they’ve returned with a relatively underwhelming fifth album.
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May 10, 2019Though Cues features some of their most accomplished songs yet, their eagerness to please both sides (not to mention a woeful Beck cameo on the dub-reggae fusion of Night Running) make for a sometimes coldly calculating listen.
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Classic Rock MagazineMay 3, 2019Social Cues feels like the sound of a great band in desperate need of some down time. [Jun 2019, p.88]
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Apr 17, 2019The band’s continuing experimentation with studio personnel, producers, influences, and ranges of emotion should be applauded. But a little more grit in the riffs would be nice.
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Q MagazineApr 16, 2019While it doesn't measure up to such great break-up albums as Beck's Sea Change or Blur's 13, Social Cues still possesses emotional heft. [June 2019, p.108]
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Apr 17, 2019The underlying intensity to their music on previous records is stripped away, leaving in its wake a bland and largely forgettable experience.
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Apr 19, 2019‘Social Cues’ is a study in US radio - or so it seems, each song a suitable soundtrack to faceless car journeys along nondescript roads: think Imagine Dragons in leather jackets and ripped jeans, if you will.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 69 out of 77
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Mixed: 7 out of 77
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Negative: 1 out of 77
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Apr 24, 2019
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Apr 19, 2019Melancholy. Sick grooves. You'll want to dance with your sadness with this one.
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Apr 19, 2019