Melophobia

For Melophobia, Cage the Elephant attempted to distance themselves from comparisons of the sound that influenced them, shutting themselves off from as much recorded music as possible. == Album cover ==

The album cover was designed by artist R. Clint Colburn. During the process of making the artwork Colburn sculpted a series of surreal, slightly grotesque miniature characters (plasticine / modeled figures), photographed them and placed them on a bold monochrome striped background that is seen in the final result. The visual treatment (clay figures + stark stripes) was selected from a set of characters Colburn produced; the band and art director chose the final figure and photographic arrangement. Several “making of” clips / behind-the-scenes show Colburn molding and photographing the figures for the sleeve. ==Composition==

"Come a Little Closer" was inspired by a morning in which Shultz woke up in a São Paulo hotel and opened his window to watch the sunrise over the favelas. Finding the makeshift housing comparable to an anthill, he soon found himself wondering what each soul inside each borough felt, whether it be heartache, love, loss or joy. Shultz viewed "Telescope" as the breakthrough song in writing honestly; he based it on his loneliness. During a bout of seasonal depression, he spent time in his new home for the first time after nonstop touring and found himself "doing life's meaningless tasks to fill the void to pass the time", including obsessively decorating and feeling obligated to spend time in each room. "Black Widow" features the usage of brass horns which Brad had been anxious to use for a while, however Matt was against the inclusion of such instrumentation which would eventually lead to a "big argument". Many riffs started raw; Brad/Matt would keep them if the feeling was there rather than polishing to perfect. Many songs were are built around tension between quiet and loud, space and saturation. They emphasized letting songs breathe. Finally they used made use of horns, odd chord voicings, off-beat rhythms, along with unusual tunings to add color and avoid songs sounding too similar. Melophobia seen the band moved beyond their usual garage rock and funky blues rock sound. They incorporated numerous sounds and instruments, which resulted in a more dark and mellow sound along with elements of psychedelic rock while still keeping some of the Blues style seen in their first two albums. Then with a strong vocal performance by Shultz it all came together to completely reinvent the band's sound. == Release and promotion ==

The album's lead single "Come a Little Closer" was teased via their YouTube channel on August 1, 2013, and premiered in full on August 8, 2013. It was released on iTunes for purchase on August 13. The song topped the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, peaked at number 7 on the Mainstream Rock chart and broke into the Canadian Hot 100 at number 72. The songs official music video was later released on November 13 of that year. “Take it or Leave It" was then released and appeared at number 7 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. "Cigarette Day Dreams" was the final single and was released on August 26, 2013 it also topped the Alternative Songs chart. The full album was officially released on October 8, 2013. Commercial performance The album debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on its first week of release, with around 18,000 copies sold in the United States. It also debuted at No. 6 on both the Top Rock Albums and the Alternative Albums charts. Internationally the album peaked at number 4 in the US. The album was officially certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on November 10, 2022, for selling over 1,000,000 copies in the United States. The album had also received platinum certification in New Zealand and gold certification in Brazil. Touring Following the release of the album, in January 2014 Cage the Elephant announced an extensive tour in support of the album. The tour started on February 3, 2014 in London and ended on on May 20 in Oakland, California. The tour seen them make stops in Europe in the UK, France, Belgium, Ireland and Denmark. The second leg of the tour took place in South America with shows in Argentina, Chile and Brazil. The final leg of the tour strictly took place in the United States. Additionally they made multiple festival appearances at the Coachella Music Festival, Lollapalooza Brazil, Chile and Argentina. ==Critical reception==

Melophobia has received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Brian Mansfield of USA Today designated it "Album of the Week," summarizing that "Melophobia may mean 'fear of music,' but there's nothing to be afraid of: Its glorious chaos makes for thrilling listening." While August Brown of the Los Angeles Times viewed Melophobia as "a bit more stoned and mellow" than its predecessor, "they're in a class of their own [...] Let's just be glad to have such imagination on our drive time rock radio again." Holly Gleason of Paste described the album as "post-modern glam revival," praising Jay Joyce's production and opining that "Melophobia is united in both the urgency of the performances and the seemingly toxic love affairs that populate these songs." Rolling Stone Jon Dolan considered the record a combination of "Sixties garage rock, Seventies punk and Eighties alt-rock into excellently weird new shapes." Doug McCausland of Alternative Nation said Melophobia was Cage's strongest record at the time. Alternative Press Jason Schreurs wrote that Melophobia "is, at its best, ambitious and teeming with ideas and, at worst, one heck of a mish-mash of sounds." The album was band’s first to be nominated for a Grammy in Best Alternative Music Album category at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. ==Track listing==

;Cage the Elephant • Matthew Shultz – lead vocals • Lincoln Parish – lead guitar, keyboards • Brad Shultz – rhythm guitar, keyboards • Daniel Tichenor – bass, backing vocals • Jared Champion – drums ;Additional musicians • Jeff Coffin – saxophone on "Black Widow", "Hypocrite" and "Teeth" • Roy Agee – trombone on "Black Widow", "Hypocrite" and "Teeth" • Mike Haynes – trumpet on "Black Widow", "Hypocrite" and "Teeth" • Alison Mosshart – vocals on "It's Just Forever" ;Production • Jay Joyce – production • Tom Elmhirst – mixing engineer • Ben Baptie – assistant mixing engineer • Jason Hall – engineer • Matt Wheeler – assistant engineer • Tom Coyne – mastering ;Artwork • R. Clint Colburn – cover art ==Charts==