Cage The Elephant By Allison Mosshart: Song Analysis

Cage the Elephant is an American alternative rock band established in 2006 in Kentucky before they quickly relocated to London where they produced their first studio album and their first platinum record, “Cage the Elephant”, in 2008 with their hit single Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked. After reaching a certain amount of notability the band soon developed a real name for themselves and became known as a mainstream modern rock band. Three years succeeding their debut album Cage the Elephant released their second album, “Thank You, Happy Birthday” with their song It’s Just Forever, featuring the singer Allison Mosshart, this song adds a new element to the band, the female perspective. From the same album emerged another song, Aberdeen, which discusses

The inclusion of Allison Mosshart in this song breaks open the barrier put between women singers and the alternative rock genre. At this time, it is difficult for a female to arise in the rock genre however, this song has given Mosshart the opportunity to accelerate the process of getting women into alternative rock music. Musically, the instrumentation of this song has the typical Cage the Elephant sound that the audience has come to know and love, it possesses that rugged, bass-heavy masculine sound. In combination with the music, the lyrics provide insight into a toxic relationship. Matt Shultz begins threatening Mosshart with the guarantee that if she tries to leave him, he will hunt her down and claim her again, “You can run, you can hide / But girl, I'm gonna make you mine”. Mosshart responds with “Even if you treat me cold / I'll love you 'til we decompose” implying that no matter how horribly Shultz treats her, she continuously returns to him because despite their toxicity they love each other. The refrain of the song “It’s just forever”, is riddled with sarcasm, Mosshart is embodying the foolishness of their relationship, displaying how they have already spent an exuberant amount of time and energy into this relationship so they may as well be together forever at this point. As expected, every time Allison Mosshart sings her verses the music shifts with her voice, due to her voice being at a much higher pitch than Matt Shultz’s voice the other instruments need to shift along with the voice change. Anytime Mosshart begins to sing, the guitar gets a little heavier as the bass pulls back a little, this allows for her voice to fit snuggly between the guitar’s chords without fighting for room with the drums. During the