Melophobia

Melophobia is Cage The Elephant’s 3rd studio album, released in 2013, which houses some of their greatest hits, like “Come A Little Closer” and “Cigarette Daydreams.”

Cage the Elephant attempted to distance themselves from their influences, and making their own sound.

“Melophobia” means “fear of music,” in an interview, the group described the term as this:

A fear of creating music to project premeditated images of self, like catering to cool, or making music to project an image of being intellectual or artistic or poetic, rather than just trying to be an honest communicator.

In an interview with Matt Shultz at Lollapalooza, he talked a little more about the title of the album—speaking about how some great artists have “hated” the sound of their music, and at times during the production of the album, he was unsure of songs, and didn’t like how it sounded.

In this context, Melophobia could be taken to stand for the fear of not liking their own music. This also works hand in hand with Cage The Elephant distancing itself from it’s influences; they were afraid to make a new sound.

Later in the interview, Matt says that being the biggest fan of your own music is very important. He may fear that one day, he won’t be the biggest fan of his own music.

Inspired by the idea “to remain transparent and to remain honest,” Matthew Shultz (the groups frontman) used this album to deal with his own problems.

His friend, Tiger Merritt, told him:

If you’re not slightly embarrassed to sing the lyrics, you’re probably not writing a good song.

This made Shultz write more naturally, instead of poetically.

Shultz often doodles on the side of his lyrics while writing for visual reference.