Messing around has come a long way since Ray Charles recorded “Mess Around” in 1953, one of the worst songs you’ll never want to hear, so skip it, and dive right into the new “Mess Around” by Cage the Elephant, a weird name for a rock group I had never heard of until Dave selected it.
This song has all the things you want a song to have: it’s catchy, hip, smooth, sophisticated, with all kinds of interesting sounds, words and vocals mixed together into a great song.
The story line is she’s alluring, tough, and trouble, but he doesn’t care; he wants her.
To get the full experience, watch the over the top video–all the visuals are from George Melies’s early 1900s sci-fi fantasy movies (featured in the movie “Hugo” from four years ago). Melies was a magician as well as an innovative movie maker, and watching his surreal, LSD-like, color saturated images backed by this crazy song left me energized and smiling. That’s a lot for a 2 minute and 58 second song to deliver
Background
Cage the Elephant formed in 2006, in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
They have recorded songs of varied musical genres but at their core they are rockers.
They have a large fan base.
They have received awards and radio airplay.
Next month, they release a new album–“Tell Me I’m Pretty.” “Mess Around,” the first single from the album, is already in the “alternative radio” Top 10.