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Cage The Elephant Set February 5 Release for Dying In Reverse and Share Make It Easy

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Cage The Elephant frontman Matthew Shultz performing live, singing into a microphone among a festival crowd
Cage The Elephant frontman Matthew Shultz performing live in front of a festival crowd. Photo: @cagetheelephant

Cage The Elephant are opening a new chapter nearly twenty years in. Dying In Reverse arrives February 5, 2027 on Big Loud Rock, the new single Make It Easy is out now, and the band say the record brought them closer together after a creative reset on the road with Oasis.

Multi-GRAMMY Award-winning rock band Cage The Elephant have announced their new album Dying In Reverse, to be released February 5th, 2027 via Big Loud Rock. The announcement comes alongside the release of new single “Make It Easy” following a whirlwind week that saw the band debut the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night and perform at an intimate venue in Los Angeles on Wednesday. During the Kimmel appearance, Jimmy held up the artwork for the then-unannounced album without revealing what it was, sparking widespread chatter among fans before today’s official announcement.

Nearly twenty years into their career, Cage The Elephant have accomplished just about everything a rock band could hope to achieve. They’ve won GRAMMYs, built a catalog of generation-defining alternative hits, and graduated from clubs to arenas and stadiums around the world. But sustaining that level of success presents its own creative challenges. The instincts and routines that carry a band through one chapter don’t necessarily serve them in the next, and after so many years together, finding fresh inspiration can be as difficult as finding it in the first place. For Cage The Elephant, the question wasn’t whether they could continue making records. It was how to rediscover the excitement and sense of possibility that made them want to make music together in the first place.

That answer came, somewhat unexpectedly, on the road with Oasis. After spending last year opening the North American leg of the band’s historic reunion tour, Cage The Elephant emerged from the experience with a renewed creative appetite. The shows had reminded them of the power of rock music at its most immediate and communal, and they carried that energy directly into the studio, eager to explore what the band could become rather than revisit what it had already been.

They brought in a new set of collaborators, producers Justin Raisen and SADPONY (Jeremiah Raisen), whose credits span Charli xcx, SZA, Kim Gordon, Yves Tumor, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The sessions brought together two pairs of brothers, Matthew and Brad Shultz alongside Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, and introduced a fundamentally different approach to making music.

Rather than relying on the methods they’d developed over nearly two decades, the band embraced experimentation, spontaneity, and the chemistry of working through ideas together in the room. Songs were allowed to take shape organically, with the musicians following their instincts instead of determining where everything needed to go in advance.

Drawing on the ragged spirit of garage rock and flashes of psychedelia, Dying In Reverse is full of infectious melodies, fuzzed-out walls of guitar, and the restless energy that has always distinguished Cage The Elephant. Matthew Shultz moves between singing, rapid-fire rhythmic delivery, and moments of startling vulnerability, bringing a new sense of urgency to songs that are as unpredictable as they are catchy. Beneath the immediacy of the music is a deeper emotional current supported by lyrics that grapple with fractured reality and self-examination. The result is a record that feels simultaneously raw and assured.

The circumstances surrounding Dying In Reverse are markedly different from those of the band’s previous album, Neon Pill, which was written and recorded across a turbulent period in Matthew Shultz’s life and ultimately completed as he emerged on the other side of it. Where that record involved revisiting and reconciling material created under vastly different circumstances, the new album began with the band looking squarely ahead, invigorated by a new creative process and excited about what they were making together.

“This record turned out to be such a special one for us. It’s without a doubt, one of the most creatively gratifying experiences we’ve had as a group yet. After all these years already remaining so tightly knit, it really does feel like this album managed to pull us even closer together. In a way, it’s a goodbye to the past, closing the door on an era, with a renewed perspective grounded in the present while also walking towards the future with hope and gratitude. Signifying a rebirth of sorts. It’s got all these interesting little windows into the memories and experiences that have shaped who we are as individuals, as well as ultimately a band. I just love it so much. We can’t wait to share it with the world,” says Matthew Shultz, reflecting on Dying In Reverse.

The arrival of Dying In Reverse follows an extraordinary period of momentum for Cage The Elephant. Earlier this year, “Beaches In Tennessee” earned the band their fourteenth No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, simultaneously topping the Alternative Airplay, Adult Alternative Airplay, and Rock & Alternative Airplay charts. The achievement placed the band in a tie for the second-most Alternative Airplay No. 1s in the chart’s history. They followed with “Dying In Reverse,” which premiered on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show and is featured on the EA SPORTS FC 27 soundtrack.

On November 15, the band will bring their celebrated live show to Munich, Germany, where they will perform the official NFL halftime show during the New England Patriots vs. Detroit Lions game. The appearance comes ahead of an extensive European headline tour beginning in February 2027.

Since forming in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2006, Cage The Elephant have amassed more than six billion streams, dozens of Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum certifications, and one of the most enduring catalogs in modern alternative rock. The band won consecutive Best Rock Album GRAMMY Awards for Tell Me I’m Pretty and Social Cues, while their most recent album, Neon Pill, earned a Best Alternative Music Album nomination.

After nearly twenty years together, Cage The Elephant have achieved something with Dying In Reverse that is the product of everything they’ve been through, but more importantly, of everything they’re still excited to explore. For a band that’s already achieved so much, that sense of possibility might be the most meaningful accomplishment of all.

Dying In Reverse — February 5th, 2027 — Big Loud Rock

Tracklist:

  1. Influence
  2. Make It Easy
  3. Beaches In Tennessee
  4. Wound Up
  5. Dying In Reverse
  6. Leave The Light On
  7. I Love You Anyway
  8. Cherry Cola
  9. Crossfaded
  10. Why U Keeping Me Around
  11. Give Me One Good Reason
  12. Wear The Daylight

Upcoming Live Shows

2026

11/15 – Munich, DE @ NFL Munich Halftime Show

2027

2/8 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom

2/9 – Kraków, PL @ Studio (Sold Out)

2/11 – Hamburg, DE @ Sporthalle

2/12 – Düsseldorf, DE @ Mitsubishi Electric Halle

2/13 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma (Sold Out)

2/15 – Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS Live

2/17 – Milan, IT @ Fabrique

2/18 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks (Sold Out)

2/20 – Paris, FR @ Le Zénith

2/22 – Cardiff, UK @ Depot

2/23 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy

2/25 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy

2/26 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy

2/28 – Manchester, UK @ Victoria Warehouse

3/1 – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace

3/12-3/14 – Buenos Aires, AR @ Lollapalooza Argentina

3/12-3/14 – Santiago, CL @ Lollapalooza Chile

3/19 – São Paulo, BR @ Lollapalooza Brasil

3/19-3/21 – Bogotá, CO @ Festival Estereo Picnic

Pre-save: https://ffm.to/dyinginreverse-album

Listen to Make It Easy: https://ffm.to/cte-makeiteasy

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Darren Jessee Returns With Wistful New Single “Shoulder Season”

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Darren Jessee standing outside a house
Darren Jessee. Photo by Dustin Condren.

Darren Jessee has been the drummer behind Ben Folds Five and the songwriter behind Hotel Lights, and his new single sounds like a man deciding not to put the pen down. “Shoulder Season,” recorded by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, previews a forthcoming solo album due in 2027.

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five, Hotel Lights) is proud to present “Shoulder Season,” the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist’s brand new single lifted from his forthcoming solo album that will see a 2027 release. Recorded by GRAMMY-winning musician and producer Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Kurt Vile), “Shoulder Season” traces the paths people chart in and around our lives over the years. The track also invites close listening, which in turn draws attention to Jessee’s evocative lyrics as well as the nuanced instrumental performances he and Kaufman captured on tape. “‘Shoulder Season’ … I liked the words by themselves,” Jessee says. “They suggest perseverance and resilience during a season of time. The term shoulder season means a transitional time of year.” Watch the music video for “Shoulder Season” on YouTube.

Darren Jessee was in a period of personal upheaval. His mother had recently passed away after a short illness. He was also touring as a drummer for the Americana act Chatham County Line, a gig that he enjoyed but one that kept him from performing much as a solo artist. And then his label rep at Bar/None, home of Jessee’s last seven albums, retired. In the wake of it all, Jessee found himself wondering if it was perhaps time to set aside the burden of managing a songwriting career and simply lean into his work as a drummer. “But then I just kept finding these songs and enjoying them,” he says of his forthcoming solo showcase that symbolizes a new beginning for the veteran musician — an organic, hushed and transcendent sound very much inspired by the blizzard that the album was recorded in.

Stay tuned for more music and information on Darren Jessee’s forthcoming solo album to be announced in the coming weeks. Jessee will be making the following appearances in November:

November 12 — Wake Forest, NC — Wake Forest Listening Room

November 18 — Greensboro, NC — Flat Iron (with Natalie Jane Hill)

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