Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
Showing posts with label Cult. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cult. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Sunday, October 1, 2023
The Cult - Born Into This
The Cult have had a kind of scattergun career after their 80s heyday. For this one, their eighth album, they followed up the heavy, Bob Rock produced Beyond Good and Evil with this Youth produced mishmash of styles. If the predecessor was more of a 'Billy album', this is decidedly an 'Ian album'. The title track, which opens the album, borrows heavily from The Charlatans' One To Another, with added rawk guitar, and it's a little uninspiring. Things improve from here though, Citizens opens with a classic Billy Duffy guitar motif before he settles into 'chugging' mode, and the tracks ends up a bit disjointed. Diamonds is a bit like a heavy cross between R.E.M. and the Stone Roses. The guitar riff in Dirty Little Rockstar takes a large dollop of inspiration from the Rolling Stones' Undercover of the Night. Holy Mountain is the requisite Cult ballad, a slow acoustic strum and Astbury's croon. Nothing wrong with it as such, but it's not where their strengths lie.
They kick things up a notch with the rocky I Assassin, and in fact the album is a little backweighted as things take a turn for the better from here on. Illuminated has a big, strident guitar riff and the track will surely have you punching the air if that's your kind of thing. Tiger In The Sun is moodier, along the lines of some of the tracks on their 1994 self-titled album. Savages opens with sleigh bells before kicking up a mighty racket, before the driving anthem Sound of Destruction which closes the album. This last one wins you over with its punky attitude with Stones-y 'woos' and Astbury's yelps about "I got a head full of speed" It's strange that the last 4 tracks are by far the strongest on the album.
Overall, a bit of a disappointment after the unexpectedly great Beyond Good And Evil.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
The Cult - Beyond Good and Evil
Released in 2001, this was the first Cult album in nearly 7 years. With drummer Matt Sorum back in the band, there was a fairly metal influence across the whole album. The songs, however, are all very strong, in a hard rock kind of way. It opens strongly with Billy Duffy's massive riffs on war (the process), with singer Ian Astbury bellowing "WAAARRRR" over them. If anything the riffing on the saint is even better, with again Astbury roaring "I I I AM THE SAINT" on another excellent chorus. There's no let up as more metallic riffing opens rise. It sounds really good, though less distinctively a Cult song, and more like a prototype for the sort of thing Velvet Revolver did a few years later. Elsewhere take the power has a very Soundgarden-sounding riff, while american gothic is reminiscent of Stone Temple Pilots' harder moments. More excellent sledgehammer riffs on breathe and later on speed of light, both of which yet again have really strong choruses. The lyrics, obviously are absolute bollocks with Astbury warbling on about "black California" but that's not why any of us are here!
They do attempt a couple of power ballads, one which definitely doesn't work - nico, which sounds like a cheap retread of Edie (Ciao Baby) and one which does works true believers, and one which will have you punching the air. All in all, while initially sounding a bit jarring, it's a worthwhile addition to the band's back catalogue. They would disband again after this album for another lengthy period of time. The album is a lot 'thicker' sounding than 1994's The Cult. I suppose if it has a precedent in their catalogue it's like a more metal Sonic Temple.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Album Review: The Cult – Love
The guiltiest of pleasures. This was the Cult in their most “goth” phase. Though not as much out-and-out “fun” as Electric, this album did provide a much needed breath of fresh air in 1985 as this indie band rediscovered their desire to rock, as opposed to using intricate layers of jangly guitars a la Smiths et al.
To fully enjoy this album, you have to bear in mind that the 2 main men are 2 of those most ridiculous (in a good way) characters in music. On riffage you have guitarist Billy Duffy, who on this album was starting to find his true sound, though he clearly hadn’t discovered ACDC yet. Frontman Ian Astbury was in his red Indian phase at this point, as opposed to his later incarnation as “yayowing rock god mutha".
The band do take themselves quite seriously on this album (though not as seriously as the likes of the Sisters of Mercy). I implore listeners to ignore the pseudo-goth cover art, and the nonsensical lyrics and song titles (Brother Wolf, Sister Moon anyone?) and focus on the rockier tracks. The one track on this album that really became popular was penultimate track She Sells Sanctuary, which is still is a staple of most ‘indie’ discos. The tune is a little obvious for my liking, built on a descending guitar riff, but it’s very catchy.
Opening track, Nirvana (which I’m convinced Cobain and co named themselves after) sets the tone nicely for the album, with the drummer counting out a beat, before a driving Bully Diffy riff enters (sorry, getting too excited, I meant Billy Duffy) backed up by a pulsing bass line. The track is quite anthemic, with a fine vocal by Wolfman (I mean Ian Astbury) leading into a simple chorus which carries the music superbly. The guitars sound great in this one, particularly in the 2 bridges within the song. There’s a lovely touch at the end of the track when the music dies away and the drummer gives a little flourish on cymbals.
It’s a tough act to follow, and the next 2 tracks are perfectly fine, but a bit more like bog-standard rock songs. The riffs are kind of cool, though Big Neon Glitter suffers a little from a certain U2-ish 80s guitar sound. Title track Love is a good brainless rock song, but is unfortunately followed by one of the Cult’s moodier moments. This is one band who cannot and should not carry off a moody song, as the aforementioned Brother Wolf, Sister Moon is just substandard will-to-live sapping Doorsy nonsense, even featuring laughable storm studio sound effects. It’s also about 4 or 5 minutes too long.
However this bluster is blown away by another massive anthem, Rain. It’s a really uncomplicated song, which is the Cult’s forte, but it features a really good riff and growling vocals before exploding into a nice basic chorus (“here comes the rain, here comes the rain, here she (she!) comes again, here comes the rain”). Guitar soloing is kept to a minimum across the album as Duffy plays with great economy.
After a metalish experiment (The Phoenix) which sounds like an Alice in Chains prototype the band manage to tone things down to great effect with the relaxed Revolution, which stays on the right side of cheesey, lumbering along likeably with a nice pay-off in the chorus, which is just want you want from the Cult. You don’t want anything complicated, or worse, innovative from them, you just want great rock riffs with big choruses. They would refine this formula to even greater effect by teaming up with Rick Rubin on the follow-up album Electric.
To fully enjoy this album, you have to bear in mind that the 2 main men are 2 of those most ridiculous (in a good way) characters in music. On riffage you have guitarist Billy Duffy, who on this album was starting to find his true sound, though he clearly hadn’t discovered ACDC yet. Frontman Ian Astbury was in his red Indian phase at this point, as opposed to his later incarnation as “yayowing rock god mutha".
The band do take themselves quite seriously on this album (though not as seriously as the likes of the Sisters of Mercy). I implore listeners to ignore the pseudo-goth cover art, and the nonsensical lyrics and song titles (Brother Wolf, Sister Moon anyone?) and focus on the rockier tracks. The one track on this album that really became popular was penultimate track She Sells Sanctuary, which is still is a staple of most ‘indie’ discos. The tune is a little obvious for my liking, built on a descending guitar riff, but it’s very catchy.
Opening track, Nirvana (which I’m convinced Cobain and co named themselves after) sets the tone nicely for the album, with the drummer counting out a beat, before a driving Bully Diffy riff enters (sorry, getting too excited, I meant Billy Duffy) backed up by a pulsing bass line. The track is quite anthemic, with a fine vocal by Wolfman (I mean Ian Astbury) leading into a simple chorus which carries the music superbly. The guitars sound great in this one, particularly in the 2 bridges within the song. There’s a lovely touch at the end of the track when the music dies away and the drummer gives a little flourish on cymbals.
It’s a tough act to follow, and the next 2 tracks are perfectly fine, but a bit more like bog-standard rock songs. The riffs are kind of cool, though Big Neon Glitter suffers a little from a certain U2-ish 80s guitar sound. Title track Love is a good brainless rock song, but is unfortunately followed by one of the Cult’s moodier moments. This is one band who cannot and should not carry off a moody song, as the aforementioned Brother Wolf, Sister Moon is just substandard will-to-live sapping Doorsy nonsense, even featuring laughable storm studio sound effects. It’s also about 4 or 5 minutes too long.
However this bluster is blown away by another massive anthem, Rain. It’s a really uncomplicated song, which is the Cult’s forte, but it features a really good riff and growling vocals before exploding into a nice basic chorus (“here comes the rain, here comes the rain, here she (she!) comes again, here comes the rain”). Guitar soloing is kept to a minimum across the album as Duffy plays with great economy.
After a metalish experiment (The Phoenix) which sounds like an Alice in Chains prototype the band manage to tone things down to great effect with the relaxed Revolution, which stays on the right side of cheesey, lumbering along likeably with a nice pay-off in the chorus, which is just want you want from the Cult. You don’t want anything complicated, or worse, innovative from them, you just want great rock riffs with big choruses. They would refine this formula to even greater effect by teaming up with Rick Rubin on the follow-up album Electric.
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