THE CULT

'Born Into This'

I blogged about the announcement of a new Cult single and eventual album back at the beginning of August and kind of laid my fandom out on the table in the process. To be truly objective about said album, after having such a long-standing love affair w/ the band no matter what line-up the core nucleus of Ian Astbury/Billy Duffy surrounded themselves with, is pretty much near impossible. Then I remembered, aside from the fact that hardly anybody reads this anyway, I pretty much only review stuff on here I actually like anyway (w/ a few exceptions)...so, true believers, prepare for the fan-boy deluge to follow.

Anybody who witnessed the sordid history of the band firsthand, knows that The Cult, while never really re-inventing, seemed to ever-so-slightly evolve in both image and sound from album to album. Starting out as a kind-of post-punk goth-rock outfit, w/ the release of 'Electric' they added an dirty-sounding AC/DC vibe to go along w/ the Doors-influenced psychedelic leanings from albums previous. By the late-80's/early-90's via 'Sonic Temple' and 'Ceremony', they amped things up to Zeppelin proportions and went from 120 Minutes to Headbanger's Ball. Then, grunge came into vogue and influenced a dark, slow-moving self-titled release and, shortly thereafter, an 8 year hiatus. It's uber heavy, feedback laced, plodding Atlantic Records 'comeback release' ('Beyond Good & Evil') was cut off at the knees when the label abandoned the band a few months into promoting it.

History lesson...over. Cut to 6 years later, after Ian has left his doppleganging of Jim Morrision for a quasi-Doors reunion to 're-focus on his own musical legacy' and the Cult re-form for a tour and record a collection of tunes that Astbury has called a 'real, true Cult record.' 'Born Into This' is pretty much exactly that. While it's sound is probably most akin to the stripped-down rock of 'Electric' w/ shades of both the post-punk of 'Love' and bombast of 'Sonic Temple' color the edges. Really, the band revels in all the best parts of their history for what may be their best release since the heydays of 1988 - 1990.

As much as a fan as I am, I wouldn't lie if it stunk or was even so-so...but it's really a killer listen from the tribal baseline to riff onslaught of the lead-off title track to the defiant Stones meets AC/DC finish of 'Sound of Destruction'. The only possible dip in the road, would be an abrupt rock stoppage by way of Ian ditching Morrision for Johnny Cash on the stripped-down ballad 'Holy Mountain'...not bad, but I dig the classic Cult power-ballad of 'Tiger in the Sun' more. 'Citizens' and 'I Assassin' are also vintage Cult tracks any fan would love and the rest of the disc follows suit.

While Duffy's playing is a little more restrained and Astbury's voice not quite at the heights it used to be, they still got it. Listening to this made me feel the same way I did when I listened to them in High School...except i've gotten laid a lot more and have a mortgage. The album actually drops on 2-Oct and both iTunes and stores will have versions w/ some bonus demo/unreleased tracks to boot. I posted the link to check out the hip-shaking first single 'Dirty Little Rockstar', so check out something a little more introspective in the sample area. 'C'MON NOW YOU SINNERS!'