Electric Cult
The Cult (or essentially, Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury) had a vision. They were making goth type trendy rock for a little while, even cutting one classic single in the process ("She Sells Sanctuary"). But they got bored with that scene pretty darn fast. Duffy had an obvious AC/DC-Led Zep fixation, and Astbury harbored Jim Morrison fantasies. Enter Rick Rubin.
Rubin stripped the band down to basics. Gone were the echo-drenched early productions, in were the loud, bare-bones Back in Black howling guitars of Electric. "Love Removal Machine" (along with its star-maker video) steamrollered rock radio. The clashing personalities of Duffy and Astbury also made for great interview fodder, and The Cult exploded worldwide.
They were able to hang onto that musical esthetic for Sonic Temple, their only US Top Ten album. It deserved that status, with the band's most solid set of songs. "Fire Woman" was the attention getter, but there was also the very cool "Edie (Ciao Baby)" about Andy Warhol cohort Edie Sedgwick and "Sun King" both vying for airplay. As solid "Sonic Temple" was, the band was imploding. Astbury was falling prey to substance issues and he and Duffy were no longer creating creative sparks when they collided. Duffy wanted to stay with the hard rock, Astbury was getting into mystical/spiritual goo and the booze/dope crushed his focus. The lackluster Ceremony found The Cult fiddling with too many experiments, and "Wild Hearted Son" was the best thing there.
After that, The Cult found the band down to Astbury and Duffy with a rotating list of guests. Bob Rock from "Sonic Temple" was brought back in an attempt to capture the old sound, but the two best songs were "Sacred Life" (not here) and "Coming Down" (which is). Following albums did little to make the band interesting. You could easily just get "Electric" and "Sonic Temple" to get what really mattered about The Cult, since both "Fire Woman" and "Love Removal Machine" would be covered. This Best Of The Cult shows that, while a great band when they were on fire, they couldn't keep that intensity going very long.
Incidentally, 2007's Born into This is suprisingly lively.
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Join The Cult!!!!
This CD is simply excellent! You get exactly what you pay for, so you can't possibly complain. Indeed, the title says it all: you get all the singles that you know and love from their albums between 1984 and 1995 AND you also get the singles that were NOT included in their albums, namely "Resurrection Joe" (the 80's version of Bowie's "Aladdin Sane", even going as far as including the same type of dissonant piano in the background), "The Witch" and "In the Clouds", all excellent additions.
If you're a long time fan of The Cult, I think you'll appreciate this compilation because it does include pretty much all songs you'd expect it to have, and the compilation is well made too: with a great song selection, it's hard to go wrong, and this compilation also benefits from a great track sequence, beginning with "She Sells Sanctuary" and ending with "Sweet Soul Sister". It just flows like a breeze!!! And the sound is great as well.
But I think that those looking for an introduction to The Cult are probably the ones that will enjoy this compilation the most: most people who listen to rock are familiar with at least a few songs from the band, such as "She Sells Sanctuary", "Love Removal Machine", "Sweet Soul Sister", "Edie (Ciao Baby)" and/or "Fire Woman". These songs are all here, but in addition to those favorites, you also get a wealth of extra material that is just as strong: "Sun King", "Rain", "Revolution", "Wild Flower", "Heart of Soul" and all the others included here are sure to appeal to those occasional fans that know the band only by its most popular material. My only possible observation/warning (not really a complaint...) is about the "versions" used, meaning the "single edit" thing: if you know The Cult solely by the their singles in rotation in classic rock radio, this point is not gonna be relevant to you at all (since these are the versions that normally receive airplay), but if you're a long time, die hard and finnicky fan...well, I'll leave it up to you to decide...in fairness, it was a compromise: using the radio edits meant that they were able to include ALL the singles, as the title of the compilation accurately states...
The Cult enjoyed a golden age of sorts between the release of "Electric" and the end of the "Sonic Temple" tour, simply because this was their most straight forward period, where their music, their songs, their sound and their albums (and even their image) were reduced to the most basic and this sound hit a home in the US. Before and after, The Cult managed to keep a healthy following in their native UK and other parts of the world, but struggled to keep a strong fan base in the US. This was due to a simple fact: The Cult kept evolving, reshaping their sound and their image (just have a look at their pictures in the booklet!) as their mood took them, and that was extremely difficult for fans to accept. I remember that the first song I ever heard from them was "Love Removal Machine", which I loved, and then the next thing was "Revolution"...I was a bit confused by the abrupt changes, but ultimately the quality of their music was enough to put my doubts to rest.
Many people liken their sound to a "heavy U2", and while I agree that that generalization is as accurate as any generalization can be, it applies to the band's first 2 records, "Dreamtime" and "Love", but definitely NOT to their latter output, such as the Rick Rubin produced "Electric" which harkens back to classic AC/DC, or "Sonic Temple" and some its "Zeppelin meets The Doors" overtones. Some of that early sound came back with "Ceremony" and "The Cult", but for the most part, this band simply shifted its sound every so often, which was good from an artistic point of view, but it probably backfired from a commercial perspective. For instance, right now in 2007, the band is back and in "heavy metal" mode: two guitars, bass, vocals and their heaviest drummer yet (John Tempesta, of Testament/White Zombie fame).
Bottom Line: If you're a Cult diehard, you'll enjoy this because it is very well made. If you are more of an occasional fan familiar with their "hits" and in search for a little more, this is the perfect place to start: having enjoyed their most recognizable tunes, you're sure to like the material included here. You can't go wrong with this purchase, so go ahead, dig in and join The Cult!
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