The Cult: Love CD Track Listing

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The Cult Love (1985)
Originally Released 1985\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: 1985's Love displayed a marked improvement over the Cult's early material, and though it remains underappreciated in America (worldwide it was a smash), this exceptional record has actually aged better than the band's more notorious (and equally important) releases: Electric and Sonic Temple. Equal parts psychedelic hard rock and new wave goth, the songs on Love emanate a bright guitar sheen, tight arrangements, crisp drumming, and a command performance from vocalist Ian Astbury, who as usual says a lot more with less than most singers. Overall, the album benefits from a wonderful sense of space, thanks in large part to guitarist Billy Duffy (who is much more subdued here than on future releases), whose restraint is especially notable on "Revolution" and the remarkably uncluttered title track. Duffy also provides compelling melodies ("Hollow Man," "Revolution"), driving riffs ("Nirvana," "The Phoenix"), and even a U2-like intro to "Big Neon Glitter." Also on offer is the near-perfect "She Sells Sanctuary" and the smash hit "Rain," quite possibly the band's most appealing single ever. Considering the musical schizophrenia that would plague each subsequent Cult release, Love just may be the band's purest moment. -- Ed Rivadavia\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nRare Peak for a Band and Its Era, April 22, 2006\nReviewer: Richard B. Luhrs (Jackson Heights, NY United States)\nThe Cult may be little more than a footnote now, but for a brief time in the mid-1980s (specifically the time it took to record, release and support this album) the genre-confused British rock band looked set to rival acts like U2 in quality, if not necessarily mass-market sucess, and add some much-needed gems to what was already a rapidly-declining contemporary music scene. LOVE, alas, was to be the only such highlight in the group's career, but it was and remains an extremely bright one. \nHaving cut its teeth as a better-than-average (though still largely undistinguished) Goth band with the negligible 1984 LP DREAMTIME, the Cult retained a bit of Goth's droning mordancy and eye-linered melodrama for the follow-up while abandoning its diffidence, monotony and silliness. Musically, LOVE is a bracing and ceaselessly inventive marriage of psychedelic swirl and new wave kick, with elliptical hippie lyrics from lead singer Ian Astbury on top and alternating gotta-dance/gotta-drink beats on the bottom to help maintain this delicate balance of styles throughout. The opening smash of "Nirvana" - a song far better than anything the as-yet-unformed band of that name would ever record - sets the pace, with Billy Duffy's glistening guitar work echoing against Astbury's arch calls for dancefloor salvation. "Big Neon Glitter" pairs post-U2 martial drums with effects-laden guitars - and the best scream on the album - to create a tune at once doomy and finger-popping. The title track slithers along sinuously, and things slow down even more for "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon," a mini-epic whose naive ruminations on Native American mythology somehow manage (like just about everything else on LOVE) to work. "Rain" is a rouser, an unstoppable up-on-your-feet single with the whole band - and its vision - in top form. "Phoenix" opens with an extended tribute to Jimi Hendrix from Duffy, whose wah-wahing skills prove impressive indeed. "Hollow Man" may be the album's weakest song, but it's still far from bad. The flower power sentimentality of "Revolution" is a lot more effective, though - Astbury's moving lyrics sit beautifully upon their meditation cushion of crystalline guitar strokes and chorus vocals. "She Sells Sanctuary," another single, provides a final and very welcome foot in the rump before "Black Angel" brings things to a close with one of the more effectively lugubrious seafaring tales you're likely to hear on a hard rock album. \nLOVE stands among the eighties' finest musical moments, and at the absolute peak of the Cult's desultory and ambiguous career. With their next album, ELECTRIC, Astbury, Duffy and their changing cast of cohorts would take yet another sudden turn - into the terrain of heavy metal wannabes - leaving this singularly excellent and eclectic collection of songs to remain for all time a sort of genre unto itself - as well as a tantalizing promise of what might have been. Classic!\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nGrunge before Seattle, November 27, 2000\nReviewer: tommo75 "tommo75" (United States)\nThis album was grunge when the word still meant the sticky stuff you can't get off the bottom of your shoe. When alternative music was still mired in heavy keyboards and weird hair, this album by the Cult came out of nowhere and still ranks as one of the most powerful guitar-rock albums of all time. This is the album I had been waiting to hear all through my high school years in the early to mid-eighties. I had forgotten about it until I saw Ian Astbury singing lead for the Doors on VH-1 yesterday. "Love" was so good that even the Cult could never match up to it. There isn't a misstep on here musically. "Revolution," "Nirvana," and "She Sells Sanctuary" still send chills through me. Unlike the other ham-handed hair band rock of the 80s, Billy Duffy's guitar work is just from another planet. Nothing moved me as much as this album until I heard the first notes of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" six years later. The Cult's next album, "Electric," was a major disappointment after this, what with Rick Rubin's overly clean arrangements. "Sonic Temple" was better, but by then they had taken on more of the heavy metal element and less of the alternative. Nevertheless, "Love" is a shining moment.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nDark and Daring, June 16, 2000\nReviewer: Michael D. Sobota "Michael" (Dela-Where?)\nThis is an incredible album by a band that had all the right tools at the wrong time. "Love" has an edgier, more rocking sound than "Dreamtime", but it taps the same vain of gothic psychedelia. They weren't the Bauhaus, they weren't the Cure, they were the Cult, and the could rock and still be dark. An odd combination of The Doors meeting Led Zeppelin. If the opening riff to "Love" or "She Sells Sanctuary" doesn't get your juices flowing, then nothing will. An essential...You won't be dissapointed.\n\nHalf.com Details \nProducer: Steve Brown \n\nAlbum Notes\nThe Cult: Ian Astbury (vocals); William H. Duffy (guitar); Jamie Stewart (keyboards, bass).\nThe Cult's 1984 debut, DREAMTIME, proved to be an intriguing, if sometimes muddled, combination of early U2 and the Doors, topped off with Ian Astbury's ongoing lyrical fascination with Native American mythology. The immediate follow-up, LOVE, was a notable improvement. Ditching the most overt Doors references in favor of moody neo-psychedelia that sounds like a harder-rocking version of Echo & the Bunnymen, LOVE includes "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain." These driving singles introduced the UK band to the American college-radio market and laid the foundation for the group's mainstream commercial breakthrough later in the decade. The rest of the album is nearly up to the level of the singles, with Astbury's less-mannered vocals and Billy Duffy's powerful guitar riffs offering a much more assertive musical presence than ever before.\n\nIndustry Reviews\nRanked #5 in CMJ's Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1986\nCMJ (01/05/2004)
This rock cd contains 10 tracks and runs 52min 3sec.
Freedb: 820c310a
Buy: from Amazon.com

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