1991’s “Ceremony” had been followed by a world tour which had cemented their popularity in many of these markets. They played an intimate show in a small nightclub which was dedicated to the memory of their previous drummer Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier aged only 28. After also having a song on the soundtrack to ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and having also released a best of album “Pure Cult”, the band leaders lead vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy sacked the rest of the band, and in their place hired Craig Adams and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike Dimkich on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band performed in Turkey, Greece, and the Slovak Republic.
This formation of the band then went into the studio and began the process of writing and recording for their follow up to “Ceremony”. There had been an upward rise in the success of The Cult’s album’s since their debut, but whether or not this led to any pressure in the process is open to question. The return of Bob Rock, who had been the producer for “Sonic Temple” but was tied up with Metallica when the band was recording “Ceremony” which was instead produced by Richie Zito, brought about confidence that this album would again reach the heights that the ban and its fans were looking for. The album is often referred to as the ‘black sheep’ album due to the image on the front cover. Ian Astbury in interviews after the album had been released was quoted as saying that the lyrics he wrote contribute to a ‘very personal and very revealing’ selection of songs about subjects ranging from his sexual abuse at the age of 15, his directionless youth in Glasgow in the late 1970’s, and his deep feelings about the death of Nigel Preston. All of this adds up to an album that pushed the boundaries of what the band had done before, and which became their self-titled sixth release.
From the outset, this is an album that is far more difficult to get your head around than anything that has come before it. Or, perhaps, even after it. Some people’s opinions may differ, but there is a major change musically on this album, and it had to be influenced by the times in which they band found themselves. With grunge and alt metal paving the way, this album follows a road already paved, or at least they are following a dirt road that just winds its way off the main highway.
The opening of “Gone” is unorthodox and sparse, and is a little shocking to kick the album off. It is a different side, or perhaps a new side altogether, to The Cult, and still sounds like it isn’t being played right, and Astbury’s vocals are out of sync as well. It marks the start of a few changes to the system.
“Coming Down (Drug Tongue)” was the first single, very different from the hits from the past. There is a lot of U2 about this track, something that was prevalent early in their career but not so much in the time since. Once the song kicks in, things start to motor along nicely. “Real Grrrl” which follows has a slower tempo to it, where the rhythm section holds the course in a similar way to the previous track and in a different style that the band has travelled before. Is it the players on those instruments on this album that steer that course or is it Astbury and Duffy who have decreed this is where the band is heading. That of course is the more likely option, along with Bob Rock. But the drums and bass on songs such as “Coming Down (Drug Tongue)” and “Real Grrrl” definitely holds the same line throughout.
“Black Sun” is dark and quiet, where Astbury sings of abuse. The backing instrumentation is barely in action here for most of the song, allowing Ian to control the emotion of the song through his variation in vocals. The band back him with the barest of instrumentation, before the guitars and drums crash in harder from the halfway point. The similarities here with the stripped down guitar and drums with the era of music are there to hear, with Ian’s vocals in places echoing Glenn Danzig and Chris Cornell. “Naturally High” follows similar drum patterns to the aforementioned songs though the song is a less energetic version of those. “Joy” almost sounds like a The Doors song with the synth used in places, and Astbury at times can sound very Jim Morrison-ish.
“Star” was released as the second single and was re-worked many times going back to the “Sonic Temple” sessions before being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993, the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star". Previously, it had been known as “Tom Petty” and “Star Child” and can be found in both forms on the expansive “Rare Cult” box set. “Sacred Life” drops back into the melancholy retrospective areas both lyrically and musically, a ballad like remembrance of the loss of people such as River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain who are named in the song. “Be Free” kicks back into the more fruitful tempo and energetic Astbury vocals as well, which then mixes back down with “Universal You” into a slower style again. The up and down pattern of the tempo of the tracks here can be a little limiting. “Emperor’s New Horse” feels as though it is trying to channel the earlier album’s success but in a mid-1990's musical environment, which is basically an error-ridden attempt, before the album comes to its conclusion with “Saints Are Down”, again with the slower and quieter musical beginning which builds to the end of the song.
The album was met with a mixed reaction on release, only reaching No. 69 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. Billy Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well due to the offensive lyrics, but other changes within the band may well have contributed more.
One of the big things about this album is the return of Bob Rock as producer. Now Rock had been involved in The Cult’s amazing “Sonic Temple” album, at a time where everything he touched turned to gold. Now, in 1994, he was the man who may or may not have been wholly responsible, but was certainly the man who had his fingers in the pie, of dragging great bands such as Metallica (“Load” and eventually “Reload”) and Motley Crue (their self titled 1994 release) and Skid Row (“Subhuman Race”) into merging their sound with what was happening in the alt metal ex grunge scene. And practically reinvent themselves. And in the process (in a certain opinion) sent them down a path that they were never able to turn from. And here, Rock was involved in doing the same with The Cult. This album almost reinvents everything that they had done prior to this album, and it is noticeable from the outset.
Even though a 1989 MuchMusic interview with Billy Duffy revealed The Cult would most likely not work with Bob Rock again after the recording of the “Sonic Temple” album, for whatever reason they did for this release. According to the interview, Duffy didn’t think the magic of “Sonic Temple” was something that could be repeated, which he based on what he considered to be the less than satisfactory results of working with producer Steve Brown on two occasions. On this album, no attempt was made in any way to recapture any sound or era. This was an album that was written for the era, and remains tied to that era as a result.
The style of music on the album is more reminiscent of the grunge and alternative rock music popular at the time, and of noise rock, with its use of distortion and feedback. Everything has been stripped down, the drum snare sound is very stark, taking back everything there is about a big drum sound to drive an album such as the band had utilised before, and boom out of the speakers. Instead, what we have is the tinny sound that doesn’t fit well with the high production values that have come from their earlier work. There is also that similar rhythm on many of the tracks, especially the drum patterns, that tend to create a feeling of boredom, and the overall length of the album and some of the songs also draws out the album beyond what feels as necessary.
I got this album very soon after its release, picking it up from the Virgin Megastore in the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, and couldn’t wait to get home to listen to it. And I can openly state here that this was nothing like what I expected or wanted. This was just... shocking. The opening track in itself was so out of place, so unlike what I knew from the band. And despite some of the songs that followed being something like what I thought the album might have, I got to the end and sat there and thought... “what the fuck was THAT?!” I tried it again a couple of days later, and had the same reaction. I'm not even sure I got through the album that second time, my memory tells me I shut it off well before the end. It was just one of those albums – and I’m sure you have all had them – where the music was so different from anything that you expected that you just couldn’t bring yourself to listen to it. And the funny thing about that was that when this album came out, it was also announced that The Cult were going to be one of the headline acts of that January’s Big Day Out festival in Australia, and so we were desperate to get tickets to it. Once we had listened to this album, and we missed out on tickets as it sold out in record time... we weren’t that disappointed. Now of course, I would have loved to have been there.
It has been a very rare occasion since that time that I have pulled this CD off the shelves to listen to it. There are plenty of other great albums by the band that I prefer to go to when the urge hits me. But, for the past three weeks, I have had it on a consistent rotation. And I have listened to it over 20 times in that time, which would almost certainly be more than I have listened to it over the past 30 years combined. And on reflection there is more here that I enjoy than I have remembered doing so in the past. But, only certain songs overall, and not the album as a whole. It’s still a tough listen, and the length of songs and the album at over 60 minutes, does tend to drag out the whole experience. During their tour of South America in 1995 to promote this album, and despite the fact that several new songs had already been recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio and the band broke up citing unspecified problems. It was not until 1999 that they reunited, got back with Bob Rock, and produced the “Beyond Good and Evil” comeback album. But for this moment in time, perhaps the break was the best thing that could possibly have occurred for The Cult. It at least did lay this album to rest, where is probably exactly where is should remain.
No comments:
Post a Comment