Image from the Hacawa annual of Lenoir-Rhyne University, 1968
I thought I'd done the right thing by ignoring the buzz around Cults. It got "Best New Music" from Pitchfork and a variety of effusive reviews, but I didn't think I needed another New York noise-pop duo in my life. The NYU connection, the pseudonyms, the Robert Longo-inspired cover art - it all seemed too slick and calculated. Then, in passing, I heard someone compare the Cults record to Saturday Looks Good To Me - that was enough to have me do a complete 180. Could Cults really have some of that great retro-pop alchemy that SLGTM captured so well? I had to check it out.
It's there, in the melodies and the sweet vocals - it's an updated, grittier urban version of Saturday Looks Good To Me's All Your Summer Songs. But there's more there, too - there are familiar ingredients in the mix that are on the tips of my ears' tongues that I have trouble pinning down. Is it a less-blown-out Sleigh Bells? Is it a post-twee-ectomy version of New Zealand's underrated Brunettes? What I DO know is that Cults is an almost flawless indie-pop album - the one slight misstep is a song called "Bumper", the album's penultimate track. Like so many groups seem to be doing these days, Cults decided to do a straight-up girl-group pastiche on this track - not only is it way too reminiscent of the Shangri-Las' "Give Him a Great Big Kiss", but "Bumper" borrows heavily from a recent Richard Swift song as well. Why put a big red rubber stamp with the word DERIVATIVE on your album like that?
On the other hand, I am absolutely obsessed with the album's opening track, "Abducted" - it does something to my head every time I put this record on. Thirty-eight seconds in, it has one of those MOMENTS that pop songs can have that knock you sideways. Good stuff.
"Abducted" by Cults
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