Webcuts Music

When you add up the years, you realise Ian Astbury and Billy Dully have been making music as The Cult for a long-ass time. Sitting in the rafters of the Hammersmith Apollo (“Hammersmith Odeon“, Astbury demurs, referring to the venue’s previous appellation), the debt paid to the excesses of rock n’ roll have more-or-less treated both kindly. Astbury, the once flower-child/wolf-child looks a little rough round the edges, but when you style yourself on Jim Morrisson and then suddenly become him, what can you expect. Duffy on the other hand, is ageless, looking more like David Beckham‘s older brother than a well-tooled guitar god.

Having spent the last few years peddling nostalgia via their ‘Love Live’ tour, English hard-rockers, The Cult have done away with convention and instead of releasing music via outdated, restrictive formats ie: ‘the album’, they’ve chosen to release their new recordings as ‘capsules’. The capsule being not-just-music but “film, art and fashion”. Clearly, this isn’t the last gasp of a dying band, but one that is embracing the future with both hands. I sense Andy Warhol rolling over in his grave in anticipation for this.

Cast your mind back almost 25 years if you’re able, to a time where men with long hair, thin black stovepipes, WWII caps, and frilly shirts weren’t laughed at but instead could be lead singers. Add the two Siouxsie Sioux copies gesticulating wildly in the background and you have all the markings of a classic ’80s goth-rock video. So what if the song was pretty much a direct rip off of their previous hit “She Sells Sanctuary”? Billy Duffy’s chugging riffs coupled with a nice bass groove from Jamie Stewart unpinned Ian Astbury’s Lord Byron meets Jim Morrison peacocking for one of The Cult’s strongest songs (featured on the Omnibus edition of Love).

Get out your eyeliner and your crushed velvet blouse as The Cult’s Love is dusted down and dressed up in this sublime 4CD boxset.