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 Laura Witkowski

10 REVIEWS OF THE NEW CULTS ALBUM – 10: confessional

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by Laura Witkowski

Confession: I am a 1960s girl group snob. Or rather, I adore the music of this sub-genre so much, that as soon as the term “girl group-like” is attached to a present day band, I immediately want to check them out as much as I am sure I will be disappointed.

I tried to like The Pipettes, Best Coast, The Long Blondes … but  I just couldn’t manage to get past the first date with any of them. I have high standards, and usually they can’t be met by imitations – it has to be the real deal. Brooklyn-based Cults have their work cut out for them if they want to win me over for keeps. That said, there are aspects of this record I’m totally digging. For instance, their inclusion of snippets of samples of Charles Manson and Jim Jones quotes is a major plus. I don’t get the opportunity to mix my thirst for Phil Spector-esque pop music with my cult-figure/murderer obsession. Other than when I’m actually listening to Phil Spector. So that’s nice …

There are some great tracks on the record – the opener, ‘Abducted’, is a corker and both ‘Walk At Night’ and ‘Never Saw The Point’ could have been mid-90s era Saint Etienne singles (this is a high compliment). My favorite track by far is the dreamy, ballad ‘You Know What I Mean’, despite the clunky and often repeated line, “Tell me what’s wrong with my brain because I seem to have lost it”.

There’s probably nothing wrong with your brain – but be careful of any flavored fruit drink offered to you by well-meaning Columbia record executives.

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