Album Review- The Cult- Under the Midnight Sun

It sort of feels odd discussing the Cult in 2022. For a band who played seemingly simple songs, they have built up quite a legacy. They were criticized at times for AC/DC style sameness, but talented to deliver at least one album that is considered a classic (Love). They arrived to their big moment in 1989 with a sound that fit in easily with alternative, rock, pop and metal audiences. They broke the radio and seemed to have a wide open future. Sonic Temple took their sounds to commercial highs. But the music industry constantly is evolving and the 80s changed irreversibly to the 90s and things didn’t ’t pan out as planned. (You could probably right the same paragraph about the Smithereens who released the album 11 the same year). The Cult’s story became one of diminishing returns- commercially and artistically. But the story takes an unexpected turn. In 2007, a reunited band released Born Into This. Instead of a band chasing past glories, the band sounded strong. Critics stood up and took notice. 2012s Choice of Weapon is the best of the 21st Century albums. An album that is on par with the Love/Electric/Sonic Temple trilogy. Under the Midnight Sun follows the template for recent Cult albums. I find the album cover striking and fitting for the music inside. It’s not all straight ahead rock but a lot of atmospheric goth rock. Credit to Billy Duffy and/or Producer Tom Dalgety (Ghost, recent Pixies and recent Killing Joke) for really producing ambitious background music for frontman Ian Astbury. The album does feel like a continuation of those first Cult albums, and manage to sound more organic than say, the clunkier self-titled 1994 album, to sound like a modern evolution. That said, the album isn’t perfect (Choice of Weapon remains the best recent release). Perhaps, it could use a bit more arena rock sound dropped here and there, but for a band that is 11 albums in, it really feels fresh.