Now in their 33rd year, the Cult went through several metamorphoses in their first five years, as they hurtled from Love’s psychedelic goth to Electric’s Rick Rubin-produced hard rock. The reinventions aren’t as dramatic now, but they’re still not standing still. Their 10th album darts from brooding postpunk to old-fashioned heavy metal and back again. At the heart is still the curious chemistry between gruff-toned, cosmically inclined singer Ian Astbury and his polar opposite, down-to-earth Mancunian guitarist Billy Duffy, the Cult’s own human riff. Duffy’s glorious, free-flowing playing fires Dark Energy and Avalanche of Light, two of the strongest Cult songs in years. Not all tracks hit such bullseyes, but Birds of Paradise finds Astbury unexpectedly and emotionally crooning, Tony Bennett style. He takes this approach further with confessional closer Sound and Fury, an epic voice-and-piano ballad that echoes Bowie’s Wild Is the Wind. As ever in Cultworld, ch-ch-ch-changes find them at their best.
