Music Review - Cults

Cults
Cults
In the Name Of/Columbia Records

The debut album from the young New York-based duo of Brian Oblivion (why can't my last name be something like 'Oblivion'?) and Madeline Follin, Cults, is an impressively polished and confident release considering the band's inexperience. Wikipedia classifies Cults as an "indie-pop" band, and while that might be true, it's not incredibly helpful - I think of the duo as belonging to something of a 60s girl-pop revivalist trend, following recent acts like Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, and The Pipettes. Cults definitely has a retro, summery feel to it, but beneath much of the innocent sounding pop music there are somewhat darker lyrics and conceits than it's bubbly surface would indicate.

Cults starts out strong, leading with the album's most accessible track, "Abducted" - which also happens to be my personal favorite, with it's catchy vocals and insistent percussion. Beneath the catchy pop of "Abducted" Follin unravels an interesting metaphor of love as an abduction, belting out, "He tore me apart cause I really loved him," a perfect example of how Cults gets you tapping your feet to some rather cynical stories. Lead single "Go Outside" comes next, providing a shimmery summertime track that feels both familiar and fresh. The album begins to feel a little repetitive and one-note upon delving deeper into it, but thankfully Cults accounts for this by keeping the run-time of each song right around the 3 minute mark and throwing in songs like "Bad Things" with it's slow-tempo keyboard and "Bumper" - which sounds remarkably like a She & Him track, but ya know, better - late in the album that provide a different sound and refocus the listener's attention.

Cults doesn't really do anything too remarkable on their debut - it's a bit poppier than Best Coast, and less old-school than The Pipettes, but there's nothing on Cults that feels urgent or strikingly original. The draw of Cults comes not from the prospect of hearing something new, but from hearing something done well - the album works quite capably based on the strength of the songs and the dynamic between the duo. The fact that it was released just in time for the summer is definitely no coincidence; this is a light and breezy sounding record through and through, albeit one with a depressing undercurrent - think of Cults as a summer record for the cynic or hipster that doesn't like summer records (though it works as pure pop if you just tune out for the lyrics). It's a bit hard to see this as anything but a one-trick pony, but when the trick is this enjoyable, that's easily forgiven.

Grade: B

If you only have time/money/patience for one track: "Abducted"