Cult's "Abducted" Reviewed
There are so many bands that just appear out of nowhere! They seem to pop up like clouds in the immense sky of today music. It is the case for Cults, a mysterious duo from New York whom I know nothing about, and who has just released a full album on June 7th.
The two members, Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin, started the band when they were students at New York University, they released a 3 song EP and got noticed by Pitchfork. The couple, originally from San Diego and studying film in NYU, were just making music as a past time, and were not expecting at all the attention they suddenly got.
They are now offering a free download of ‘Abducted’, the opening track of their self-titled debut album. The song is an interesting bubbly radio tune, partially evoking the 60s, Follin and Oblivion’s echoing vocals contrasting with this discharge of ferocious drums after a lo-fi start. Follin’s sweet voice is dancing around the song, a little bit like an Alexis Krauss who would always stay on the ‘Rill Rill’ side and never venture on the other Sleigh Bells’ songs.
‘Abducted’ was released as a single in April, and the song shares the Phil Spector-Motown sweetness of their first hit ‘Go Outside’ which first brought the attention on them, although it had none of the brutality of this new one and was more on the druggy-sunny side. Interestingly a few songs on their album like these two, start with distant voices of famous cult leaders or abductees like Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and Patty Hearst.
You can go to their website to get the free song in exchange of your email address
http://cultscultscults.com/premiere/
And I have just realized you can also listen to their whole album on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136463353/first-listen-cults-cults
