Monday, December 12, 2011

REVIEW: Cults - Cults



Grade: 83% (B)

Remember watching the first Back to the Future and how cool it was to see how things were in the 50's? That's how I felt when I first heard "Bumper," my first introduction to the indie-pop duo Cults. The groovy 50's bassline accompanied by the piano building with the innocent pre-world being destroyed by the internet lyrics leads perfectly into the shimmering chorus. Even with it's chaste lyrics and painless instrumentation, the song is still endearing to someone of the modern age. 

This is somewhat true for the entirety of Cults' self-titled debut. While their images might not portray the same innocence, Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin cloak their Manhattan pop with vintage rhythms and sugar-boppy choruses. Follin's voice is the perfect fit for this manner of sound. On "You Know What I Mean" she sings effortlessly in the verses and then is on the verge of screaming by the time the chorus comes around. She sounds like a young girl waiting for the ice cream man on "Most Wanted" while Oblivion tools around with the guitar just for fun. She even sings the thoughts of an adolescent girl, confused about the temptations that life hands her, saying, "What we most want is bad for us we know," as the song closes with a distant voice speaking, "Flirtation, drug use, and adultery." 

"Abducted" opens the album with a low volume that (SPOILER ALERT) surprises you with a quick expansion and uses the back and forth between Oblivion and Follin to create the metaphor of a boy abducting a young girl's heart and is drowned out before you know the ending. You probably don't need to hear anything about "Go Outside" because even I am bugged by girls whistling it's cute xylophone notes through the hallways of my dorm. That probably best describes the music of the record: cute. The smooth bass is usually accompanied by a catchy high pitched riff of some sort while some quick drum loop is layered by some hearty but diminished piano chords and finished off with some guitar canoodling by Oblivion. 

The songs are all the same in theme but each has it's out distinguishable characteristic to assure that you don't get bored by track four. The record's longest song, "Bad Things" builds by banding particular instruments on top of each other as Follin continually threatens to run away. By the time the bridge comes it is clear that she is only bluffing and she only reinforces this notion with the repetition of the opening verse.

A personal pick would probably be "Oh My God," where Madeline sings of wanting to move on with the life she has boringly created for herself and Brian shows off a rare sign of some power chords and impressive work on the fretboard. I can call them by their first names because they were in college last year. My personal favorite is the closer "Rave On," which showcases a few quick bursts in just under three minutes with it's simple guitar and organ chords.  

With eleven short songs (non span close to four minutes), Cults feels like a record written about a tween girl, by a twenty-something who misses being a tween girl, and for that rare group of tween girls who aren't too pretentious to recognize that they relate to this music more than that of Lady Gaga and Wiz Kalifah. Tween.   

No comments:

Post a Comment