THE CULT — Love (review)

THE CULT — Love album cover Album · 1985 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Love" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK hard rock act The Cult. The album was released through Beggars Banquet Records in October 1985. "Love" was a big breakthrough for the band and has today reached multi-platinum status, selling around 2,5 million copies worldwide. This was helped along by the two charting singles "She Sell Sanctuary" and "Rain".

Compared to the band´s debut album "Dreamtime (1984)", "Love" features more memorable songwriting, more convincing musicianship and a better sound production. The latter is courtesy of no other than Wham producer Steve Brown. Something the band initually didn´t feel comfortable with. As it turned out Steve Brown had been looking to get rid of his pop producer image though and after a meeting with the band, The Cult found his production ideas intriguing and decided to work with him.

There´s been a lineup change since the debut album as the wild partying and unreliable drummer Nigel Preston (who died of a heroine overdose in 1992) has been replaced by Mark Brzezicki. Preston plays the drums on "She Sell Sanctuary" though.

The music on "Love" makes The Cult quite a unique sounding act on the UK pop/rock scene of the early- to mid eighties. Most successful acts from that era were synth based, but The Cult insisted on a guitar driven rock sound. They had guitar driven peers in The Smiths, The Sisters of Mercy and a couple of other acts, but guitar driven pop/rock was not in the high seat in those days on the UK scene. Ian Astbury´s warm and powerful Jim Morrison type voice and vocal delivery also set The Cult apart from most other acts coming from the UK in those years.

The quality of the tracks are generally high and most are memorable, but the music on "Love" is generally still a far cry from the more commercially and anthemic sounding music they would produce on their next three albums. I guess you can call this slightly more artsy and tasteful, but personally I prefer their later more hard rocking albums. "Love" is still a great albums though, deserving a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.
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