The Cult – "Under the Midnight Sun"

Last thing I heard from The Cult was 2007's "Born Into This", which, like all its predecessors since their magnum opus, "Sonic Temple" ('89), was passable, but filler-heavy and non-essential. So I left them once again, only to keep revisiting aforementioned opus with a fiery nostalgia on late, inebriated nights with friends, albeit not without an occasional tinge of bitterness on behalf of late-'80s hard rock itself.

Indeed, some things – like that aforementioned album and genre period, respectively – are too awesome to ever be surpassed. According to fans, though, 2012's "Choice of Weapon" was supposedly excellent. But, y'know, so much music, and so little time.

Anyway, Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury (along with drummer John Tempesta plus whatever other members they currently have) are once again back with new material. And we're only talking a 35-minute deal this time. So...

... Alright! What's this, then??

The short answer is, "Under the Midnight Sun" is a fairly dark and introspective album that echos more of the band's gothic new wave beginnings than anything they've released since 1985. Having long shed any need to prove anything, let's just say that The Cult aren't exactly out to make any new friends this time around. And it suits them.

The lone, grieving lead in the opener "Mirror" tells a lot of what's to come. While the album does have that grandiose "Sonic Temple" sound and that often intense nerve that was always a staple for the band, this is still as introspective as the band's ever been.

So while you're not gonna find any of those huge choruses from, say, "Wild-Hearted Son" or "Wake Up Time for Freedom" here, things do get a bit more catchy midway. The best song, lead single "Give Me Mercy", is more uptempo, featuring a lead theme reminiscent of the band's glory days, but wrapped up in that same solemn sonic shroud. There's a lot of room for Astbury's heartfelt, unique baritone, which is as strong as ever. "Vendetta X" is also a more straightforward rocker, albeit in the same desolate minor key as the other +90% of the album.

Having long shed any need to prove anything, let's just say that The Cult aren't exactly out to make any new friends this time around. And it suits them.

In fact, the coda in "Outer Heaven" is the only section in a major key, segueing perfectly into the somewhat big and ambitious "Knife Through Butterfly Heart" whose initial, acoustic dorian openness makes for some needed atmospheric variation. However, a grand, ominous chorus washes mercilessly over this newly established sense of hope, echoing one little masterpiece of a 1975 ditty called "Kashmir".

Duffy's solo here is intentionally sparse, and this reflects the album as a whole. – While it's great that someone's thinking in terms of less being more, and while The Cult's 11th full-length is an all-round fine job, most of these songs do leave some potential by the wayside. A little more variation and memorability wouldn't have hurt. And this goes for entire songs as well, with, say, the downright unremarkable "Impermanence" seeming like it's written on auto-pilot.

Overall, though, it is nice to hear a sign of life from some of the great ones. Because in my book, The Cult still are that, having single songs that are more memorable and enticing than several bands' entire back catalogs combined. In concluding with another short answer, "Under the Midnight Sun" is, on the whole, a fine, mature effort, albeit perhaps not one that a lot of listeners apart from the hard-core fans will be revisiting very many times.