Album Review: Offering by Cults

By the time Cults had released their debut album, the continued existence of the Manhattan duo already felt like a survival fight. While breakout hit and 2011 ubiquity ‘Go Outside’ gambolled through its four minutes with the insouciant, no-fucks breeziness of its contemporaries (Sleigh Bells’ ‘Rill Rill’, Chairlift’s ‘Bruises’), it also revealed glimpses of a heaviness that no glockenspiel could carry. Above all, they faced the dread fate of creating a cute hit: moving on from it.

Full Review >>

When Cults returned from the four-year hiatus that followed Static, Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion took a new approach to their music. They took inspiration from Pink Floyd's atmospheres and the chugging new wave of Gary Numan and the Motels, and they collaborated more closely on their songs, jamming them out in the same room with Follin playing drums and keyboards as well as singing. As a result, Offering introduces a livelier, more eclectic Cults.

Full Review >>

Change often brings concern. If a man finds his way, his current friends are still going to gripe, “What happened to him?” Music fans tend to be less forgiving. Take The Morning Benders. Granted, their switch in sound didn't result in particularly inspiring tunes, but many simply balked at the very idea of POP ETC.

Full Review >>

Toward the beginning of Cults’ 2011 self-titled debut, singer Madeline Follin made a revealing confession: “I am afraid of the light.” That lyric alone speaks volumes about the group’s music. On the debut and 2013’s Static, the duo of Follin and guitarist Brian Oblivion has crafted vibrant pop songs flecked with bits of darkness. Their inescapable breakout hit “Go Outside” is a buoyant track that wouldn’t seem out of place piping through speakers at the Gap, despite the fact that it opens with a sample of infamous cult leader Jim Jones.

Full Review >>