"Livin' in a shack in a one-horse town; trying to get to heaven 'fore the sun goin' down."
Electric was produced by Rick Rubin, who, at the time, had Slayer and The Beastie Boys as his main production credits. For their part, The Cult were making a second run at a follow-up to the seminal Love, the previous "Manor" sessions with Steve Brown at the helm having disintegrated into a tug-of-war between Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury for creative control (a tension that would come to define the band for the remainder of its original run). While Astbury wanted to further explore the layered Goth-meets-Psychedelia that made the previous album so distinctive, Duffy wanted to pull The Cult's sound in a more straightforward hard-rock direction. With Rubin on board for the Electric sessions, the latter won out. While Electric bears little resemblance to its predecessor, it is, nevertheless, one of the finest hard-rock records of the decade. Gone are the Led Zeppelin and Doors allusions, ably replaced by some well-chosen quotes from the back-catalogs of The Rolling Stones and ACDC. Unfortunately, the stylistic shift marked by Electric was only the first in a series of such shifts, a tendency that would eventually reduce The Cult to an afterthought by the mid-nineties.
Electric (2000 Remastered Edition)
1. Wild Flower (3:38)
2. Peace Dog (3:34)
3. Lil' Devil (2:44)
4. Aphrodisiac Jacket (4:11)
5. Electric Ocean (2:49)
6. Bad Fun (3:44)
7. King Contrary Man (3:12)
8. Love Removal Machine (4:17)
9. Born to Be Wild (3:55)
10. Outlaw (2:52)
11. Memphis Hip Shake (4:00)
Ohh yea some classic stuff here. What a breath of fresh air this was during the heyday of cockrock and hairspray. One of those albums eye have had in every format but 8track. Thanky.
ReplyDeleteJo Jo, well-stated! I completely agree and you're welcome
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ReplyDeletei'm realy not sure in which direction The Cult's career could have led if they had followed the goth muse of 'Love',but anyhow as you've stated above it's one of the best hard-rock albums in eighties. Unfortunately. I always vote for Astbury's direction...
ReplyDeleteThanx for share! Keep doing your fine blog!It's excellent memorabilia of such good music...
Greetings from Croatia!!
iggy1, thanks for the comment. You make a good point. They had a lot of problems trying to follow up on "Love," which is why, I guess, they switched sounds. Astbury got his way later on with "Ceremony" and that didn't turn out too well, but I still prefer the sound of "Love" to the later stuff
ReplyDeleteiggy1, by the way, please hit that 'follow' button :)
ReplyDeleteFuck You idiot !
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