Offering by Cults

2017 | Alternative | Pop | Rock

RIYL (Recommended If You Like): Best Coast, The Horrors, Tennis, Small Black. Cults made their name in black and white. A pair of film school dropouts who burst onto the New York scene with a perfect single and a darkly retro sound, the band's first two albums play like noirish documentaries on a lost girl group. Four years after Static, Cults returns with Offering, an exciting collection of songs bursting with heart, confidence, shimmering melody and buzzing life. The time off has given the band new energy and new ideas Cults are working in Technicolor now. The core duo remains the same. Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, both 28, still live in New York. They still finish each other's thoughts and still share a love of catchy music and black humor. But the pair have put some blood on the tracks since their breakout debut: they've toured the world, built a devoted audience, survived a breakup, grown up in green rooms, parted ways with their old label and made a home of their new one. After the whirlwind of Static died down, Follin and Oblivion made a conscious decision to shift gears: 'I feel like we stepped into a tour van when we were 21, and basically didn't get out of it for the next few years,' Oblivion says. 'We wanted to give ourselves some space to have normal lives, and wait until there was something new to say.' Cults took their time, going through a few dozen discarded demos before arriving on a pair of songs that felt special the rollicking, sweet-but-dark 'Right Words' and the buzzy earworm 'Recovery.' Offering will thrill ride-or-die Cults fans, but also goes places Cults haven't gone before. Songs like 'Natural State' and 'Good Religion' balance on the same after-hours wall of sound that brought the band its early audience while 'With My Eyes Closed' shows the band trying new song structures and playing with vintage synths. Offering is the work of two artists who know what they want and how to make it happen. Quotes : 'Cults are excellent songcrafters, expert at boosting drama with dynamics and unexpected sounds. But what sets their music apart is feeling: the mood of wistful romance that hovers over the songs, the idea that love is an insoluble mystery.'

Cults (Artist/Musician)