Cults By Cults

Reading a simple description of the band Cults would lead you to believe that they are just another tiny minnow in a great big ocean. Just another group of kids somewhere in America, making bedroom-dream-pop and posting songs up on their MySpace page. With just a three-song demo and no band description, the mystique surrounding this group set in like a cloud, with only their hazy mo-town influenced sound to represent them. Cults, however, were able to do what most bands could not achieve within a year or existence: They got signed to a major record label.

With their first release on Columbia, Cults have delivered a euphoric debut that sparkles as much as it blends into the landscape. The band lives and breathes on a simple dynamic, with conversational lyrics between its vocalists, Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin, over lush Phil Spector-like shuffles. It isn’t exactly a new trendsetting sound, as indie-rock has been flooded with this sound ever since bands like Best Coast and She & Him broke into the mainstream. But with that being said, their debut delivers just as much as any of these bands.

The airy and angelic single “Go Outside” will most likely set the tone of the summer. With its glockenspiel melody line and blissfully reverbed out vocals, the song plays like a car driving less than a mile an hour on the highway filled with friends en route to the beach without a care in the world. It's the standout song of the album, and possibly one of the most catchy songs of 2011. The band also raves things up with the opener “Abducted”, a silly doo-wop-punk song that shows that the band can be as riled up as it can be glazed over.

Overall, Cults have found a pretty focused sound on this their first outing; the only concern we have with this band in general is how easily they can be pigeonholed with their one-trick-pony sound. They have done everything according to the laws of being a buzz band post-noughties. Cults are a new hip soul revivalist group, but pretty soon people are going to look for something a little more modern and a little less nostalgic.