Sonic Temple

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Just listen to fabulous opener 'Sun King', which in its somewhat laid back and 'cool' presence, introduces the album (and predictably enough, Duffy’s guitar work) in an outstandingly successful way. Sonic Temple is a straight forward heavy rock album influenced by the American music of the late seventies and early eighties.

The Cult - Sonic Temple Lyrics and Tracklist | Genius

Now cut onto two pieces of black vinyl, the audio is improved and it contains 16 tracks total, which comprise the original album plus 6 B-sides. If you want me to go through perhaps the only minor flaw in the album itself, then I suppose I have no choice. To accomplish this goal they recruited a rising star producer named Bob Rock, who’d cut his teeth engineering mega-platinum smashes ( Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation) under Bruce Fairbairnand knew just how to infuse promising new Cult creations like "Sun King,""Sweet Soul Sister,""Soul Asylum" and the persistently flower-powered "Wake Up Time for Freedom" with grandiose, big-screen ambitions.Sonic Temple Review During the end of the 80s, The Cult once again proves that they can make a fun and entertaining album. However, 'Sonic Temple' is not all about Billy Duffy and his beloved instrument, as the album cover misleadingly suggests.

The Cult – Sonic Temple (1989, CD) - Discogs The Cult – Sonic Temple (1989, CD) - Discogs

I said Love sounded compressed, but I'm realizing now that that may have been a result of every song off the album sitting in the same range.The DIGITAL version will replicate the CD-set but excludes the original album for a total of 43 tracks. Softer numbers such as the solemn yet perhaps too-long-for-its-own-good 'Soul Asylum' and unreleased bonus track 'The River' show Duffy's more melodic side to his own talent, rather than aiming purely for a rock vibe. It does not compare favourably with 'Love' nor 'Electric' but "American Horse" and "Sweet Soul Sister" in particular are great heavy rock tracks. Among the other songs finished for Sonic Temple, fans also had their pick of both punchy, Duffy-driven rockers like "New York City" and "Automatic Blues" and remnant samples of Astbury’s spiritual, Native American fetish, like "American Horse" and "Soldier Blue.

Sonic Temple 30th Anniversary Reissues Sonic Temple 30th Anniversary Reissues

In a less enthusiastic review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote: "Having risen from cultdom as a joke metal band metal fans were too dumb to get, they transmute into a dumb metal band. Butthe long and tortuous road that had brought the Cult this widespread acceptance was bound to claim its bounty. But it was the all-important singles, "Fire Woman," which bulldozed up the charts in numerous countries, and "Edie (Ciao Baby)"– its sensitive acoustic follow-upfamously inspired by Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick – that solidified the Cult’s mainstream arrival, both in America and abroad. Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault] Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault] “Slut!This aspect of The Cult's performance has rarely let down the band's most devoted fans, yet it is partly the cause of 'Sonic Temple' being as timeless as it is. When an album as successful as 'Love' is followed up swiftly by an album as excellent as 'Electric', it's probably hard for the band that released those two albums to create anything that builds up on that performance, or indeed exceeds the mark that was originally set.

The Cult – Sonic Temple (2019, Box Set) - Discogs The Cult – Sonic Temple (2019, Box Set) - Discogs

The album received mixed reviews, with some interpreting the change in sound positively and some negatively. Listening today, I was not sure if I was going to enjoy this set, but I have to say that in places this album is absolutely excellent. I should give one star, only the music gets much more, but the most of us have this already in one or another form. Even those who hated The Cult's musical changes still admitted that 'Sun King' still managed to get their heads rolling.Parke Puterbaugh of Stereo Review considered that the band "borrows its inspiration" from Led Zeppelin, Queen and other AOR heroes from the hard rock Seventies, but "there's something perversely addictive about this music, with its upfront aggression and its slow-motion orgasms of drums and guitars building to a raunchy climax. Fire Woman is a song for the eternity, an absolute masterpiece, one of the staples of all hard rock music.