The Cult only sold .1 million copies of Electric. I too was surprised to hear that they only sold 3 million albums in the USA from 1986 - 91. It is said the release of Appetite of Destruction and their old UK 'Goth music image affected them. " Slash fron Guns said they were typical Brits. I.e. jealous and insecure of their own image & sound and put down everyone else. Sonic Temple Just fell short of Double Platinum in 1989. By then The Cult were called Zeppelin copy cats didn't really break in the US as they were popular on the East and West Coast but the multi-platinum buying mid West still shunned them. The Cult's European and world wide audience dropped off as they were seen as a US hair band joke. Ceremony- sold poorly, confused AND couldn't please anyone. Ironically it was 'alternative enough " which butt hurt Ian Astbury as 10 uears prior, Southern Death Cult were THE alternative darlings of the huge post punk Indie UK scene, which was as fickle as ice cream left out in the noon day sun.
THE CULT album sales THE CULT sold over 4,065,000 albums, including 2,500,000 in the United States and 460,000 in the United Kingdom. The best-selling album by THE CULT is SONIC TEMPLE, which sold over 1,335,000 copies .
I always wished they would have kept going in this direction with this rhythm section and Rick’s in your face production. this is one in my favorite albums ever made.
Electric was on constant replay for me as a teenager. The Cult is one of my favourite bands and Duffy was a major influence on me for learning guitar.🤘
I saw The Cult live in Germany opening for Aerosmith in Germany in support of Sonic Temple and they COMPLETELY blew Aerosmith off the stage in an embarrassing way. It was '89 or' 90. They were on fire big time.
There hasn't been a Cult album I didn't like. That said, I grew up an 80's post punk/goth kid, and I distinctly remember the transition in musical style from Love to Electric. All bands have to progress, but The Cult lost a lot of the old guard fans when Electric came out. At the time, Electric represented exactly what us punk/goth kids had rejected, what our older cousins had played at nauseum. Now, 30+ years later I can appreciate all those big rock guitar sounds that Electric provided. Still, today I hear more punk in The Cult's lastest music than ever before. After all these years following them, it's nuance I think one would call it that I hear.
Go pick up PEACE. It's the original take on the Electric material with Steve Brown, LOVE's producer. It's The Cult. Not the corporate trash that Rubin barfed out on Electric.
@@zoso1980 i like the Peace album a lot, especially the versions of Wild Flower, Electric Ocean and Outlaw. Nevertheless, i understand why the band did not like those versions, since they are just too overloaded with too many layers and echoes. "Love" was the perfect mix for what they did at the time, but the Peace versions just did not fit. While not being a big fan of "Electric" i have to admit, that Rick Rubin managed to strip The Cult down to it's essence, whether you like it or not. The music and the songs are great in any way performed. And until today, no Cult album sounds like another and that's quite an achievement.
Electric ⚡️ still sounds sharp, to the bottom of the glass, nearly 35 years on & that’s a big fucking achievement all round. Go, The Cult, go, like the bullet from the barrel of a rock ‘n roll gun!
Electric is a damn fine rock album. The change in sound seemed to be something of a Cult signature IMO, as Sonic Temple and Ceremony had a more bombastic and arena rock feel, while The Cult was a sludgier and grunge-like affair. Then Beyond Good and Evil shows up a few years later with a thoroughly heavy and dark sound, more like a metal band than rock. Their recent output kind of draws on their earlier ideas, particularly Choice of Weapon with its recall of Native American themes and mythos. For me, they were always hard to pin down and they really deserve more credit for their accomplishments than they generally deserve.
I'm not sure The Cult are a band he saved. He raised their star, sure. But, he also made a record that wasn't really who The Cult were, and the AC/DC middle America generic rock fan Electric appealed too. It set them up with an audience who expected the same stuff, over and over. Ian and Billy weren't going to permanently water themselves down for that. Sonic Temple moved back towards The Cult being themselves. And, the audience Rubin tried to cultivate started to vanish. This is why if you are going to pander to audience that's not normally yours, you stick with it and ride it for life. Radically different records tailored to radically different audiences screws up your existing audience and the more you jump audiences in search of the most lucrative, you create potential for people to lose interest because you are trying to transition between styles/audiences. Only a few bands have jumped almost radically around and survived. They are the ones though that exist just for money, like KISS.
The " Manor Sessions " was put out on CD in a white boxset in 1990/91. It also had the singles, b-sides and live tracks from that era. It was an official release.
They did "The Manor Sessions" which was the versions of tunes that ended up on Electric (minus "Aphrodisiac Jacket" and "Peace Dog"). There was also another disc in that set (the name escapes me) that had the tunes that were totally scrapped (Zap City, Groove Co, Conquistador and Love Trooper). That gave you nearly all of it. I think it was the Rare Cult box set that finally gave you the two missing pieces of the jigsaw
That album is also known as PEACE. Steve Brown (LOVE) produced it. It's the full fleshed out album that was intended as the follow-up to LOVE, but got shelved so they could chase US $. It's worth every penny. It's The Cult without all the phony corporate US audience pandering imagery and mix.
This is exactly what I figured out all those years ago. Love was their pinnacle as far as I was concerned. As a club goth lite kid in the mid eighties, I really liked their darker music and overall goth style and was completly pissed off that they changed so drastically to the denim, raggedy hair, cock rock style and music. When Electric came out I was done with them.
That guitar tone that Duffy got on that album is maybe my favorite ever. Electric is why I started to play again, I had just moved to Dallas and still doing too many drugs and Electric came out and was what I needed to hear. LP Standard straight into a Marshall. I needed a hobby and Dallas had massive guitar shows, I bought a white LP Custom and JCM800. Such an underrated album, those riffs, Astbury sounded great. Took alot of balls to rerecord that album with Rubin, stripped down like that. It alienated alot of their old fans and they had to know it would. Now I have 16 vintage guitars, 4 old Marshalls, even a drum kit. I'm old now and haven't played in years but the late 80's Dallas was a blast and the one album of that time for me is Electric.
Be sure to get a copy of the "omnibus edition" of Love. It's a 4 disc set that includes the album, a remixes and B sides disc, a disc of demos, and a recording of a concert from 1985 (I think).
I remember reading a review of Electric in Hit Parader in '87 that praised the album. I'd only heard of the Cult before that. It prompted me to pick up the album and I'm REALLY glad I did; that album kicks ass!
I liked their first two albums as well as some of the southern death cult songs like Maya. You can see a lot is their early performance on TH-cam during this period. While I continued to buy their albums up until “beyond good and evil” I always preferred the earlier stuff. They were talented enough to switch their sound, but I always felt they decided to chase the money
Absolutely LOVE this album. I remember buying it when it came out just by the looks of the banner on the record store wall. Never heard a note by them in the previous. Since then I have bought it at least six times on various formats. There is not a dud on the entire album. Still one of my three favorite albums in the entire universe of music.
I love the shot of the sad looking guy sitting on the steps shaking his head when the voice over mentions “they fired their British managers” lol. It just struck me as funny.
“Electric” doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Just fuckin’ solid from beginning to end. “BTBW” is a little weak, but other than that, I play this record a lot. It’s hard not to marvel at how goddamn great it is. “Electric” is to records, what “Conan The Barbarian” is to movies: It’s hiding in plain sight. It’s so badass it almost disguises how glorious it is.
It's a sell-out record that re-imaged them to compete in the US with GNR and AC/DC. It was an artistic disaster and remains a shining example of 'don't throw away everything you were to chase dollars.' It may have sold hotcakes to the butt-rock crowd, but in the end, it made The Cult a 3rd tier butt-rock band in the states instead of the alternative band they really were, and by '91 their mainstream days were over thanks to Rubin and chasing corporate rock dollars by Rubin emulating AC/DC. It's a massive fail changing genres to the point you fuck up your career down the road. The Cult should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rubin's corporate screw job robbed them out of that and their legacy, IMHO. The record that deserves the praise and respect is PEACE. That's the album that got shelved, so they could bring in Rubin. Steve Brown (LOVE) produced it. And it's everything The Cult ever was, and more. It's them to the bone, not a phony corporate job. PEACE is the legacy record, not Electric's corporate pandering trash.
I think your description applies more to “Sonic Temple” than “Electric”. It’s not fair to refer to “Electric” as anything in the realm of sellout or, especially, butt rock. With “Electric” the songs are just so goddamn good that even if those things were true, I mean who gives a shit? Listening to that record is an absolute delight and I think your preference for the record before Rubin got a hold of it is maybe steering you towards your contempt for it. Get “Let There Be Rock” by AC/DC, get any Didjits record, listen to the 45 of Guns N’ Roses “It’s So Easy”, spin an Alice Donut record then put the “Electric” cherry on top of all of it. Them shits is just straight up bad fucking ass.
@@francisswings Sonic Temple moved the needle back to Billy and Ian being themselves without the forced Rubin-esque production and neutering of The Cult sound for butt-rock audiences. There is far more authenticity in Sonic Temple than Electric. Sure Sonic Temple, was a mainstream album, too, but it was far more authentic then the brazen and radical re-imaging of a band that destroyed what they were to cater to an audience that The Cult wasn't about. Speaking of authenticity, Electric Ocean on PEACE for example, is iconic. On Electric it is a hum-drum AC/DC style rocker and is boring AF. Groove Co. on PEACE is an impressive stretch into new artistic territory. On Electric, you get an embarrassing cover of Born To Be Wild - the most un-Cult thing they ever did. I don't think Ian and Billy even played it on the 'Electric 25 year' tour, to show you what they thought of it. The fact you mention a listening session that includes GNR and AC/DC, then Electric makes my point. No one would say, 'hey, I'm going to listen to Back & Black, Appetite and then LOVE.' You may think Electric is glorious. But, artistically the songs were pared down to the point that even though Billy, Ian and Jamie were performing, it wasn't The Cult. It was the greatest put-on by a band, label and producer trying to emulate trendy trash while throwing away an established band's own iconic sound and identity. Rubin did that and you got a trash record for it. I'd propose you disliked Sonic Temple because it moved away from the corporate butt-rock hash of Electric, and started to move back towards who The Cult really were. Rubin may have helped The Cult go mainstream, but long term, associating them with GNR or AC/DC, that wasn't their lane, and it screwed up their identity in the states. Were they a butt-rock outfit or a first-rate alternative and post-punk band? Pre-Electric they were the latter, and partially returned to it after Electric. However, there are many people who base their opinion of them on Electric and, I close with when you hop genres in a big way like was done on Electric, it confuses people to who you are and what your band is about. Had they released PEACE instead of Electric, they'd be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they've had transitioned into the 90s grunge era far better. Associating with corporate rock and taking its flag with Electric got them swept aside in the '91, because even many industry types thought they were the butt-rock outfit Rubin tried to push. It's a damn tragedy. So, you'll forgive me that I don't include The Cult as Rubin success. He pushed a band to be something they weren't, and it cost them dearly in the long haul.
On the Billy Duffy episode of Pursuit of Tone, he talked about recording Electric. On first day in studio Rick Rubin said here’s your Les Paul, there’s a Marshal amp, go play.
@@zoso1980 Agree. And Rubin is a hack. Ian's looks are what sold that band at that point, because of mtv, and Manor Sessions versions would have sold much better. Rubin's production was cheesy as shit.
Great video, thanks. Someone lent me the 7" vinyl single of "She Sells Sanctuary" in late-1986. I played it, liked it, and played it a few more times, liking it a little bit more each time. It was seemingly a bit out there, but it was catchy, and I loved Ian Astbury's voice. Then I was over a friend's house a few months later and we're watching MTV when the video for the brand-new "Love Removal Machine" came-on. He had already seen it once and was wondering what I would think. I was fucking blown away. I almost couldn't believe it was the same band. I was like, Holy shit, The Cult are like AC/DC now?! YEAH!! 🤘🏻 Ended-up getting *ELECTRIC* on CD a couple of years later, right at the same time that I got the even better *Sonic Temple* which of course was an incredible combination of the sounds of *Love* and *Electric* although even heavier than the latter. Speaking of *Sonic Temple,* could you please do a making-of video for it?? Thank you in advance!! 🤘🏻
Love was good but their debut Dreamtime was a great album!I have to admit that Electric was very good and it's aged very well.I saw them on tour,Guns n Rose's opened up and they kicked butt(The Cult not GnR!)!
Wow! Small world. We saw History! Did you attend the Jane's show with MLB and Soundgarden opening? That show was amazing! I was backstage and again drinking at The Cloudroom before and after. History AGAIN.
@@pamelahinchee8012 No..I just went to see my favorite band at the time The Cult..it was the second time I have seen them,first when they opened for Billy Idol.
The drums on electric ⚡️.. I loved this album so much I took it to school to show off when it first came out .. along with the cure 3 imaginary boys .. two of my biggest 80s albums before Depeche Mode 101 came out.. now this was REAL alternative .. which used to be called post modern
Honestly sonic temple was my absolute jam .. bob rock as much as he’s the Michael Bay of production does know how to get this band to play well besides Rubin
Love and Electric were both popular with "the cool kids" (not me at the time - I was a Peter Gabriel/Dire Straits man), and you'd always see them walking around at High School at the time. I didn't actually start listening and loving it until a few years later, and never looked back. I've seen them play live, really cool. Astbury's a bit of a plank, but I love the music.
I noticed the change in sound between those albums, but wasn't sure what made them do it , I assumed it was from New influence in music not management. Cool ..I love learning new pieces of the story
Rick Rubin made, and saved a lot of careers. The list of awesome albums made under his direction is long and enviable. the Cult, The Four Horsemen, Trouble, The Jayhawks, Masters of Reality and many others all made their masterpieces with Rubin. He gave bands like AC/DC the best albums they'd had in years. Man's a genius.
During the hair band hey day, along comes the Rick Rubin produced Cult LP "Electric" it may or may not saved the Cult's career, but it sure gave the over produced, over achieving, over hyped, hair metal scene a kick in the ass, as did the Rick Rubin produced self titled Danzig and Danzig ll / Lucifige albums a couple of years later.
Never heard the peace lp I thought that only a few of the songs came out on the box set so I will have to track down a copy of the double CD. Electric is a great lp.
PEACE is The Cult. Highly recommend it. Electric is Rubin's vision of Billy, Jamie and Ian as corporate US butt-rockers. If you like LOVE and DREAMTIME, PEACE is everything they were and more in that era.
Aphrodisiac Jacket still gives me goosebumps to this very day! I saw them open up for Billy Idol at the Cow Palace in San francisco and they blew Billy out of the water so bad that people actually threw shoes at Billy at the begining of his set Because the Cult had Rocked so much harder... Billy eventually won the crowd over and had a decent show, But the night belonged to The Cult!
I saw The Cult in 2022 in New Orleans. That stripped down, 'hey, we're going to sound like AC/DC' was definitely not their vibe. They had the fuller rich sound. Not excessively thin like Electric. A middle point between Electric and Peace mixes. Electric doesn't reflect their live gigs today, I can attest to that.
I think Electric was the wrong direction for them. The Manor sessions were in essence a pre-grunge sound and many grunge bands directly copied Ian's use of sustained vocals and the whole sound. Had they gone in that direction, they would have been THE originators of grunge, although according to some, they indeed were. Also it is said here that they started as DC/ in gothic genre, but their true gothic period was as SDC, the first incarnation of the one and the same band.
Yes, Electric is inauthentic to who The Cult are. It was a crass repackaging for American dollars. It damaged their career path and confused audiences as to who they were. Are they an AC/DC clone with a guy who wears a pirate hat, or are they the band that had a layered and interesting mystical sound of She Sells Sanctuary? Without the heavy-handed corporate reimaging and Rubin's attempt to make Back In Black by The Cult, their creative arc and audience retention would've been much more solid.
Yup. The record felt like The Cult playing their songs in AC/DC style mix. Turned me off. I have nearly all their albums, EXCEPT Electric. It felt phony and a crass repackaging for MTV and American radio. The Peace original mixes are much more satisfying. They are, all things said, The Cult being The Cult.
My favorites: 1. Beyond Good And Evil 2. Love 3. Dreamtime 4. Ceremony 5. Peace 6. Hidden City 7. Sonic Temple 8. The Cult 9. Choice Of Weapon 10. Born Into This 11. Death Cult 12. Southern Death Cult ~see what I did there~
Steve Brown did a really good job on the original version of Electric (check it out) but its not the sound the band wanted. For me Sonic Temple remains by far the best thing they ever did.
I thought that was the absolute corniest non-Cult thing they ever did. It was laughable. It's the perfect symbol of Rubin's re-imaging them as an American rock band. The whole thing stunk. Took a great band and wrecked them for corporate sales, only to have their mainstream success evaporate by '91. That's what happens when you throw away what made you great to chase GNR.
Steve Brown said the same. If Ian and Billy had stayed on their artistic evolution without trying to cash in on America, they'd be much more iconic and have an iconic sound. Instead of the post-punk shifting to arena rock and pandering to the AC/DC crowd.
Prefer early SDC up to Love...more alternative/psychedelic sound. However the hard rock Electric album did make the band huge in America and much more commercial. Sonic Temple was the last album i got back in the day too as an older guy now.
Sophomore. Its used to refer to someone in their second year of high school or college, hence when used in a musical context, it's referring to a band's second album.
"Electric" is one of my top 5 all time. Killer album.
Yes I love that album!
Same. I listened to it every day on the way to school my junior year, in my friend’s blue and silver Econoline Van. Damn good memories.
We listened to it every day skating my friends halfpipe for a whole summer.
Mine too! Rocked out to it for a long time!
Mine also ! 🤘😜🤘
Love is one of the greatest 80s albums.
Electric only sold one million copies? That’s crazy. That album was phenomenal.
The retardation of the pop music buying public. Just one of thousands of examples.
The Cult only sold .1 million copies of Electric. I too was surprised to hear that they only sold 3 million albums in the USA from 1986 - 91.
It is said the release of Appetite of Destruction and their old UK 'Goth music image affected them. " Slash fron Guns said they were typical Brits.
I.e. jealous and insecure of their own image & sound and put down everyone else.
Sonic Temple
Just fell short of Double Platinum in 1989. By then The Cult were called Zeppelin copy cats didn't really break in the US as they were popular on the East and West Coast but the multi-platinum buying mid West still shunned them.
The Cult's European and world wide audience dropped off as they were seen as a US hair band joke.
Ceremony- sold poorly, confused AND couldn't please anyone.
Ironically it was 'alternative enough " which butt hurt Ian
Astbury as 10 uears prior, Southern Death Cult were THE alternative darlings of the huge post punk Indie UK scene, which was as fickle as ice cream left out in the noon day sun.
@@FrostedSeagull Ceremony is great.
THE CULT album sales
THE CULT sold over 4,065,000 albums, including 2,500,000 in the United States and 460,000 in the United Kingdom. The best-selling album by THE CULT is SONIC TEMPLE, which sold over 1,335,000 copies .
I always wished they would have kept going in this direction with this rhythm section and Rick’s in your face production. this is one in my favorite albums ever made.
Electric was on constant replay for me as a teenager. The Cult is one of my favourite bands and Duffy was a major influence on me for learning guitar.🤘
Electric set the stage for Sonic Temple and Sonic Temple was a giant success.
I saw The Cult live in Germany opening for Aerosmith in Germany in support of Sonic Temple and they COMPLETELY blew Aerosmith off the stage in an embarrassing way. It was '89 or' 90. They were on fire big time.
I saw the same tour in Frankfurt Germany. Your right they blew Aerosmith off the stage.
There hasn't been a Cult album I didn't like. That said, I grew up an 80's post punk/goth kid, and I distinctly remember the transition in musical style from Love to Electric. All bands have to progress, but The Cult lost a lot of the old guard fans when Electric came out. At the time, Electric represented exactly what us punk/goth kids had rejected, what our older cousins had played at nauseum. Now, 30+ years later I can appreciate all those big rock guitar sounds that Electric provided. Still, today I hear more punk in The Cult's lastest music than ever before. After all these years following them, it's nuance I think one would call it that I hear.
Thank god they re recorded it because Electric is on of my all time favorite albums because it is stripped down raw rock
I saw them on the Electric tour, opening for Billy Idol/Steve Stevens. Great Woods MA. It was wicked!
Same here, but in Houston.
I was at the same show in Houston, great show!
It's kind of interesting that Billy was Morrisseys original writing partner back in the day.
Love is one of the most amazing albums ever recorded
Go pick up PEACE. It's the original take on the Electric material with Steve Brown, LOVE's producer. It's The Cult. Not the corporate trash that Rubin barfed out on Electric.
@@zoso1980 i like the Peace album a lot, especially the versions of Wild Flower, Electric Ocean and Outlaw. Nevertheless, i understand why the band did not like those versions, since they are just too overloaded with too many layers and echoes. "Love" was the perfect mix for what they did at the time, but the Peace versions just did not fit. While not being a big fan of "Electric" i have to admit, that Rick Rubin managed to strip The Cult down to it's essence, whether you like it or not. The music and the songs are great in any way performed. And until today, no Cult album sounds like another and that's quite an achievement.
My ‘go to’ cassette for ripping through the city delivering pizzas back in the day. Good times!
Electric ⚡️ still sounds sharp, to the bottom of the glass, nearly 35 years on & that’s a big fucking achievement all round. Go, The Cult, go, like the bullet from the barrel of a rock ‘n roll gun!
It's a shame they never made another album that sounded like Electric. It really suited Ian's voice.
You can say that about GNR too.
Electric is a damn fine rock album. The change in sound seemed to be something of a Cult signature IMO, as Sonic Temple and Ceremony had a more bombastic and arena rock feel, while The Cult was a sludgier and grunge-like affair. Then Beyond Good and Evil shows up a few years later with a thoroughly heavy and dark sound, more like a metal band than rock. Their recent output kind of draws on their earlier ideas, particularly Choice of Weapon with its recall of Native American themes and mythos. For me, they were always hard to pin down and they really deserve more credit for their accomplishments than they generally deserve.
Electric is their best album IMO
Rick Rubin has saved more careers than anyone. Total genius.
Not to mention how many he helped start.
I'm not sure The Cult are a band he saved. He raised their star, sure. But, he also made a record that wasn't really who The Cult were, and the AC/DC middle America generic rock fan Electric appealed too. It set them up with an audience who expected the same stuff, over and over. Ian and Billy weren't going to permanently water themselves down for that. Sonic Temple moved back towards The Cult being themselves. And, the audience Rubin tried to cultivate started to vanish. This is why if you are going to pander to audience that's not normally yours, you stick with it and ride it for life. Radically different records tailored to radically different audiences screws up your existing audience and the more you jump audiences in search of the most lucrative, you create potential for people to lose interest because you are trying to transition between styles/audiences. Only a few bands have jumped almost radically around and survived. They are the ones though that exist just for money, like KISS.
The " Manor Sessions " was put out on CD in a white boxset in 1990/91. It also had the singles, b-sides and live tracks from that era. It was an official release.
They did "The Manor Sessions" which was the versions of tunes that ended up on Electric (minus "Aphrodisiac Jacket" and "Peace Dog"). There was also another disc in that set (the name escapes me) that had the tunes that were totally scrapped (Zap City, Groove Co, Conquistador and Love Trooper). That gave you nearly all of it. I think it was the Rare Cult box set that finally gave you the two missing pieces of the jigsaw
That album is also known as PEACE. Steve Brown (LOVE) produced it. It's the full fleshed out album that was intended as the follow-up to LOVE, but got shelved so they could chase US $. It's worth every penny. It's The Cult without all the phony corporate US audience pandering imagery and mix.
Brilliant album..one of my all-time favorites...totally underated.
Thank you Angelle for turning me on to Electric. I bought it and I wore it out.
This is exactly what I figured out all those years ago. Love was their pinnacle as far as I was concerned. As a club goth lite kid in the mid eighties, I really liked their darker music and overall goth style and was completly pissed off that they changed so drastically to the denim, raggedy hair, cock rock style and music. When Electric came out I was done with them.
That guitar tone that Duffy got on that album is maybe my favorite ever. Electric is why I started to play again, I had just moved to Dallas and still doing too many drugs and Electric came out and was what I needed to hear. LP Standard straight into a Marshall. I needed a hobby and Dallas had massive guitar shows, I bought a white LP Custom and JCM800. Such an underrated album, those riffs, Astbury sounded great. Took alot of balls to rerecord that album with Rubin, stripped down like that. It alienated alot of their old fans and they had to know it would. Now I have 16 vintage guitars, 4 old Marshalls, even a drum kit. I'm old now and haven't played in years but the late 80's Dallas was a blast and the one album of that time for me is Electric.
"Love" is a great album!
Be sure to get a copy of the "omnibus edition" of Love. It's a 4 disc set that includes the album, a remixes and B sides disc, a disc of demos, and a recording of a concert from 1985 (I think).
Hell yeah. And “Love” is one of their best songs.
she sells sanctuary is a fucking awesome song
Amen !
I remember reading a review of Electric in Hit Parader in '87 that praised the album. I'd only heard of the Cult before that. It prompted me to pick up the album and I'm REALLY glad I did; that album kicks ass!
Loved the management sacking bit, with the guy on the steps shaking his head :D
I liked their first two albums as well as some of the southern death cult songs like Maya. You can see a lot is their early performance on TH-cam during this period. While I continued to buy their albums up until “beyond good and evil” I always preferred the earlier stuff.
They were talented enough to switch their sound, but I always felt they decided to chase the money
Just a phenomenal album!! I loved Love but Electric blew me away. We used to cover Wildflower and later LRM...still a top 20 album in my life
perfection
I was trucking through the desert blasting that CD last night.
Absolutely LOVE this album. I remember buying it when it came out just by the looks of the banner on the record store wall. Never heard a note by them in the previous. Since then I have bought it at least six times on various formats. There is not a dud on the entire album. Still one of my three favorite albums in the entire universe of music.
I love the shot of the sad looking guy sitting on the steps shaking his head when the voice over mentions “they fired their British managers” lol. It just struck me as funny.
“Electric” doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Just fuckin’ solid from beginning to end. “BTBW” is a little weak, but other than that, I play this record a lot. It’s hard not to marvel at how goddamn great it is. “Electric” is to records, what “Conan The Barbarian” is to movies: It’s hiding in plain sight. It’s so badass it almost disguises how glorious it is.
oh man i was hooked on this album for a long time
It's a sell-out record that re-imaged them to compete in the US with GNR and AC/DC. It was an artistic disaster and remains a shining example of 'don't throw away everything you were to chase dollars.' It may have sold hotcakes to the butt-rock crowd, but in the end, it made The Cult a 3rd tier butt-rock band in the states instead of the alternative band they really were, and by '91 their mainstream days were over thanks to Rubin and chasing corporate rock dollars by Rubin emulating AC/DC. It's a massive fail changing genres to the point you fuck up your career down the road. The Cult should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rubin's corporate screw job robbed them out of that and their legacy, IMHO. The record that deserves the praise and respect is PEACE. That's the album that got shelved, so they could bring in Rubin. Steve Brown (LOVE) produced it. And it's everything The Cult ever was, and more. It's them to the bone, not a phony corporate job. PEACE is the legacy record, not Electric's corporate pandering trash.
I think your description applies more to “Sonic Temple” than “Electric”. It’s not fair to refer to “Electric” as anything in the realm of sellout or, especially, butt rock. With “Electric” the songs are just so goddamn good that even if those things were true, I mean who gives a shit? Listening to that record is an absolute delight and I think your preference for the record before Rubin got a hold of it is maybe steering you towards your contempt for it. Get “Let There Be Rock” by AC/DC, get any Didjits record, listen to the 45 of Guns N’ Roses “It’s So Easy”, spin an Alice Donut record then put the “Electric” cherry on top of all of it. Them shits is just straight up bad fucking ass.
@@francisswings Sonic Temple moved the needle back to Billy and Ian being themselves without the forced Rubin-esque production and neutering of The Cult sound for butt-rock audiences. There is far more authenticity in Sonic Temple than Electric. Sure Sonic Temple, was a mainstream album, too, but it was far more authentic then the brazen and radical re-imaging of a band that destroyed what they were to cater to an audience that The Cult wasn't about. Speaking of authenticity, Electric Ocean on PEACE for example, is iconic. On Electric it is a hum-drum AC/DC style rocker and is boring AF. Groove Co. on PEACE is an impressive stretch into new artistic territory. On Electric, you get an embarrassing cover of Born To Be Wild - the most un-Cult thing they ever did. I don't think Ian and Billy even played it on the 'Electric 25 year' tour, to show you what they thought of it. The fact you mention a listening session that includes GNR and AC/DC, then Electric makes my point. No one would say, 'hey, I'm going to listen to Back & Black, Appetite and then LOVE.' You may think Electric is glorious. But, artistically the songs were pared down to the point that even though Billy, Ian and Jamie were performing, it wasn't The Cult. It was the greatest put-on by a band, label and producer trying to emulate trendy trash while throwing away an established band's own iconic sound and identity. Rubin did that and you got a trash record for it. I'd propose you disliked Sonic Temple because it moved away from the corporate butt-rock hash of Electric, and started to move back towards who The Cult really were. Rubin may have helped The Cult go mainstream, but long term, associating them with GNR or AC/DC, that wasn't their lane, and it screwed up their identity in the states. Were they a butt-rock outfit or a first-rate alternative and post-punk band? Pre-Electric they were the latter, and partially returned to it after Electric. However, there are many people who base their opinion of them on Electric and, I close with when you hop genres in a big way like was done on Electric, it confuses people to who you are and what your band is about. Had they released PEACE instead of Electric, they'd be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they've had transitioned into the 90s grunge era far better. Associating with corporate rock and taking its flag with Electric got them swept aside in the '91, because even many industry types thought they were the butt-rock outfit Rubin tried to push. It's a damn tragedy. So, you'll forgive me that I don't include The Cult as Rubin success. He pushed a band to be something they weren't, and it cost them dearly in the long haul.
On the Billy Duffy episode of Pursuit of Tone, he talked about recording Electric. On first day in studio Rick Rubin said here’s your Les Paul, there’s a Marshal amp, go play.
Day 1 of the corporate make-over on that trash record. Most people know Billy is a Gretsch man. And is again, a Gretsch man.
@@zoso1980 Agree. And Rubin is a hack. Ian's looks are what sold that band at that point, because of mtv, and Manor Sessions versions would have sold much better. Rubin's production was cheesy as shit.
Great video, thanks. Someone lent me the 7" vinyl single of "She Sells Sanctuary" in late-1986. I played it, liked it, and played it a few more times, liking it a little bit more each time. It was seemingly a bit out there, but it was catchy, and I loved Ian Astbury's voice. Then I was over a friend's house a few months later and we're watching MTV when the video for the brand-new "Love Removal Machine" came-on. He had already seen it once and was wondering what I would think.
I was fucking blown away.
I almost couldn't believe it was the same band. I was like, Holy shit, The Cult are like AC/DC now?! YEAH!! 🤘🏻 Ended-up getting *ELECTRIC* on CD a couple of years later, right at the same time that I got the even better *Sonic Temple* which of course was an incredible combination of the sounds of *Love* and *Electric* although even heavier than the latter.
Speaking of *Sonic Temple,* could you please do a making-of video for it?? Thank you in advance!! 🤘🏻
Yes, a Sonic Temple video would be awesome.
Billy Duffy 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻🎸🎶
Electric is a GREAT album and one of the best rock albums of all times !!!
My favorite album by the Cult!!!
Great story. I like Electric, but Love us an iconic album.
I like the peace sessions too definitely underrated band
@Christopher Bingham Great opening track!
@@rnrtruestories PEACE is actually an unsung iconic record, IMHO.
This is embarrassing, one of my all time favorite albums, and I didn't know it was a Rick Rubin album. Makes sense now.
Rock N Roll Masterpiece! PLAY LOUD
Southern Death Cult was their first name.
Great video :)
Thank you! I love The Cult. I knew some of this info but your research is phenomenal.
Love was good but their debut Dreamtime was a great album!I have to admit that Electric was very good and it's aged very well.I saw them on tour,Guns n Rose's opened up and they kicked butt(The Cult not GnR!)!
Me too! At the Paramount in Seattle. Ran in to them at The Cloud Room in The Camlin Hotel where both Bands were staying. EPIC SHOW!
@@pamelahinchee8012 Greetings from Seattle!I was at that show!Who would have thought G n' R would become the next big thing!But they did!
Wow! Small world. We saw History! Did you attend the Jane's show with MLB and Soundgarden opening? That show was amazing! I was backstage and again drinking at The Cloudroom before and after. History AGAIN.
@@pamelahinchee8012 No..I just went to see my favorite band at the time The Cult..it was the second time I have seen them,first when they opened for Billy Idol.
@@jefferysteen1041 I saw them open for Billy Idol too, I just don't remember it that well. My Bad. Wasn't that at the Key Arena????
I saw them on this tour and Guns and Rose's opened for them. Great Show. In my top 5...
Nice video!! Have you ever considered making a video about the Nirvana and Guns N' Roses beef during the early 90s?
Yes it will be a super long long video
The drums on electric ⚡️.. I loved this album so much I took it to school to show off when it first came out .. along with the cure 3 imaginary boys .. two of my biggest 80s albums before Depeche Mode 101 came out.. now this was REAL alternative .. which used to be called post modern
Rubin knew how to dial in a near natural drum tone in a decade where bombast was often the rule. Killer drum tone on South of Heaven as well.
Honestly sonic temple was my absolute jam .. bob rock as much as he’s the Michael Bay of production does know how to get this band to play well besides Rubin
Also loved beyond good and evil , and weapon of choice :) both versions
Top 5 band for me
It was a GREAT album!!
Love and Electric were both popular with "the cool kids" (not me at the time - I was a Peter Gabriel/Dire Straits man), and you'd always see them walking around at High School at the time. I didn't actually start listening and loving it until a few years later, and never looked back. I've seen them play live, really cool. Astbury's a bit of a plank, but I love the music.
Love it. Thanks for this!
I noticed the change in sound between those albums, but wasn't sure what made them do it , I assumed it was from New influence in music not management. Cool ..I love learning new pieces of the story
Electric... awesome album.
Re: title- No. While "electric" was awesome, "love" was already a smash.
Fuckin great album and that tour was fuckin amazing they opened up for Billy idol and blew him away
Rick Rubin made, and saved a lot of careers. The list of awesome albums made under his direction is long and enviable. the Cult, The Four Horsemen, Trouble, The Jayhawks, Masters of Reality and many others all made their masterpieces with Rubin. He gave bands like AC/DC the best albums they'd had in years. Man's a genius.
Don't forget Johnny Cash. American Recordings was huge comeback from someone who people thought might be past his better days.
Yeah he did work with the Jayhawks as well didn’t he? Another great and editing band! Thanks for reminding me!
Rubin keeps things simple. And the simpler it is, the better it works
Don't forget the Beastie Boys!
During the hair band hey day, along comes the Rick Rubin produced Cult LP "Electric" it may or may not saved the Cult's career, but it sure gave the over produced, over achieving, over hyped, hair metal scene a kick in the ass, as did the Rick Rubin produced self titled Danzig and Danzig ll / Lucifige albums a couple of years later.
Thanks for another interesting video
It's kind of their Electric Warrior. Haven't heard it in awhile but I wore out the cassette back in the day.
Never heard the peace lp I thought that only a few of the songs came out on the box set so I will have to track down a copy of the double CD. Electric is a great lp.
PEACE is The Cult. Highly recommend it. Electric is Rubin's vision of Billy, Jamie and Ian as corporate US butt-rockers. If you like LOVE and DREAMTIME, PEACE is everything they were and more in that era.
More cult stories please 🙏
Hey Sid, did you forget to upload the video with this week's clues on Sunday? Was looking forward to it.
Man I wore ELECTRIC the phuck out when I was in high school. It's held up extremely well.
Amazing album!
When I was at college back in 87, Electric was THE album of that year, not a duff track on it, probably the bands crowning achievement.
No, that would be LOVE or Dreamtime. To the butt-rock crowd, they like Electric but nothing before.
you mean initially called "Southern Death Cult"? that was their name before Death cult, btw
Love Electric. Love this video. Would be even better if the noisy background track was removed from the video.
Great story Sidd. ❤🤘✌
Great stuff, keep it up
The follow up Sonic Temple was produced big. Had big songs… but they never quite reached that height again.
Aphrodisiac Jacket still gives me goosebumps to this very day!
I saw them open up for Billy Idol at the Cow Palace in San francisco and they blew Billy out of the water
so bad that people actually threw shoes at Billy at the begining of his set Because the Cult had Rocked so much harder... Billy eventually won the crowd over and had a decent show, But the night belonged to The Cult!
I remember the goths hated electric when it came out lol. I digged it but lots of my friends hated it. Sonic temple is when they lost me
Rueben is to Electric as Bob Rock is to the black album. Those 2 guys captured what the band was live on record.
I saw The Cult in 2022 in New Orleans. That stripped down, 'hey, we're going to sound like AC/DC' was definitely not their vibe. They had the fuller rich sound. Not excessively thin like Electric. A middle point between Electric and Peace mixes. Electric doesn't reflect their live gigs today, I can attest to that.
I had a tape of the manor sessions. The songs sounded like leftovers from the love album but I like them, they didn’t sound bad.
I think Electric was the wrong direction for them. The Manor sessions were in essence a pre-grunge sound and many grunge bands directly copied Ian's use of sustained vocals and the whole sound. Had they gone in that direction, they would have been THE originators of grunge, although according to some, they indeed were. Also it is said here that they started as DC/ in gothic genre, but their true gothic period was as SDC, the first incarnation of the one and the same band.
Yes, Electric is inauthentic to who The Cult are. It was a crass repackaging for American dollars. It damaged their career path and confused audiences as to who they were. Are they an AC/DC clone with a guy who wears a pirate hat, or are they the band that had a layered and interesting mystical sound of She Sells Sanctuary? Without the heavy-handed corporate reimaging and Rubin's attempt to make Back In Black by The Cult, their creative arc and audience retention would've been much more solid.
I saw them once then went back the following night and saw them again.
Great Album!
I still like love more than electric but it is a killer album.
i have one of those "alleged" bootlegs
I remember hearing Electric for the first time and thinking "why the hell is AC/DC on this record?!?".
Yup. The record felt like The Cult playing their songs in AC/DC style mix. Turned me off. I have nearly all their albums, EXCEPT Electric. It felt phony and a crass repackaging for MTV and American radio. The Peace original mixes are much more satisfying. They are, all things said, The Cult being The Cult.
I have the original Manor Sessions disc - it precedes the box set you mention.
Does Billy Duffy play on License to Ill?
Kerry King played on "license to ill".
My favorites:
1. Beyond Good And Evil
2. Love
3. Dreamtime
4. Ceremony
5. Peace
6. Hidden City
7. Sonic Temple
8. The Cult
9. Choice Of Weapon
10. Born Into This
11. Death Cult
12. Southern Death Cult
~see what I did there~
no can't see a link?
@@charliegeorge9393 This video is about Electric. But I replaced Electric with Peace, which I like much better.
Rick Rubin saved their career. Ever heard the first version of ELECTRIC? It was recycled LOVE sound,you can find it under the name ELECTRIC PEACE
I would never have imagined that it all began with 'Cookiepuss'.
Steve Brown did a really good job on the original version of Electric (check it out) but its not the sound the band wanted. For me Sonic Temple remains by far the best thing they ever did.
I think had they gone with PEACE, it would've been huge and iconic just like LOVE. Electric Ocean from PEACE would've been an undisputed classic.
Don't know if it was Rick or the label that prompted it, but they also included a pretty damn good version of Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild".
I thought that was the absolute corniest non-Cult thing they ever did. It was laughable. It's the perfect symbol of Rubin's re-imaging them as an American rock band. The whole thing stunk. Took a great band and wrecked them for corporate sales, only to have their mainstream success evaporate by '91. That's what happens when you throw away what made you great to chase GNR.
You do alot of videos featuring The Cult..that's cool but how about my favorite band Queensryche!
Electric is Great but Love is still their Best Album. Sonic Temple a close 2nd.
I first heard this playing in a record store and thought it was Aerosmith. I asked the guy working and he told me different. Sounded good anyway.
Great alt band.
Love and Electric so different, its like 2 different bands.
Love removal machine=Start me up.
Everythings been done before.
I like the Electric album, but if the Cult kept the same tone and feel of the Dreamtime and Love albums they would have been bigger than U2.
Steve Brown said the same. If Ian and Billy had stayed on their artistic evolution without trying to cash in on America, they'd be much more iconic and have an iconic sound. Instead of the post-punk shifting to arena rock and pandering to the AC/DC crowd.
Prefer early SDC up to Love...more alternative/psychedelic sound. However the hard rock Electric album did make the band huge in America and much more commercial. Sonic Temple was the last album i got back in the day too as an older guy now.
Love The Cult,and Electric is great.....but I actually prefer the original Peace album.
What does soft moore mean ? He keeps saying it
Oh it's a daft American expression, makes sense now.
Sophomore. Its used to refer to someone in their second year of high school or college, hence when used in a musical context, it's referring to a band's second album.
@@bucknasty69 and it has no place outside of college. It makes no sense, especially to anyone outside of the USA
@@pancho1993 Cry more because an American used American words in his video.
It' a very long, fancy, sophisticated way of saying second.
Initially called the southern death cult before they were called the death cult.
I remember when I first started hearing these guys, I wondered why the DJ's were abbreviating Blue Oyster Cults name LOL
I prefer the sound of the Manor Sessions.
Electric is a desert island record.