The Cult

Although one imagines principals Ian Astbury (vocals) and Billy Duffy (guitar) bristling at the thought, at the end of the day, the Cult boils down to a really great singles band. The virtually identical High Octane Cult and Pure Cult collections make a solid case for this, distilling an often lugubrious catalogue down to one airtight disc of dark but undeniably danceable and fist-pump-worthy hard rock, from the early goth anthems "Spiritwalker" and "Rain" (from Dreamtime and Love, respectively) to the arena-rock bombast of "Lil' Devil" and "Sweet Soul Sister" (Electric and Sonic Temple) and 1992's terrific techno experiment, "The Witch" (from the movie Cool World). The actual albums are more hit than miss, but the hits pack a wallop. (The Best of Rare Cult, a single-disc sampler of the exhaustive, for-diehards-only box set Rare Cult, is also better than most of the studio albums.)

Essentially a heavy-metal band for folks who think they're above such things, the Cult built its sound from equal parts postpunk guitar aggression and neo-hippy mysticism, a combination that quite naturally results in some of the silliest, most pompous music rock has seen since the heyday of the Doors. Typically, it was some time before the band got even that good, as Dreamtime never quite gets up a head of steam, while the frenzied, unfocused playing on Love squanders the melodic potential of its best songs ("She Sells Sanctuary" and the overlong "Brother Wolf, Sister Moon").

With producer Rick Rubin on hand to tighten and toughen the group's sound, Electric manages to kick ass even when its lyrics make no sense, as on the relentless "Love Removal Machine." (Note to the band: There's a difference between "trippy" and "stupid.") But when it found a formula, the Cult wasted no time in hammering it into the ground. Sonic Temple, the band's bestseller, may attempt an epic sweep on some songs -- most notably the hit "Firewalker" and the power ballad "Edie (Ciao Baby)" -- while Ceremony tries a sort of hard-rock transcendentalism, but neither disc adds enough variation to the music to necessitate further distinction. The underrated The Cult jacked up the band's sound with a liberal dose of the techno-rock approach that distinguished "The Witch" and produced "Coming Down," the band's last great single. Following an extended hiatus that found Duffy collaborating with the Alarm's Mike Peters in the band Colorsound and Astbury fronting the short-lived Holy Barbarians and releasing a better-than-average electrorock solo album (Spirit\Light\Speed), the Cult reconvened for its heaviest record, 2001's relentlessly rocking but charmless Beyond Good and Evil. Better that, though, than Astbury's inevitable-in-hindsight portrayal of the Lizard King alongside Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek in the nostalgia outfit the Doors of the 21st Century. (J.D. CONSIDINE/RICHARD SKANSE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide