Description
New Record
UPC: 196626677051
Colour Vinyl: White
When the sun just wouldn’t leave the sky one evening in Finland, Ian Astbury took notice.
Walking the grounds of the Provinssirock festival, Astbury found himself reveling in the surreal, almost occult moment that comes with the “midnight sun,” the summer stretch where the sun doesn’t go down north of the Arctic Circle. “It’s three in the morning, the sun’s up, and there’s all these beautiful people in this halcyon moment,” Astbury remembers. “People are laying on the grass, making out, drinking, smoking. There were rows of flowers at the front of the stage from the performances earlier that evening. It was an incredible moment.” While reviewing archival footage of the performance, Astbury found new mysticism in that moment and imbued it into The Cult’s 11th studio album. Under the Midnight Sun brims with bold curiosity, discovering the deep emotion that lies beneath and cracking it open as the world shifts around you.
From lead single “Give Me Mercy,” it’s clear that Astbury and cofounding member Billy Duffy have spent the six years since their last full-length pushing further into their esoteric strength. Flanked by Duffy’s dynamic guitar riff, Astbury reaches new heights of sinewy vulnerability. “Give me mercy, a new language,” he calls to the sky, before warning of a butcher’s knife in a trembling hand and the end of a species. “I was absolutely enamored with this piece of music Billy had written, and it perfectly fit these thoughts I’d been having about our culture’s need to move past assumptions of duality,” Astbury says. “We need new language because words can’t express where we’re going.”
UPC: 196626677051
Colour Vinyl: White
When the sun just wouldn’t leave the sky one evening in Finland, Ian Astbury took notice.
Walking the grounds of the Provinssirock festival, Astbury found himself reveling in the surreal, almost occult moment that comes with the “midnight sun,” the summer stretch where the sun doesn’t go down north of the Arctic Circle. “It’s three in the morning, the sun’s up, and there’s all these beautiful people in this halcyon moment,” Astbury remembers. “People are laying on the grass, making out, drinking, smoking. There were rows of flowers at the front of the stage from the performances earlier that evening. It was an incredible moment.” While reviewing archival footage of the performance, Astbury found new mysticism in that moment and imbued it into The Cult’s 11th studio album. Under the Midnight Sun brims with bold curiosity, discovering the deep emotion that lies beneath and cracking it open as the world shifts around you.
From lead single “Give Me Mercy,” it’s clear that Astbury and cofounding member Billy Duffy have spent the six years since their last full-length pushing further into their esoteric strength. Flanked by Duffy’s dynamic guitar riff, Astbury reaches new heights of sinewy vulnerability. “Give me mercy, a new language,” he calls to the sky, before warning of a butcher’s knife in a trembling hand and the end of a species. “I was absolutely enamored with this piece of music Billy had written, and it perfectly fit these thoughts I’d been having about our culture’s need to move past assumptions of duality,” Astbury says. “We need new language because words can’t express where we’re going.”