“Give me mercy, love will find you, give me mercy, a new language” – The Cult, “Give Me Mercy”

I can’t believe it’s been six years since we’ve had new Cult music to talk about. But it’s true, Hidden City, their last LP, came out in 2016. The pandemic has really thrown off my internal clock. I really liked Hidden City calling it a late career gem. I saw them twice on that tour, once in Kansas City and once in Chicago. I knew they had a new album coming out this year but was still surprised when I saw “Give Me Mercy” had dropped today. 

While I’m on record as a huge Cult fan (I just saw them again in Denver this May), I have to admit I was late to this party – as I seem to be with many bands from the 80s. During the Cult’s late 80s heyday when I was in college, I was busy catching up on the Faces, the Who and Zeppelin to pay attention to such great then-current records like Love or Electric or to my embarrassment even Sonic Temple. I remember this dude I knew walking around singing “I’m a Sun King, baby, won’t you share my throne” but I just thought he was having drunken delusions of grandeur. I also vaguely remember seeing Cult videos but unfortunately every hard rock band in the 80s had identical videos on MTV. It was always them playing live on a stage, engulfed in fog. There might have been pretty girls dancing around, possibly a motorcycle or a fast car. It all blended together.

It wasn’t until I met my future wife, the Rock Chick that I really got into the Cult. On one of our first dates, we went to the CD store to shop for music. I walked out with a few CDs that day but the Rock Chick walked out with a stack almost as tall as she was… which is basically her super hero origin story… “The Rock Chick” was born. Anyway, one of those CDs that day was a greatest hits disc Pure Cult and we wore that thing out that summer drinking vodka lemonades by her apartment pool. Literally, we had to replace it. From there she led me into their great back catalog. I was stunned I’d missed out on this hard rocking band. Lead singer Ian Astbury as I soon discovered was the quintessential lead vocalist and Billy Duffy was a serious shredder on lead guitar. The rhythm section is a bit of a revolving door.. They were Zeppelin-esque. Their music had an edginess to it that left them hard to define – you can hear them on SiriusXM on both the alternative rock station and the hard rock station.

It wasn’t until their 2001 LP Beyond Good And Evil that I purchased a Cult album when it actually came out and was current. That was also the first time I saw the Cult live. It was at the Uptown Theater and remains amongst my favorite concerts. Since then the Cult have put out a string of really strong albums that can only be described as a “late career renaissance.” There was Born Into This (2007), Choice Of Weapon (2012), and the aforementioned Hidden City (2016). These guys are really rock n roll survivors. Not many rock bands whose origins stem from the 80s are still around and rocking with this much gust0 – and more importantly continuing to put out new music. 

A new upcoming Cult album, entitled Under The Midnight Sun, means a new Cult lead single from the album which leads us to the subject at hand, “Give Me Mercy.” I must confess the announcement of a new song from the Cult always fills me with rock n roll excitement. Since I’ve become a big Cult fan, basically in this millennium, each LP they’ve released has had a great first single. I still have “Rise” from that first Cult album I actually purchased, Beyond Good And Evil, in high rotation. It was a soaring rocker. Billy Duffy’s riffs are fast and furious. Ian Astbury’s vocal takes me to the sky when I hear him sing, “You have wings up on your back and you can fly.” It’s a track that should be automatically on any new greatest hits album they consider doing.

Born Into This had the great, great first single “Dirty Little Rock Star.” It was one of my wife’s friend Nancy’s favorite songs. She used to quote the line, “You sick little hipster” when she’d come over and drink wine with us. God, I miss her. “Dirty Little Rock Star” continued the Cult’s hot streak of lead singles in grand fashion. It had a great bass line and a cool start/stop guitar. Duffy’s guitar sounded like a machine gun being fired at random intervals. “You bite your lip baby, you shake your hips babe, you taste the whip babe come on… you wanna be a Dirty Little Rock Star…” I mean if that doesn’t get you up on your feet holding a lighter over you’re head nothing will.

The next lead single, from Choice Of Weapon, was “For The Animals.” I remember seeing them perform the song live on (I believe) the Jimmy Kimmel Show. They had a stage set up in the parking lot and they rawked!! “For The Animals” is an old school, fast paced, meet me at the finish line rocker. It would have fit nicely on Electric. They followed their trend of hard rocking first singles with “Dark Energy” from their last LP Hidden City. It’s got driving drums from John Tempesta whose been manning the kit on drums for the Cult since Born Into This. The song has a great bridge with keyboards (which were a new texture for the Cult) and Ian wailing the lyrics “Defend the magic, Defend the beauty.”

That’s a pretty good track record for lead singles over the last 20 years. “Give Me Mercy” continues the trend of great first songs, but even I will admit it has more of a mid-tempo feel than some of the hard, hard rockers the Cult usually put out as their first track. The song starts off with a great riff from Duffy then the music goes quiet and Ian starts singing – man that voice is so amazing – “I wish it were different, it all ends the same, your savage heart, has stolen my name.” Then Billy and Tempesta kick back in with that great riff. It has that loud to quiet to loud pattern that so many great rock songs have. It seems Astbury is appealing to a lover at the end for mercy but one could easily apply this song to society in general… we could all use more mercy.

I think this is a great song, I’ve spent all morning listening to it on repeat. They’ve even gone so far as to release a video. I don’t usually comment on these things but I love the silhouette of Billy with his guitar at the start of the video  – it takes me back to the cover of Sonic Temple. And, there are a few shots of Ian with his very cool long hair down which I haven’t seen in a long time. Here’s the video so you can hear the track:

This is a track I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. From what I understand the band recorded it in the UK and Ian was in New York so had to do his vocals remotely. One has to wonder what that will do for the chemistry of the band but these guys have been together so long I doubt it’ll be a factor. And, if this first track is any indication, I think it’s going to be a rocking fall when Under The Midnight Sky comes out. Rumor has it they are really shooting for more of a Love and/or Dreamtime sound on this record and who doesn’t love that?

Turn this one up loud and enjoy!! Cheers!