by Ben Hohenstatt (@Hohengramm)
Cults long ago established their sect’s sound, and their latest album is mostly a reaffirmation of those tenets. To the Ghosts is airy without being insubstantial. It’s built from the same stuff as Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound and wears retro influences on its sleeves, but it isn’t derivative. It builds sweet melodies out of bitter-sweet lyrics. It’s a whole lot of what makes Cults who they are and why the duo has outlasted almost all of the other girl-guy duos and beach-bound bands of their generation, but it’s not just that.
While Cults’ fifth album finds Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion building castles in the same sonic sandbox they’ve shared since their days as an intentionally faceless buzz band over a decade ago there’s interesting texture, flourish and gentle experimentation that show how much the band has grown since its Jim Jones-sampling days. Album-opener and lead single “Crybaby” is an excellent example. For its first two-thirds, it’s a consummate Cults song — sunny guitar, cooed vocals, a Mother Goose-approved rhyme scheme, but, about two minutes in things shift. The instruments drop out, and Follin harmonizes the words “Dry your eyes. Baby, turn off the scream,” with a humming drone. After a moment, the cheery instruments return, they’re accompanied by a fuller background swirl, and shouted-off-mic backing vocals. It’s not a seismic shift, but it signals the album’s willingness to put enough new spin on old pleasures to keep listeners on their toes.
Sometimes these twists are subtle, like the warbling tones on “Crystal” that recall the wobbling notes spit out by a much-loved tape, or the bongo sounds that propel “Left My Keys” forward. Just as often, they’re a song’s defining feature. “Knots,” for example, lurches between a crunchy synth sound and something approximating a harpsichord before swirling into an eddy of proggy synth that could float a stadium. “Honey” bounces along on an ebulliently rubbery bass line from Oblivion, refusing to stay in one place until it reaches maximum altitude on the extended chorus that closes the song. “Behave” starts with a club thump and glithced-out vocals that make it probably the biggest swing on the album. If it isn’t, that honor might go to album-closer “Hung the Moon,” a five and a half minute torch song that features blasts of brass and disintegrates in its closing minute into discordance that loosely evokes “Revolution 9”.
That all of this sounds great is another testament to Cults’ growth. Follin and Oblivion again worked with their longtime producer Shane Stoneback on To the Ghosts, but this go-round both band members also received co-producer credits. How much that has to do with how consistently clean the album sounds is anyone’s guess, but something definitely went right. While Cults have always popped on record, To the Ghosts sounds sharp and manages to keep its disparate sounds from being grating and its sweeter moments from being saccharine.
While the signs of growth are there if you listen for them, To the Ghosts probably won’t radically change what folks think about Cults. When you’re a well-thought-of band that’s carved out a long run in a thoroughly enjoyable niche, that’s generally a good thing.