The band have returned with the announcement of their first album in six years
The Cult have returned with the announcement of their first album in six years. Under the Midnight Sun, the English rock band’s 11th studio LP, is due out October 7th via Black Hill, and as a preview, they’ve shared the lead single “Give Me Mercy” today.
Produced by Tom Dalgety (Pixies, Ghost, Royal Blood), Under the Midnight Sun was inspired in part by co-founding member’s Ian Astbury experience in at Provinssirock festival in Finland, witnessing that surreal stretch in summer north of the Arctic Circle when the sun doesn’t set: “It’s three in the morning, the sun’s up, and there’s all these beautiful people in this halcyon moment,” he writes in a press release. “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.”
That oddly stunning experience manifests itself in Under the Midnight Sun, which pulls inspiration from Brian Jones, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, Buddhism, the Beats, and the Age of Aquarius. As the band tell it, the record’s overarching message is about finding beauty in shared experiences — which oftentimes is music.
Astbury comments, “I was absolutely enamoured 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. We need new language because words can’t express where we’re going.”
Duffy says, “‘Give Me Mercy’ has all the hallmarks of the new classic Cult to my ears … fresh yet familiar.”