Cults are really a by-product of their era: at a time where the major labels are near implosion (and pretty much all under the same umbrella corporation) and independent labels are proliferating, you can't tell if an act if indie just by listening to them. You'd think Cults are, by their unpolished sound, yet they're signed with Columbia Records, a division of Sony, who now also owns Epic, BMG, RCA (itself owner of J Records, Arista and Jive), Echo Records, The Michael Jackson Company, and EMI Publishing, among other holdings.
That being said, it doesn't deter from Cults' indie-like, electro-infused darkwave, and neither does the fact that singer Madeline Follin and guitarist/vocalist Brian Oblivion used to be an item; in their case, just like it did for The White Stripes, it actually makes the music better, so far.
The songs off their second record, Static, are simpler than on 2011's self-titled Cults, yet they're also more effective, and perhaps even catchier, as can be attested from this video, High Road:
The imagery at first is a bit reminiscent of The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, with the close-ups turning into other images, but it quickly becomes its own beast, thanks to fine photo direction and sequences reminiscent of David Lynch (the road) or Donnie Darko (the deer). It's not quite ''experimental'', but like for Nine Inch Nails' Came Back Haunted, if it can manage to turn just a few innocent souls towards proper art, we'll all have won in the end.
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