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Jun 9, 2011For near-perfectly executed indie-pop, we the lucky listeners don't have to wait for a "next time." Cults have struck gold the first time out.
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Jun 6, 2011Any apprehensions about whether or not Cults could turn "Go Outside" into a successful full-length should be hastily put to rest.
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Jun 6, 2011At just over a half hour, Cults feels like the perfect length-- just long enough for the bus ride to school (or to work). But more importantly, it executes what it sets out to do masterfully while allowing the group room to grow and mature.
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Feb 2, 2012Fantastic songs that have an uncanny ability to lodge their way firmly into your head.
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MojoJun 21, 2011The New York boy-girl duo make sweet love to a musical memory. [July 2011, p. 107]
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Jun 7, 2011It might be easy to become a prisoner of the moment when it comes to a flavor-of-the-month like Cults, but this initial effort is one that shows off strong enough pop chops to win them their fair share of true believers, now and hereafter.
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May 31, 2011Despite the genre signifiers there's more than enough personality of their own here for Cults to transcend both their blog hit wonder and the timeworn sound they lovingly homage.
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May 31, 2011Unsettling and charming is a hard combination to pull off, but Cults have managed just fine.
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May 31, 2011Hip young American male/female duo Cults look to classic 1960s pop history for the 11 bite-sized pop nuggets of this impressive debut.
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Jun 8, 2011Cults is an endlessly self-assured debut, exposing a budding creative force with a sense of history and a rebellious streak. Long live the new flesh.
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Jun 6, 2011It's all good fun, but (mostly) all been done before.
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Jun 6, 2011Lazy bass lines stroll through lightly sprinkled, chiming keys, delivering sugar-powdered pop.
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Jun 21, 2011Cults are excellent songcrafters, expert at boosting drama with dynamics and unexpected sounds. But what sets their music apart is feeling: the mood of wistful romance that hovers over the songs, the idea that love is an insoluble mystery.
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Jun 7, 2011For a debut album, it works, giving fans a taste of what to expect from Cults in the future. But, the album could have benefited from swapping a few tracks around and sticking with the earnest catchy sensibilities and immediately favorable pop-like nature.
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Jun 6, 2011Their music perfectly encapsulates the dark, '60s-style girl pop of the current nostalgia-mining, romance-hardened zeitgeist brought on by bands like Vivian Girls and Best Coast.
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Jun 6, 2011Cults is a bit like a sugar rush: exhilarating at first, and then exhausting. Still, the sounds and ideas they play with are too intriguing to dismiss entirely, even if some of the mystery around them is gone.
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Jun 1, 2011The punchy indie exuberance pervading this record is its calling card but beneath the surface there's a whole lot more going on.
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May 31, 2011Musically it's the cream of nostalgic pop, and the lyrics exhibit a wafty elan; but in purely conceptual terms, Cults is too busy flying on clouds of giddy adolescent wonder to plunder the depths of its pretensions with conviction.
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Jun 16, 2011The subversive elements often feel like unnecessary posturing, but the production wisely hides them behind more obvious assets like sunny pop hooks, singalong choruses and Madeline Follin's childlike voice.
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Q MagazineJun 7, 2011Their kooky appeal wanes over the course of an album, reminding you that sometimes cults stay that way for a reason. [July 2011, p. 106]
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Under The RadarJun 6, 2011Cults is a solid first album from a very interesting new voice in pop music. [May 2011, p.76]
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May 31, 2011The result is a pleasant, occasionally beautiful, collection of singles that doesn't take itself as seriously as the buzz surrounding it (so you don't have to either).
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Jun 14, 2011Cults is mostly just an album of girl-group signifier piled on top of girl group-signifier.
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Jun 10, 2011Although I'm usually a fan of the short and (hopefully) sharp delivery, at 34 minutes the album feels insubstantial in terms of length as well as material.
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UncutJun 3, 2011This injection-moulded pastiche isn't exactly bad, but feels totally pointless. [Jul 2011, p.86]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 42 out of 45
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Mixed: 2 out of 45
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Negative: 1 out of 45
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Jun 7, 2011
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Jul 26, 2011
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Jun 3, 2012