''Sonic Temple'' is the fourth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by British
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
The Cult
The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...
, released on 10 April 1989. The album features some of the band's most popular songs, including "
Fire Woman
"Fire Woman" is a song by British rock band the Cult, written by singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy. It was the first single released from their fourth studio album, ''Sonic Temple'', and was subsequently featured on all of the Cult' ...
" and "Edie (Ciao Baby)". ''Sonic Temple'' was the last album recorded with longtime bassist
Jamie Stewart, who left in 1990, and the first to feature drummer
Mickey Curry
Michael Timothy Curry (born June 10, 1956) is an American musician. He has collaborated with singer-songwriter Bryan Adams since the early 1980s, but has also worked with Hall & Oates, Cher, Tina Turner, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, ...
.
Album information
During 1988, The Cult recorded the first (14 track) demo version of this album with Eric Singer (of
Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
) on drums. Later on, they tracked a new demo version of the record (15 songs) with Chris Taylor (drummer for the Bob Rock band).
''Sonic Temple'' marked the first time the band worked with
Bob Rock
Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician, best known for producing rock bands and music artists such as Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, The Tragically Hip, the Cult, 31 ...
, who would later produce ''
The Cult
The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...
'', ''
Beyond Good and Evil
''Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future'' (german: Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft) is a book by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that covers ideas in his previous work ''Thus Spoke Zarath ...
'', ''
Choice of Weapon
''Choice of Weapon'' is the ninth album by the British rock band The Cult. The album was initially planned for release in 2011, but the release date was pushed back to May 2012. It was initially released on 18 May in Europe, before being releas ...
'' and ''
Hidden City''. The album reached the Cult's highest chart position in the US, peaking at #10 on the
''Billboard'' 200 charts, and was
certified Platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
in 1990.
The album cover features guitarist
Billy Duffy
William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult.
Early life
Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guit ...
with his
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...
, partially obscuring a picture of vocalist
Ian Astbury
Ian Robert Astbury (born 14 May 1962) is an English singer, best known as a founding member, lead vocalist and frontman of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury has fronted the short-lived Holy Barbarians in 1 ...
. The back cover features bassist
Jamie Stewart, and an additional illustration on the insert, from left to right, features
Astbury Astbury is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Andrew Astbury, English swimmer
*Ian Astbury, English rock singer
*Jill Astbury, Australian researcher into violence against women
*William Astbury, English physicist and molecular bio ...
,
Duffy, and
Stewart.
On 4 October 2019, Sonic Temple was re-released as a 5-CD box set and as a 2 LP/1 cassette box set, with a different cover, the original album digitally remastered, numerous rarities, a live album recorded at London Wembley Arena and a comprehensive booklet featuring rare photos and background info on the album and the band. The LP/cassette edition has a limited release of 3500 copies worldwide.
Critical reception
The album received mixed reviews, with some interpreting the change in sound positively and some negatively.
John Leland of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' deemed ''Sonic Temple'' "both
he Cult'smost conventional album and its most convincing", continuing: "Using a few simple riffs and images, the Cult creates an entire environment, one more exciting and stimulating than our own. Bob Rock, the album's producer, washes blunt, powerful sound over the broadness of most of the band's strokes. ''Sonic Temple'' makes a virtue of its lack of subtlety."
In a less enthusiastic review for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'',
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
wrote: "Having risen from cultdom as a
joke
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
band metal fans were too dumb to get, they transmute into a dumb metal band. Dumb was the easy part. Ha ha."
''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' critic Chris Willman lambasted the album as "stupid".
In his book ''Perfect from Now On'', writer John Sellers criticised the Cult for "emulating a
hair-metal
Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam r ...
band" on ''Sonic Temple'', commenting that "the Cult had moved from the hearts of
alternative-music fans to the
Walkman
Walkman, stylised as , is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese technology company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman was a portable cassette player and its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term for ...
s of
Warrant disciples—completely unacceptable."
Karen Douthwaite of ''
Hi-Fi News & Record Review
''Hi-Fi News & Record Review'' is a British monthly magazine, published by AV Tech Media Ltd, which reviews audiophile-oriented sound-reproduction and recording equipment, and includes information on new products and developments in audio.
It i ...
'' noticed that the band "recycling the same riffs for the last few albums" and "guitar sound intensified and metallized to
AC/DC
AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...
proportions.".
Parke Puterbaugh of ''
Stereo Review
''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...
'' considered that the band "borrows its inspiration" from
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
,
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
and other AOR heroes from the hard rock Seventies, but "there's something perversely addictive about this music, with its upfront aggression and its slow-motion orgasms of drums and guitars building to a raunchy climax."
Accolades
Track listing
All tracks written by
Ian Astbury
Ian Robert Astbury (born 14 May 1962) is an English singer, best known as a founding member, lead vocalist and frontman of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury has fronted the short-lived Holy Barbarians in 1 ...
and
Billy Duffy
William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult.
Early life
Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guit ...
.
#"Sun King" – 6:09
#"
Fire Woman
"Fire Woman" is a song by British rock band the Cult, written by singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy. It was the first single released from their fourth studio album, ''Sonic Temple'', and was subsequently featured on all of the Cult' ...
" – 5:11
#"American Horse" – 5:19
#"Edie (Ciao Baby)" – 4:46
#"Sweet Soul Sister" – 5:08
#"Soul Asylum" – 7:26
#"New York City" – 4:41
#"Automatic Blues" – 3:51
#"Soldier Blue" – 4:36
#"Wake Up Time for Freedom" – 5:17
Bonus tracks
* "Medicine Train" – 4:42 (On CD, in some countries, cassette release, and 30th Anniversary LP)
* "The River" (Only on
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n,
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
an, and 30th Anniversary LP pressings)
* “Bleeding Heart Graffiti” (On 30th Anniversary LP)
* “Messin’ Up The Blues” (On 30th Anniversary LP)
* “Fire Woman (NYC Rock Mix)” (On 30th Anniversary LP)
* “Edie (Ciao Baby) (Acoustic)” (On 30th Anniversary LP)
* "Lay Down your Gun" (Version two) (Only on Russian and Eastern European pressings)
Saudi Arabian version
There was a Saudi Arabian version released, with the track listing expanded (although "Soul Asylum" had been removed) and slightly rearranged:
#"Sun King"
#"Fire Woman"
#"American Horse"
#"Edie (Ciao Baby)"
#"Sweet Soul Sister"
#"NYC"
#"Automatic Blues"
#"Soldier Blue"
#"Wake Up Time for Freedom"
#"Medicine Train"
#"Electric Ocean"
#"King Contrary Man"
#"Born to Be Wild"
#"Outlaw"
Personnel
;The Cult
*
Ian Astbury
Ian Robert Astbury (born 14 May 1962) is an English singer, best known as a founding member, lead vocalist and frontman of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury has fronted the short-lived Holy Barbarians in 1 ...
–
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*
Billy Duffy
William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult.
Early life
Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guit ...
–
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
*
Jamie Stewart –
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
*
Mickey Curry
Michael Timothy Curry (born June 10, 1956) is an American musician. He has collaborated with singer-songwriter Bryan Adams since the early 1980s, but has also worked with Hall & Oates, Cher, Tina Turner, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, ...
–
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
;Additional personnel
*
Eric Singer
Eric Singer (born Eric Doyle Mensinger; May 12, 1958) is an American drummer. Associated with the hard rock band Kiss since 1991, he has also performed with artists such as Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, Badlands, Brian May and Gary M ...
- drums during first demo version of ''Sonic Temple'' 1988
*Chris Taylor - drums during second demo version of ''Sonic Temple'' 1988
*
Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...
–
backing vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...
on "New York City"
*
John Webster
John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and car ...
– keyboards
*Bob Buckley –
string arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
on "Edie (Ciao Baby)"
;Technical
*Engineered and mixed by
Mike Fraser
Charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
1989 albums
Albums produced by Bob Rock
Albums recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios
Beggars Banquet Records albums
The Cult albums
Glam metal albums
Sire Records albums