''The Cult of Ray'' is the third solo studio album by American musician

Frank Black Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (born April 6, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. F ...

. Unlike his previous two albums, which had been produced by former

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keyboardist

Eric Drew Feldman Eric Drew Feldman (born April 16, 1955) is an American musician. Feldman has worked with Captain Beefheart, Fear, Snakefinger, The Residents, Pere Ubu, Pixies, dEUS, Katell Keineg, Frank Black, The Polyphonic Spree, Tripping Daisy, Reid Paley, C ...

, Black opted to produce ''The Cult of Ray'' himself. The album title is a reference to author

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

. The album's final song is a tribute to Shazeb Andleeb, who was beaten to death at

Narbonne High School Nathaniel Narbonne High School (NHS) is a school located at 24300 South Western Avenue, in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles, California. Narbonne serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Narbonne serve ...

in Harbor City, California (a school Black attended), in May 1995.

Chart performance

''The Cult of Ray'' peaked at number 1 on the '' Billboard''

Heatseekers Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is rad ...

chart and number 127 on the ''Billboard'' 200 in 1996.

Track listing

Personnel

The core musicians employed on this album would eventually be dubbed The Catholics and would continue as Black's backing group for the following seven years (albeit with a changed line up). ;Musicians * Frank Black – vocals, guitar (right channel) * Scott Boutier – drums * David McCaffery – bass *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous '' Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compos ...

– lead guitar (left channel) * Matt Yelton – backing vocals on "Men in Black", "You Ain't Me", "The Adventure and the Resolution" and "Dance War" * Nick Vincent – drums and bass on "I Don't Want to Hurt You (Every Single Time)" ;Technical * Frank Black – producer * Matt Yelton – engineer * Billy Bowers – assistant engineer *

Greg Fidelman Greg Fidelman (born September 4, 1965) is an American record mixer, engineer and record producer. He is a frequent collaborator of producer Rick Rubin, and has worked with many bands in various genres, including Metallica, Slayer, High on Fire, B ...

– assistant engineer * Jim Champagne – assistant engineer * Eddie Miller – assistant engineer * Mike Baumgartner – assistant engineer * Ian MacPherson – assistant engineer * Andy MacPherson – mixing * Bob Ludwig – mastering * Inertia – design

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cult Of Ray, The Black Francis albums 1996 albums