Heathen Harvest - Reviews: Cult With No Name

Genre: Alternative / Pop

Track Listing:

01 Flying ant day
02 Context is everything
03 Feels so good
04 And those same mistakes...
05 Hands, Two, Touch
06 On the fingers of one thumb
07 Bluff
08 You know me better than I know myself
09 She B.C
10 Down the line
11 Golden brown
12 Hurting the ones you love the most
13 You and who's army
14 Soft skills

One thing I hate the most about any kind of job there is, is the moment there is a new boss who lands on her or his chair out of nowhere, replacing the boss you know already and maybe even like, and then starts to make some changes to prove how necessary it was to bring a fresh new mind to the leader's chair, and how this boss knows to handle the business way better than anybody else. This boss scores especially high "I hate you" points on my scale when he or she knows how to run a business in the usual slick kind of way, while they don't really know, and worse, don't really care about what they are actually handling. The specific product or item this business is working with. The specific people who work there.

Like Erik Stein and Jon Boux, the duo that is Cult with no name, I used to work in a music store for a very long time. It wasn't HMV but it was a decent store where I live. Sometimes I curse my pride and ideology who made me refuse twice for the request to manage the store I knew so good, so I can deal more with music and less with paper works and sales. On the second time I refused, we got the kind of manager I was talking about. I was working in two departments, the metal and the alternative. It was easy for that manager to understand what metal is. Skulls on the cover art and probably some iron maiden-esque imagination of some hairy guys singing about satan. But the alternative department. Now that was hell to argue about. One of the first changes was the order to dismantle the alternative department and put the albums with all the Pop albums. I have, of course, tried to explain the vast difference between these two geners, but I lost. Needless to say, this store did not survive much longer afterward.

With a great sounding production behind them, CWNN move between electronica and soft rock, with added tastes of post punk at points and mellow, pop-like piano melodies. Now, why "Pop-like"? as these guys come from the background of classical music and Jazz, in my opinion, the term "pop" would be insulting. But CWNN does not come to present us with radio hits. It could be really nice, to make such a hit, but that's not the main aim of these guys. Their songs are very tender on the ear and yet very intelligent and interesting. At points they remind of the band Archive, or post God machine's Sophia (Not to be mistaken with Cold meat industry's sophia). "Feels so good" begins much sadder than the first two tracks. The sensitive piano playing is very dramatic even in the soft and delicate parts of the song, yet without getting too whiny. Next song – "And those same mistakes..." is wholly different, with electronic beats and more rhythm. You can still feel the sadness even when the music is more elevated, and in these certain musical genres, where music does not illustrate the exact idea or mood of the song, then I'm happy (Figuratively speaking).

So where would I put "Careful what you wish for"? is it the Pop section or the Alternative? The brilliant art cover is too hard on the Pop scale and I thank CWNN for that. As I look at it, song number six rolls in and tell me otherwise. The rather sweet melody is close to remind a high moment in a musical and the dark, dramatic piano of "Bluff" bring it back home for the darker realm. Somewhere near the first albums of "The black heart procession". A great song.

The cover for the Stranglers' "Golden brown" is a good cover. Different from the original and suitable for the direction of the album. In fact, "Careful what you wish for" brings 14 good songs without any miss, each with its own style and characteristics. Pretty enough for everybody to like, yet not a sellout album that give the crowd what they want to hear. Erik Stein and Jon Boux manage between the various songs and showing their skills each time and deliver a very rewarding album.

Definitely Alternative.