Back in 1985, the British music world was a bit of a barren wilderness. If you enjoyed House music or sitting around with reed diffusers listening to crappy synthetic Pop then you wouldn’t have a problem; however, if Alternative Rock was your bag then you were seriously limited for choice. So when The Cult released, ‘Love’ it really was happy days.

Looking back on this album, it was all a little cheesy. Ian Astbury was a natural born poser and if you saw the official videos to ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ or ‘Rain’ then it would often crappify the songs. However, if you were never unfortunate enough to see him pout and pose like a stereotypical rock star, then the album itself could be viewed as a corker.

Opening with ‘Nirvana’, the record (yes, those were the days of vinyl!) started as it meant to go on. ‘Big Neon Glitter’ stonked its way along and ‘Brother Wolf, Sister Moon’ was a doozie. ‘Rain’ really was a wicked song whilst ‘Revolution’ gave a nod to the hippy rockers of days gone by. Closing with the slow and melancholy, ‘Black Angel’, ‘Love’ was an altogether brilliant record.

Of course, this generation of kids will be used to jamming along with ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ on their Guitar Hero games, but back in the mid eighties it was all so fresh and exciting. The Cult seemed to be playing on the jukebox in every pub and club because so many people were desperate to hear some new and interesting Rock.

This should have been the start of big things for The Cult; and it was. But they just got too big, too commercial and ended up looking and sounding like the new Bon Jovi. The days of ‘Love’ and ‘Electric’ (also worth a listen) were gone. Now it was sports cars, cowboy boots and other, equally cringe-worthy imagery. What a shame that they took the mainstream route.