Album Review: Cult by Bayside

by Callum Cross



Revision aside, this half-term meant one thing to me: the release of the new Bayside album, 'Cult'. With their most recent studio recording (to my knowledge) coming from 2011, it’s taken them three years, but it was most certainly worth the wait.

Having only recently been introduced to them, due to the fact that they are supporting Alkaline Trio at the Southsea Pyramids on the 27th April, I felt it necessary to listen to a lot of their music as preparation for their appearance at this concert. Having bought three of Bayside’s other albums, I decided to purchase their latest one as I was intrigued by the unique vocals and dark and somewhat depressing lyrics, neatly wrapped up with heavy-going guitar parts and complicated solos.

I personally think it might be the best album they have made so far. Below is the track listing:

Cult

1.    Big Cheese

2.    Time Has Come

3.    Hate Me

4.    You’re No Match

5.    Pigsty [1]

6.    Transitive Property

7.    Stuttering

8.    Bear With Me

9.    Objectivist On Fire

10. Something’s Wrong

11. The Whitest Lie

Of these 11 songs, I would say that I have three favourites: 'Time Has Come', 'Hate Me' and 'Stuttering'. These three have a very similar sound to some of their older stuff, which, in my opinion, is better than a lot of the slightly more experimental new stuff. Some might say that making similar music can be a bad thing, but in this case I like what they have going and I think I’d be happy with another album in a similar vein.
Of these three, hands down the best song would be 'Stuttering'. The whole theme of the song is the singer wanting to play his music and not what a modern generation want. This songs holds my favourite lyrics from the album. “I have to write a love song, Cause my momma said I should. But I have to lose the minor chords, And I'm not so sure I could. Cause I'm the voice of the depressed, And that's what everyone expects”.

Bayside have written several songs to do with their disappointment in the modern generation, and this song highlights it again. If I’m honest, musically I share their opinion, but I will save that rant for another article. So to round off this article, I would give the album an 8/10 as I think its missing an acoustic song; however, than does not stop it from housing perhaps three of Bayside’s best songs yet.

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