The Cult has announced a new album, Under The Midnight Sun, due out Oct. 11.
The LP was inspired by frontman Ian Astbury’s experience at the Provinssirock festival in Finland, held at a location so far north that during the summer the sun doesn’t set.
“It’s three in the morning, the sun’s up, and there’s all these beautiful people in this halcyon moment,” Astbury explained via press release. “People are laying on the grass, making out, drinking, smoking. There were rows of flowers at the front of the stage from the performances earlier that evening. It was an incredible moment.”
“When the world stopped, I had this moment to write in real time, to calculate,” Astbury continued. “I was compelled by this vision, this anomaly, this memory, of being under the midnight sun.”
Under the Midnight Sun will mark the Cult’s 11th studio album. Their most recent LP, Hidden City, was released in 2016.
In announcing Under the Midnight Sun, the Cult also gave fans their first taste of the upcoming album in the form of the soaring lead single, “Give Me Mercy.”
“’Give Me Mercy’ has all the hallmarks of the new classic Cult to my ears,” guitarist Billy Duffy declared. “Fresh yet familiar.”
“I was absolutely enamored with this piece of music Billy had written,” added Astbury, “and it perfectly fit these thoughts I’d been having about our culture’s need to move past assumptions of duality. We need new language because words can’t express where we’re going.”
Listen to “Give Me Mercy” below.
The Cult embarks on a brief North American tour starting July 8. The trek begins in St Paul, Minn. before concluding July 30 in Rama, Ontario, Canada.
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