Ok, so I recently got my hands on The Cult’s “Peace”, which contains the original versions of the songs that were later re-recorded for “Electric”. I have to say that I am completely puzzled at why the Cult had to re-record all of these songs since “Peace” is SO MUCH BETTER than “Electric”. “Peace” still has plenty of that post-goth mysticism that made the Cult such an interesting band whereas “Electric” is pretty much just a simple stadium-rock album. Was this basically them selling out? Any opinions from fans of the band?
Ian is no Jim Morrison.
So ha!
This is a hard one to answer. Basically, Steve Brown produced “Peace” - he is the same producer that did the “Love” album. There are many conflicting stories… some say Ian wanted it changed. Some said it was billy, and some therecord company. I’d have to say without the drama… it was probably the record company. Plus Rick Rubin has just hit it big with Beastie Boys, and I think he was interested in doing something in that vein.
That is when the whole thing changed for them. And they never really came back to that early vibe again. They lived the avenue that Rick sent them down.
I guess you speak about what was called the ‘Manor Sessions’…
I love… ‘Love’, the first Cult album I ever bought back in the days. And I was very surprised by ‘Electric’ when it came out, but liked it after a while.
When I bought the ‘Manor Sessions’ years after, even if my prefered Cult album was still ‘Love’ I wasn’t totally convinced by these early versions produced by Steve Brown. I’m still not…
I personally like Peace much better than Electric. I’m a sucker for effect-heavy music, and Peace is definitely a richer, ‘wetter’ sounding record (esp. on vocals, Echo-delay From Hell sometimes!). I prefer Billy’s guitar tracks on the original, too. Electric sounds too much like an AC/DC album, it’s so dry and stripped down. I realize many of the songs are the same, but there’s definitely a difference.
I could see either the band or Rubin wanting to re-do the whole thing, if they thought they were unwittingly making ‘Love Part 2’. The best thing about Peace is that it doesn’t contain the horrible cover of Born To Be Wild, a song I don’t like to begin with.
1002
i have the Manor sessions CD; where does one find the “Peace” album?
according to the liner notes on the back of the Manor sessions, 4 songs were issued as b-sides to singles from Electric, and there are 5 on this disc. 12 songs were recorded in Oxfordshire in the summer of 86, which leaves 3 unreleased.
I got it from the 7 CD Rare Cult set…
I downloaded this so I dont have anything in the way of liner notes etc.
i found the “7 cd set” and got that, thanks. 
dk