Did any decade do narcissism better than the 80s? The decade’s ethos was certainly reflected in the preeminence of hair band rock, a genre into which The Cult fits, if marginally, given that their output was more blues-rooted (see: The Doors) than many of the decade’s metal bands.
Ian Astbury is fully decked out in the video for “Love Removal Machine, from leather pants to a shirt a comedian would someday wear on The Tonight Show to his oh-so-luxuriously feminine (or 17th century French) hair. But his vocals are as amazing as any in the history of rock and roll, so we’ll give him a pass for his attenuation to the erstwhile zeitgeist. Undoubtedly, The Cult got it right with the song, and the Marshall stack…both are equally timeless.
