Stream: Cults, ‘I Took Your Picture’

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Cults (Photo by Shawn Brackbrill)
Cults (Photo by Shawn Brackbrill)

It’s been almost four years since Cults — the New York-based duo of Orange County native Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion — released their sophomore album “Static.” But on Oct. 6 they return with a shiny new object, “Offering,” a New Wave-meets-psychedelia panoply informed by the band’s continuing crush on the music of the 1980s. The new single “I Took Your Picture,” they say, “was inspired by falling into a deeper love with ’80s power-pop bands like the Motels and the Cars. It’s a song about fleeting moments and how we let past feelings interrupt the possibility for good things to happen. ‘Tinge of blue, to the end, left our hearts, with regrets, I’m learning.’ It’s a daily struggle to try and stay open and available but it’s probs worth it.”

In making the album, the duo worked slowly, recording in L.A., San Francisco and New York, and enlisted the help of longtime engineer Shane Stoneback. On the new single, the hum of vintage synths and Follin’s reverb-saturated vocals conspire to give the track a sheen so nostalgic you can almost see your past in it.

||| Stream: “I Took Your Picture” and “Offering”

||| Live: Cults play the Teragram Ballroom on Nov. 7. Tickets.