Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.

It’s often said that the most subversive pop music is that which wraps sinister tales within a sugar-coated shell. If so, then it’s hard to imagine a band pushing that manifesto further than Cults. On the surface they could be sickly sweet – a smitten duo called Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin who spin gorgeous melodies across their girl group-inspired bedroom pop. But dig deeper and a whole new world opens up, one that contains songs about apprehension, substance abuse and the pain of moving from adolescence into adulthood. Oh, and those inspirational, moving speeches that appear, ghost-like, behind the music? They’re from a selection of notorious cult leaders …

In April of 2010, Cults released a “Go Outside” 7” single with Forest Family that sold out before the copies even went to print. Over the next several months the band would release a few more tracks from these early recordings, record a track called “Oh My God” for Adult Swims single series, build on the true nature of their musical desires and evangelize new listeners nationwide.

After a few standout performances last fall at the 2010 CMJ Festival in which music’s elite praised the duos’ simplistic pop charm, Cults decided their next move would be to put a full album out with a bigger label and signed to the newly-created Sony imprint ITNO. The band’s self-titled release is – like the original demos – self-produced, although engineer Shane Stoneback (Sleigh Bells, Vampire Weekend) was brought on board to tighten things up. And as for why the band chose the name Cults: “A lot of our songs are about what we’re going through right now – the fear of growing up and facing adult responsibility,” says Brian. “And in a way that fear is what makes people join cults in the first place – wanting to escape competition and success and be a part of something bigger, communal. We also want to live our own lives with our own schedules and expectations, so in a way this band has become our own cult.”