Ian Astbury
Natural Born Guerrilla
Beggars Banquet
Ian Astbury, lead singer for the Cult, is back with a solo effort. Fans of the Cult won’t be disappointed with this album. “Back on Earth” opens up with an electrified guitar riff that resembles a high-energy James Bond theme song. “High Time Amplifier” keeps the juice flowing. Astbury croons over a couple ballads, “Devil’s Mouth” and “Tonight,” before experimenting with the sounds of trip-hop on “Holy Traffic.” A remake of the Cult’s “The Witch” rocks hard, with fuzzy guitar riffs and vocoder-distorted vocals. The space rock-influenced “Tyger” is reminiscent of Radiohead. Astbury has clearly been listening to a broad range of musical styles, and does them all justice on Natural Born Guerilla.
Beggars Banquet, 580 Broadway, Suite 1004, New York, NY 10012; http://www.beggars.com
