CULT, THE Electric CD (1987)

There are albums that define an era and there are albums that explode one entirely. Electric is The Cult abandoning their post-punk goth roots mid-flight, handing the controls to Rick Rubin, and landing somewhere loud, riff-heavy, and completely unexpected.

Coming off the darker, more atmospheric Dreamtime and Love, Electric was a hard pivot, and it paid off. Rubin stripped everything back and turned Billy Duffy's guitar into a wrecking ball. Love Removal Machine remains one of the great rock singles of the 80s, a track that sounds like it should be playing on a jukebox in a bar where the pool cues double as weapons. The album sits in a genuinely rare space between the dark alternative rock of their earlier work and the full swagger of American hard rock, and it sounds like neither compromise nor calculation. Just a band catching fire at exactly the right moment. Pair it with a leather jacket you've been wearing since 2004 and you're sorted.

Alternative rock with heavy metal leanings. Fans of: The Black Crowes, Jane's Addiction, Velvet Revolver, Killing Joke.