The Cult launch Under The Midnight Sun album with Give Me Mercy video

The Cult have announced a new album. Under The Midnight Sun is the follow-up to 2016's Hidden City, and will be released on October 11. The news is accompanied by a new single, Give Me Mercy, which is out now.

“I was absolutely enamoured with this piece of music Billy had written," says frontman Ian Astbury, "and it perfectly fit these thoughts I’d been having about our culture’s need to move past assumptions of duality. We need new language because words can’t express where we’re going."

"Give Me Mercy has all the hallmarks of the new classic Cult to my ears," adds Duffy. "Fresh yet familiar."

Under The Midnight Sun was produced by Tom Dalgety, who's also worked with Pixies, Ghost and Royal Blood, and was inspired by Astbury's experience at the Provinssirock festival, held in the city of Seinäjoki in Southern Ostrobothnia, Western Finland.

"It’s three in the morning, the sun’s up, and there’s all these beautiful people in this halcyon moment,” reminisces Astbury. “People are laying on the grass, making out, drinking, smoking. There were rows of flowers at the front of the stage from the performances earlier that evening. It was an incredible moment.

“When the world stopped, I had this moment to write in real time, to calculate. I was compelled by this vision, this anomaly, this memory, of being under the midnight sun. Tom helped us bring a new musical shape and frequency to our process.

“At the core of it all, music contains the vibrational frequency of how we once communicated before we could even speak. Bird songs, animal calls, string theory, quantum physics, psychedelics. The record ultimately is about finding and uniting beauty in those strangely natural moments."

The Cult's North American tour kicks off this evening (July 8) in St Paul, MN, with support from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Zola Jesus. Full dates below.

The Cult North American Tour 2022

Jul 08: St Paul Palace Theatre, MN
Jul 09: Milwaukee Cellular Stage at Summerfest, WI
Jul 10: Chesterfield The Factory at The District, MO
Jul 12: Chicago Riviera Theatre, IL
Jul 14: Cincinnati PNC at Riverbend, OH
Jul 15: Dayton Rose Music Center at The Heights, OH
Jul 16: Pittsburgh Stage AE, PA
Jul 19: Washington The Anthem, DC
Jul 20: New York The Rooftop at Pier 17, NY
Jul 22: Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House, PA
Jul 23: Boston Leader Bank Pavillion, MA
Jul 24: New Haven College Street Music Hall, CT
Jul 26: Syracuse Crouse Hinds Theater, NY
Jul 27: Detroit Meadowbrook Amphitheater, MI
Jul 29: Leamington Seacliff Park, ON
Jul 30: Orilla Casino Rama, ON

Tickets are on sale now.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.