Three albums from the 1980s that you shouldn't live without

The Cult - Electric

The Cult are lots of things to different people. They've developed into more of a true heavy metal sound over the years but never fully lost their goth-rock roots. Electric, though, is a hard rock album that started off as something entirely different and then the band re-did the whole recording and made it into one of the most perfect records you'll ever hear.

When the band first went into the studio to record their third studio album, they were going to make a record called Peace and, in fact, recorded the whole album. Peace doesn't sound bad, but it also isn't the brilliance that Electric would be. While Peace was much more of an experiment in sounds and more earthy, Electric would not be. The band didn't like the finished product of Peace and decided to find a new producer to re-record the album and the new producer ended up being Rick Rubin.

Rubin had never produced a rock record before, but he had helped the Beastie Boys become the greatness they were and still are. Rubin decided to strip the sound down to the basics: Vocals, guitar, bass and drums. But he had the genius idea of make the kick drum four times louder than normal, something he had learned with the Beasties.

The finished product was one banger after the next with a guitar solo in each song. The concept almost sounds egotistical but because the band is so streamlined it works perfectly. If rock and roll at his finest needs the music to feel like it has a swagger, this album is the epitome of that. Is it retro and does it recall the music of AC/DC? Yep. And you are lucky for it.