Sonic Temple

The Cult stuck to their guns on their fourth album by igniting sexual charges (“Sun King,” “Sweet Soul Sister”) and keeping a kind of shamanistic shroud over things (“Medicine Train,” “Soldier Blue”). Singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy offer up a bounty of big-drum, big-riff philosophies and hedonistic dreams that come off as rare insights for mainstream hard rock. The ballad to Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick (“Edie, \[Ciao, Baby\])” is the album centerpiece, but “Fire Woman” proved they were the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band in 1989. Millions of album buyers agreed.