Love Will Prevail

The second album by Cult of Youth opens with a gorgeous, stately song that builds on congas that morph into huge, echoing floor toms. Then acoustic guitar strumming gives way to a heavenly female chorus, strings, and golden horns. Sean Ragon’s blackhearted baritone gets about as close to uplifting as one imagines possible, and Cult of Youth’s entire raison d’être—to create beautiful music in a folk-goth world—comes fully and clearly into focus. There are many eerily lovely moments on Love Will Prevail, and Ragon’s dark vocals, the raging acoustic guitars, and brushed snares feel like a melding of Joy Division and Death in June. Songs like “It Took a Lifetime” and “Golden Age” seem bent on breaking a few acoustic guitar strings, with fleet violin notes leading the way on the latter and a feverishly knitted bass and drum driving the former. There are pastoral, pretty moments (“Prince of Peace,” “New Old Ways”), a bit of Pogues-in-black raucousness (“Path of Total Freedom”), and sweeping drama (“To Lay with the Wolves”) alongside tunes that embrace both grit and grace with tried-and-true rock ’n’ roll fervor.