Cult of Youth began when Sean Ragon, once the bassist for Love as Laughter, launched a bedroom recording project that eventually became a Brooklyn-based neo-folk ensemble. The group’s dark, pastoral approach evokes a starker counterpart to the Pogues by blending luminous acoustic guitars and driving traditional rhythms, while Ragon’s resonant baritone lends an unsettling edge to the otherwise buoyant arrangements. The project first appeared in 2008 as a largely solo release titled A Stick to Bind, a Seed to Grow, issued in limited form on Dais. Ragon later assembled a steady ensemble by enlisting drummer Glenn Maryansky, violinist Christiana Key, and bassist Micki Pellerano. With this expanded configuration in place, he broadened the band’s palette on the self-titled second album, which Sacred Bones brought out in 2011. Further evolution arrived with Love Will Prevail in 2012, an album that fused the acoustic strumming typical of Death in June or Current 93 with a near chamber-pop approach to orchestration. Nearly two years afterward, the fourth album Final Days appeared, by which point the project had solidified beyond Ragon and a rotating cast of contributors into a fixed group that included guitarist Christian Kount, drummer Cory Flannigan, and bassist Jasper McGandy.
