Dreamtime (The Cult album)

Dreamtime is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Cult. Released on 31 August 1984 by Beggars Banquet Records, it peaked at No. 21 on the UK Albums Chart and was later certified silver by the BPI after having sold 60,000 copies. The first single, "Spiritwalker", peaked at No. 1 on the UK Independent Singles Chart. Dreamtime has subsequently been reissued (or in some cases bootlegged) in roughly 30 countries worldwide.

Lyrics to the song "Horse Nation" are taken almost verbatim from the non-fiction book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970). "Spiritwalker" is a reference to shamanism, while "Dreamtime" is inspired by mythology of the Aboriginal Australians and 'Butterflies' is a reference to the Hopi ceremonial butterfly dance. "A Flower in the Desert" is a reworking of the Southern Death Cult's song "Flowers in the Forest".

The music of the album is characterized as dramatic, moody, dark psychedelic, with "crystalline guitar not that far off from what U2 was going after". In 1985 Ian Astbury noted that the Cult were "like Big Country and U2, only better!".

The record was originally being produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drums, the band decided to replace him, and Beggars Banquet suggested John Brand. The record was ultimately produced by Brand, but guitarist Billy Duffy has said that the drum tracks used on the record were those produced by Julian, as band drummer Nigel Preston had become too unreliable by that time.