The Cure: Classic or Dud?

Anything to add, Ned?

The idea is to encourage people to be forthright in their opinion but it's not a vote or anything. It's a catchier way of saying "what do you think of this band?"

Cheers!

(PS: Dud. A couple of the singles are nice musically, even very good, but they have Smith's horrible smeared moan over the top of them. He sounds like a fourteen-year-old with a splinter in his toe: there's something wheedling about his voice which makes me want to smack him and tell him to get a grip rather than empathise with him.)

Seriously.. though it seems the norm to slag 'em off these days, it's amazing just how much good stuff they have done. 'Boy's Don't Cry'/'3 Imaginary Boys' is a great debut, whichever version you have. Scratchy wired glum-pop. In fact it's all classic up to 'The Top', their first major clunker.

'Head on the Door' is great pop. 'Kiss Me X3' is also great pop ('Just Like Heaven'), except where they try too hard to make great pop and fail ('Hot, Hot, Hot'). 'Disintegration' is their last great album. But not pop. No problem.

My last encounter with The Cure was 'Wild Mood Swings'. I swung my copy back from whence it came - Record and Tape Exchange. Still, 'Galore' sums up the later years nicely.

Anyway I like old Bob, a pop man at heart even in his gloomiest moments.

Classic. And if you disagree with me I'll shove all twenty or so CDRs of rare and odd stuff I have of theirs down your throat and kill you. *proceeds to light candles to huge _Disintegration_ poster in room*

The Cure are a band who, like Depeche Mode and a number of others of that ilk, should have just hung it up on December 31, 1989. Their glory days were in the 1980s, Disintegration should have been their last album. It would have been a perfect ending. Instead, they chose to put out three subpar releases in the 1990s. While Bloodflowers was a definite improvement over Wild Mood Swings (did *anyone* like that album?) and Wish (which came out at the peak of my Cure fandom and still disappointed me), it still wasn't close to the material they released during the 1980s.

Yeah, some of their stuff is whiny and pretentious. But I think they manage to pull it off reasonably well, and I think the whininess and the pretentiousness will make them staples of every sad-sack high school kid for the next thirty years, whether they continue to release new albums or not. (And hopefully they won't, judging from the poor quality of their most recent albums--I think that the more bad stuff they release, the less "legendary" they'll become.)

By the way, I *was* a teenage goth girl. I was also an early-20s goth girl. I own a velvet and lace cape and little pointy boots and black lipstick. Heh.

_Wild Mood Swings_ is more problematic. It's a very erratic album and contains a couple of songs that never should have seen the light of day ("Mint Car", "Return"). However, it also contains the absolutely marvelous "The 13th", "Want", "Gone!" and "Jupiter Crash". Some judicious editing (and swapping some album tracks for b-sides) would make this a much better album.

For me, _Bloodflowers_ compares very well to their 80's output. It seems that the group got back into a good songwriting groove for this album, which is particularly evident on "Out Of This World", "The Loudest Sound", "The Last Day Of Summer", "Bloodflowers", and "Watching Me Fall" (Cure cliches and all). The album has a strong sense of flow and there are no embarrassing attempts to rewrite "Friday I'm In Love". It was a good ending for them, assuming that Robert's latest pronouncements about the band's demise are actually true this time.

There are individual songs I don't like, and _Wild Mood Swings_ is easily my least- favorite of their albums, but I'd be hard-pressed to say that I actively dislike any of the Cure's albums.

They have many good tunes. However, they have many bad ones, viz "Friday I'm In Love".

Still, at their best they show an impressive ability to make both poppy goth jumpathons and total doomfests.

I had a girlfriend once who was into these boys hard and she used to play is it 'Pictures of You' (?) over and over and over (a sort of pining for a lost love I think; not me, incidentally). Anyway, it used to bore the hell out of me, not to mention what felt like a large hole in my brain.

The thing is, with the Cure, it's like the Manic Street FUCKING Preachers syndrome - people who like 'em don't just like 'em, they fucking LOVE 'em, and think they're prophets or something. No, they are miserable, half-goths with absolutely nothing to say and even less charisma.

That said, I am admit that I am hardly familiar know their canon, since I can't bear exposure to it for protracated periods.

Still; DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUD

Hmm, having said that, I do get riled when someone fails to 'get' my favourite bands and indulges in the kind of mindless attack I have already posted against The Cure. Yet, I feel that certain bands are wont to attract a more dependent following, who hang the band's music like metaphorical rosaries. And I'm not sure that even among my most beloved artists, there are those which I could hold in such equally mindless esteem.

What say you?

DUD

Yet I do wonder how much my own nosatlgia plays a role. I still think Wish is great, despite every. review. ever. written. Maybe if I hadn't listened to it for the 1st time as a teenager travelling thru Europe with schoomates I'd think differently.

Also, I really really like the Wolfgang Press song on _Lonely is an Eyesore_, but I've heard their recordings are pretty patchy. Any recommendations there?

the "cure=suburbia" part of Michael Bracewell's England Is Mine is one of the best things ever!

Classic, BTW. Again, my mid-teens coincided with Disintegration and I was full-on obsessed for a couple of years. I bought a shedload of albums at Oxfam last year, and a friend and I drove our GF/wives insane by listening, back to back, to 17 Seconds, Faith, Pornography and the Top. Divorce was on the horizon by the end of that evening.

Thing is, there are SO many B-sides and rarities which have officially surfaced that they'd have to put out a box set. As it is, if the remasters that are surfacing next year are going to include bonus discs for each with room for other oddities, then that will partially settle the problem.

Shake Dog Shake
Fascination Street
A Strange Day
A Night Like This
Lovesong
Push
Sinking
Pictures Of You
Lullaby
Lovecats
Maybe Someday
In Your House
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
M
Charlotte Sometimes
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
Hey You!!!
Play For Today
A Forest

Fire In Cairo (as a 3 piece)
Grinding Halt (as a 3 piece)
10.15 Saturday Night
Boys Don't Cry
I Dig You (with Porl Thompson and Frank The Postman)
I'm A Cult Hero (with Porl Thompson and Frank The Postman),
Close To Me
Let's Go To Bed
Why Can't I Be You
Friday I'm In Love

Fucking hell, just reading that through sends me into space. I'm still shellshocked.

Genius.

!!!!!!

And yes, Frank the postman showed up in all his voluminous glory, the first time they've done any Cult Hero material in (10 years according to Robert).

And was not Charlie saying some months back about how the band has fallen off recently? UNDESERVING INFIDEL! But I will not bear a grudge. Yet.

And I maintain my viewpoint, no doubt. Friday's only iffy moment came 11 songs in, when some (relatively) unfamiliar chords struck up - "What is this," I thought to myself with a grimace, "Joan Osborne's 'One Of Us'?" But no, it was in fact "Maybe Someday".

The Cure should've stopped recording new music after Wish (or more specifically, if you like, after "Fear Of Ghosts"). I love them still, but I shall not be moved on this matter.

Porl, remarkably, is now jobbing as the band's guitar tech!

Wait, what? So essentially he and Perry B. have completed the circle.

Anyway. First batch of reissues in a month. EXCITED!

I am naturally using all my spider-senses to procure a mixing desk feed of the show. I'll be absolutely amazed if nobody recorded it, but nothing yet. Ned, you will be the f...oooh, among the first to know when I find it!

That I had heard, seems to make sense! They and Depeche should just finally tour together. ;-)

In all seriousness, thanks for any leads you might have!

Actually I think Dan was born in 1974 and he went through all that shift you did except he kept loving the Cure as well. Rah!

But for many of us born in or around 1974, this issue is fairly cut and dried. For a decade, The Cure made (mostly) great, emotive music to match the self-indulgent drama of teen angst. I too, found romance with a girl because of it. She was into Sylvia Plath 'n shit and thought Robert Smith was really good at painting with words in his lyrics. I felt the same. Even his terrible voice was welcomed as a strike for the blemished and the meek (read 'indie') against mainstream, hard-rock masculinity (what we call 'bogans' in Australia).

Then, as Paul and others have pointed out, we came of legal age in the early 90's and were lucky enough to be doing so right when music got a huge shot in the arm - with much better drugs and, yes, prettier girls. How convenient it was to feel disillusioned with "Wish" and all Cure work since. But my best efforts at objectivity still tell me, as they do to so many others, that The Cure are 80's classics and 90's duds. You can neatly bookend the best of this band up to and including "Disintegration".

I was born in 1973 and I approve this post.

Robert Smith guest presents the John Peel Show tonight 11pm - 1am
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel/index.shtml

you can listen live via the web stream.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), March 26th, 2001

?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Smashing Pumpkins - '1979' - (Hut)
The Cure - 'Desperate Journalist' - (Fiction)
Joy Division - 'She's Lost Control' - (Strange Fruit)
The Pixies - 'Monkey's Gone To Heaven' - (4AD)
Led Zeppelin - 'Communication Breakdown' - (Atlantic)
The Deftones - 'Minerva' - (Sire)
Cranes - 'Jewel' - (Wergo)
Nirvana - 'Heart Shaped Box' - (Geffen)
David Bowie - 'Saturday Night' - (EMI)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - 'Swampsnake' - (Mercury)
Mogwai - 'Killing All The Flies' - (PIAS)
Tricky - 'Moody' - (Epitaph)
Placebo - 'The Bitter End' - (Virgin)
The Beatles - 'Eleanor Rigby' - (Apple)
The Rolling Stones - 'Paint it Black' - (Decca)
Janis Ian - 'Tea and Sympathy' - (Sony)
Thin Lizzy - 'Don't Believe A Word' - (Warners)
The Clash - 'White Riot' - (Sony)
AFI - 'Girl's Not Grey' - (Nitro)
Blink 182 - 'Down' - (Island)
The Cocteau Twins - 'Lorelei' - (4AD)
My Bloody Valentine - 'I Only Said' - (Sony)
Sneaker Pimps - 'Low Place Like Home' - (One Little Indian)
Tom Waits - 'Looking for The Heart of Saturday Night' - (Anti/Epitaph)
Supergrass - 'Alright' - (Parlophone)
The Cooper Temple Clause - 'New Toys' - (RCA)
Scarling - 'Crispin Glover' - (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
Interpol - 'NYC' - (Matador)
Jimi Hendrix - 'Are You Experienced' - (MCA)

Underworld 9.5/10 [they mixed things up, had some special mixes, plus had the buzz of the chat room, and added humour]
Siouxsie Sioux 7/10 [Siouxsie came across as a broadcasting professional, in control, measured - however i expected some more fun like when she was on 6 Music roundtable]
Robert Smith 6.0/10 [too many predictable choices, reminds me of guest slot hour on Xfm]

siouxie had a patch where she was talking under something rather than over it. but nice enough. didn't like her question answering session.

underworld sounded a lot like the 3am comedy strand at times (which is itself worth a listen)

?!?!?!?!?!?!?

-- manthony m1cc1o (anthonyisrigh...), October 21st, 2004.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

** The new release dates are 29th November 2004 worldwide and December 7th in the U.S. on Rhino **

The Cure's debut album from 1979 has now been elevated to the Deluxe Edition series.

Compiled by Robert Smith and Digitally Remastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road, this 2 CD set is a must for all Cure fans as it contains 6 Previously Unreleased songs and 15 tracks on CD for the very first time! The 16-page booklet has sleevenotes by Johnny Black plus rare and previously
unseen photographs from Robert Smith's personal archive.

DISC 1 - Three Imaginary Boys

01. 10:15 SATURDAY NIGHT
02. ACCURACY
03. GRINDING HALT
04. ANOTHER DAY
05. OBJECT
06. SUBWAY SONG
07. FOXY LADY
08. MEATHOOK
09. SO WHAT
10. FIRE IN CAIRO
11. IT'S NOT YOU
12. THREE IMAGINARY BOYS
13. THE WEEDY BURTON

DISC 2 - Rarities 1977-1979

01. I Want To Be Old (sav studio demo 10/77 - previously unreleased song) (@)
02. I'm Cold (sav studio demo 11/77 - previously unreleased version) (@)
03. Heroin Face (live in the rocket, crawley 12/77 - previously available on 'curiosity' mc 1984) (@)
04. I Just Need Myself (psl studio demo 1/78 - previously unreleased song) (@)
05. 10:15 Saturday Night (rs home demo 2/78 - previously unreleased version)
06. The Cocktail Party (group home demo 3/78 - previously unreleased song) (@)
07. Grinding Halt (group home demo 4/78 - previously unreleased version) (@)
08. Boys Don't Cry (chestnut studio demo 5/78 - previously available on 'curiosity' mc 1984)
09. It's Not You (chestnut studio demo 5/78 - previously unreleased version)
10. 10:15 Saturday Night (chestnut studio demo 5/78 - previously unreleased version)
11. Fire In Cairo (chestnut studio demo 5/78 - previously unreleased version)
12. Winter ('tib' studio out-take 10/78 - previously unreleased song)
13. Faded Smiles (aka I Don't Know) ('tib' studio out-take 10/78 - previously unreleased song)
14. Play With Me ('tib' studio out-take 10/78 - previously unreleased song)
15. World War (on early copies of 'boys don't cry' album 1979)
16. Boys Don't Cry (single - also on 'boys don't cry' album 1979)
17. Jumping Someone Else's Train (single - also on 'boys don't cry' album 1979)
18. Subway Song (live in nottingham 10/79 - previously available on 'curiosity' mc 1984)
19. Accuracy (live in nottingham 10/79 - previously unreleased version)
20. 10:15 Saturday Night (live in nottingham 10/79 - previously unreleased version)

the bastards are gonna make me buy their whole fucking back catalogue again aren't they? gah...

No 'Plastic Passion' either, come to think of it :-/

On the plus side 'though, if I were to buy this, I would finally get to own "World War", after having spent the last 24 years quietly seething with self-righteous wounded indignation about the injustice of having apparently been expected to pay import prices to buy the Boys Don't Cry album, just to get that one track, when I already owned every single other track on the album, several of them more than once.

I may just decide that I'd prefer to carry on sulking about it 'though - I really haven't decided yet.

Never say I don't do anything for you, Baaderonixxx:

http://www.siouxsieandthebanshees.co.uk/

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES - DOWNSIDE UP
B SIDES AND RARITIES - 4 CD BOX SET
Released: 29th November 2004

34 Tracks on CD for the first time including The Thorn EP.
76 Page booklet with an introduction by Siouxsie
Full track annotation by all 3 band members
Full lyrics for all b-sides printed for the first time
Sleevenotes by Mark Paytress

Disc One
01: Voices ( 5.33 )
02: 20th Century Boy ( 1.58 )
03: Pulled To Bits ( 3.24 )
04: Mettagiesen ( 4.00 )
05: Drop Dead Celebration ( 4.24 )
06: Eve White Eve Black ( 3.03 )
07: Red Over White ( 4.34 )
08: Follow The Sun ( 2.47 )
09: Snap Dash Snap ( 3.40 )
10: Supernatural Thing ( 4.24 )
11: Congo Conga ( 4.13 )
12: Coal Mind ( 3.31 )
13: We Fall ( 3.38 )
14: Cannibal Roses ( 4.29 )
15: Obsession Ii ( 3.52 )
16: A Sleeping Rain ( 4.18 )
17: Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant ( 2.33 )

Disc Two
01: Tattoo ( 3.29 )
02: There's A Planet In My Kitchen ( 5.22 )
03: Let Go ( 3.36 )
04: The Humming Wires ( 4.22 )
05: I Promise ( 4.38 )
06: Throw Them To The Lions ( 4.50 )
07: The Execution ( 3.50 )
08: The Quarterdrawing Of The Dog ( 4.54 )
09: Lullaby ( 3.32 )
10: Umbrella ( 4.13 )
11: Shooting Sun ( 4.44 )
12: Sleepwalking ( On High Wire ) ( 5.10 )
13: She Cracked ( 3.07 )
14: She's A Cuckoo ( 4.15 )
15: Something Blue ( 3.55 )
16: The Whole Price Of Blood ( 3.53 )
17: Mechanical Eyes ( 3.36 )

Disc Three
01: False Face ( 2.51 )
02: Catwalk ( 4.57 )
03: Something Wicked ( This Way Comes ) ( 4.20 )
04: Are You Stil Dying Darling ( 4.44 )
05: El Dia De Los Muertos ( 3.38 )
06: Sunless ( 4.26 )
07: Staring Back ( 3.16 )
08: Return ( 5.02 )
09: Spiral Twist ( 3.55 )
10: Sea Of Light ( 4.35 )
11: I Could Be Again ( 4.30 )
12: Hothead ( 3.30 )
13: B Side Ourselves ( 3.47 )
14: Swimming Horses ( 4.41 )
15: All Tomorrows Parties ( 6.12 )
16: Hang Me High ( 6.05 )
17: Black Sun ( 3.10 )

Disc Four - The Thorn E.P.
01: Overground ( 3.52 )
02: Voices ( 5.25 )
03: Placebo Effect ( 4.36 )
04: Red Over White ( 5.43 )

(Found this on http://neumu.net/ )

if we were trace the Cure's influences, what would they be? the post-punk + krautrock angle seems kinda obvious (Joy Division, etc.) but where did Smith's poppier inclinations come from? I have a hard time imagining what his record collection in the 80s would have consisted of, besides his contemporaries like Siouxsie and Echo & the Bunnymen and whatnot

Dude's on the record as saying Mogwai are his current favourite band. This doesn't remotely answer the question (although it possibly explains some of the longer songs on their post-Wild Mood Swings albums)

Since Mogwai's favourite album after Spiderland is Seventeen Seconds, that isn't that unlikely.

yeah I'm thinking more like from Faith through Disintegration - the gothier stuff has fairly clear antecedents, but where did something like Caterpillar Girl or Close to You or Love Cats or any number of other tunes come from...?

xp

like in among the dreary atmospherics and gothic clanging Smith always had a very keenly developed sense for pop melodies, but he never sounded like he was drawing from, say, the Beatles.

Gonna suggest Steve Harley and cackle irreverently to myself

c'mon Dan surely you have some thoughts on this

Nick Drake. Robert Smith got the band's name from the lyrics of "Time Has Told Me" ('a troubled cure / for a troubled mind')

Well, my main thought is that the incredibly poppy strain always existed in their music, giving you songs like "Boys Don't Cry", "Jumping Someone Else's Train", "Object", "It's Not You", "Meathook", "Play For Today", "In Your House", "Secrets", "Primary", "Doubt", etc etc etc well before "Let's Go To Bed" appeared. As to where it came from, I don't specifically know, but they did cover Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and David Bowie.

xp: um, given how much Robert lies in interviews and how the band USED to be called Easycure, I don't know that I believe that

Syd Barrett as well. At least in terms of hair, eyeliner & poppy quirkiness.

I know the band was called the Easy Cure, but even that is meant in the sense of "the cure for a troubled mind"

When Malice's vocalist Martin Creasy quit the band, they took the new name Easy Cure in January 1977 from a song written by Tolhurst.

never mind lol

Barrett! of course. can't believe that didn't occur to me.

songs about cats, fairytales, fractured psyches.

duh

all of that stuff came from the gormenghast novels though

except for the parts that came from Wind in the Willows and Shakespeare, right

"he never sounded like he was drawing from, say, the Beatles"

Mr Alphabet Says is a good Beatles tribute, surely better than the Dukes of Stratosphear: I'm pretty sure the White Album in particular was a great inspiration for him.

He also cited often Captain Beefheart as an influence and some of the theatrical flair (and the crazy uncle attitude) of Alex Harvey is certainly there.
I'm pretty sure is also a big fan of soul and folk music: if I remember correctly he even eulogized Sandy Bull somewhere.

I just clicked on this thread and Ex-Lion Tamer by Wire came on my ipod, which almost certainly has something to do with Just Like Heaven.

While I know Smith has always downplayed the role punk, er, played, the band (at least in its formative years) always sounded to me like they'd been listening to a lot of, yes, Wire and the Buzzcocks, but arranged their songs in some sort of hushed environs, like a crowded flat with people sleeping or a place with grouchy neighbors, so that everything was sort of muted.

I'll add also the Only Ones to the Buzzcocks and Wire.
Another Girl Another Planet is like the blueprint for many Cure songs.

i just started w/ Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and wau. where do I go next from here? Cure virgin.

Go to one of the singles comps (Standing On A Beach/Staring At The Sea, Galore or Greatest Hits) and investigate albums in order of how appealing you find the singles.

Which Kiss Me songs did you like best? It's a scattershot album.

xpost

I like "How Beautiful You Are" a lot

That's kind of anomalousish. But Wish (two albums later) or Head On The Door (one album before) might be fruitful directions to go. Especially Wish.

Such a gorgeous sight!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/578669_887124448341_1012289_37887426_1962067617_n.jpg

supoib

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/150755_428412400504073_132564740088842_1611277_483085761_n.jpg

Hahahaha

A+

Would read again.

loooooool

So Reeves Gabrels is the newest member of The Cure? YUCK YUCK YUCK.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/05/26/cure-pinkpop-video-setlist-reeves-gabrels/

Not the first time he's collaborated with Smith, though: he cowrote "Wrong Number," got Smith in on his solo song "Yesterday's Gone" and they collaborated on the Cogasm song for the Orgazmo soundtrack with Jason Cooper. Weird to think of him as a full Cure member but I don't think we're getting Tin Machine redux here.

Although now I see the link says all that. Anyway! Let's just say I find it hard to think he'll be allowed to dominate in studio.

The question is whether they can keep an avant-art guitarist from screwing up the Cure. Reeves seems a real loose rein sort of player, which perhaps explains why no one works with him.

how come Porl has given them up? i know he flogged off all his gear etc but not why.

Painting is his true passion or somesuch.

one imagines that the molasses-like pace of activity, and restricted creativity, may have worn on Porl/Pearl. also if he's transitioning, as the name change suggests, that would certainly have played into it, if not been the main factor. (or it's equally likely that Robert simply didn't call him before the Vivid shows, as extra guitar would have been surplus, and hasn't since.)

Isn't Porl married to Robert's sister?

But yeah, Reeves Gabrels. Past collaborations or not, I truly didn't see that one coming. The Cure has always operated in a bizarre way, with the band often having periods where the line-up fluctuates dramatically in between slightly more stable configurations. Since they worked with Ross Robinson on the self-titled album, though, the line-up has fluctuated wildly... and they've only put out one studio album since then! The self-titled album will be EIGHT YEARS OLD next month, and there's been about 4 or 5 line-up changes since!

Not much, but a little extra background:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2012/05/30/reeves-gabrels-joins-the-cure

First Kevin Shields and I look strangely alike, now Robert's gone for the shorts:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/394661_10151010587133818_275925431_n.jpg

Is he wearing ski boots?

New Rocks

About the above question about influences from years ago, if anyone is still interested in discussing this after probably reading enough interviews to find out...

I've heard him say his biggest influence was Jimi Hendrix, Bowie is a major hero, he said Siouxsie And The Banshees were a major influence that gave him direction, Nick Drake, Captain Beefheart, Slade, Status Quo. He seemed to be even influenced by the dreampop bands that were influenced by The Cure.

Although they covered The Doors, he said he wasnt fond of them.

new interview with RS in WORD mag is brilliant.

Clean radio recording of last night's Reading set available for download:

http://summercure2012.blogspot.fr/2012/08/reading-festival-24082012.html

Gabrels actually sounds pretty tame! Or rather, he's playing within the scope of the songs rather than going all 'whee a vibrator!' over them.

The opening hour of that set was live on BBC3 last night (available on iplayer), I turned over to it by accident and was whisked back to my teens (huge, huge fan from about 15 to 18 years old), they sounded *great*. Like you say Ned, no real madness from Reeves but he was pretty sweet, got a lovely tone on Just Like Heaven etc. The live footage also showed what looked like a crib sheet for keys/chords for different songs etc next to his fx board :)

Excellent set, way better than the "Bestival 2011" live album, FWIW.

Yeah, definitely agree there.

Oh man that Bestival album sounds like a nutsack

It's a competent souvenir of a particular lineup, but that's about it.

Great Reading set. Sounding streamlined in a way and they seem to be having fun again. Thanks, Ned!

The Bestival set was *too* streamlined, it was like half the music went missing, couldn't hear the keyboards at all, etc. They sound more complete here. Point being if they wanted to release a live album from a festival show, the Reading set would have been so much better.

Point being, if they wanted to be invited to release a live album for charity, they should have not played at a festival with an associated charity until ten months later because they would have known in advance how both the performance and recording would have turned out, and also would have arranged all by themselves in the 70s that the second festival would have always been involved in charity fundraising just so that it could have invited them to release the recording to that end.

Point being it's too bad that they released something that sounds kind of crap, instead of something that sounds great, choice of locations and charities aside.

Entreat Plus

all of the set is now on bbc iplayer iirc
amazing how much The Kids love them so much these days.

if you're not from the UK, the BBC uploaded "Friday I'm In Love" (Reading) to Youtube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uf32bE4LBY&feature=plcp

Robert Smith's version of "Witchcraft" from the new 'Frankenweenie' sdtrk

http://museeffect.tumblr.com/post/32267129654/witchcraft-robert-smith

Seems that Chris Parry is selling of his Cure collection via a Record Store in Portsmouth.

http://www.musicstack.com/my/index.cgi?seller=5799&search_type=artist&find=cure

Incredible set list for Mexico City performance (over four hours!): http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/04/22/cure-mexico-city-50-song-setlist/

Lookit all the Wish numbers!

They may never release anything again but if they keep up this kind of activity I will not complain!

"Mint Car"!

I wonder if all the "Wish" stuff is because it's next on the reissue agenda and is therefore fresh in mind? Also, those songs are awesome live.

When did they make the drummer dye his hair? Also, LOL, Reeves is wearing eyeliner.

and they, er, opened with its first two numbers.

Wish remains my favorite. Looking forward to the reissue and its B-sides.

"This Twilight Garden" and "Play" and "The Big Hand" and "Halo" are so so so good

(you can totally see the massive cliff that is WMS coming in "A Foolish Arrangement" though)

Dad joke of the gods:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969756_10201282758175931_2033499428_n.jpg

Would anyone be able to recommend me a good book about the Cure? I've been listening to "Join The Dots" all weekend and am in the mood.

I've done a cursory search the "Someone recommend me a book about music" thread appears to contain no Cure suggestions. This thread has a recommendation for "Faith" by Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, but the Amazon review of that book (for what it's worth) dismisses it as "stunningly banal". My own searches of Amazon throw up a couple of unconvincing-looking works such asJeff Apter's "Never Enough".

Is it worth worth spending €20 on a second-hand copy of Ten Imaginary Years?

Cheers for suggestions

Yes it is worth spending that much on Ten Imaginary Years.

I can recommend against "Never Enough" by Jeff Apter. Really horrible read. In the first chapter, he makes a comparison between Cure fans and Britney Spears fans.

Cheers both. I might just give Ten Imaginary Years a shot. I get it for just over 20 EUR. New copies are going for a mere £257.52 on Amazon UK.

There are a couple of copies in "acceptable" condition on US Amazon for $10.

I can get a copy here in Europe for about 20 euros, which is fine. Just joking about how expensive the new copies are going for in the UK.

yeah Ten Imaginary Years is fantastic

I got it as an xmas present in '92 and I still recommend it as quick toilet reading; it's especially valuable for preserving clips of original album/single reviews.

Ten Imaginry Years is excellent and I wish I still had a copy

Ten Imaginary Years is fantastic, because it's one of those music books you can read cover to cover in a marathon session and put down feeling invigorated and having your love of the band confirmed. Or you can just pick it up, turn to some random page, read for five minutes and be completely happy.

Never Enough is bad enough that I reshelved halfway through (optimistically, with bookmark still in). I just could not handle another tedious chapter of tour-drugs-album-drugs-tour-drugs-album all blurring together. Which tbh is the story of a lot of bands but blergh did it suffer in the telling.

wow. alex in nyc sure got up to speed well enough (see post #9), such a diffident and even-handed start......

Not that insane four hour Mexico City set -- just two -- but the Lollapalooza performance was a treat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNhojfzV0bc

I just got to "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" and basically this is making my entire day

Whoah!

man they should kind of just call this "The Wish Show" (nb that is by no means a complaint)

Not at all. (Good GOD are they ever going to get around to finally doing proper digital video releases of the official 80s/90s concert films or what.)

Happy birthday 'Head on the Door' - 28 today wtf o_O

Wow, that rendition of the Caterpillar! It's like a more muscular version of the weird Cure.

haha I had forgotten I was typing out the set list as I was listening to this:

Plainsong
Pictures of You
Lullaby
High
The End of the World
Lovesong
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
FROM THE EDGE OF THE DEEP GREEN SEA
The Walk
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Friday I'm In Love
Doing the Unstuck
Trust
Want
Fascination Street
The Hungry Ghost
One Hundred Years
Disintegration
The Lovecats
The Caterpillar
Close To Me
Let's Go To Bed
Why Can't I Be You?
Boys Don't Cry

Yay! They played 'Mint Car'! :D

Was To The Sky released on a single?

Nope. It was a leftover song from the KM^3 sessions that ended up on the Stranger Than Fiction compilation.

fucking reissue Wish already!

Thanks. I love that one and the Resurrection Mix is great as well. Sounds more like Disintigration than KM^3 to me.

I really hope that second half of 4:13 Dream comes out. I hope they don't just give up on it and all is left is unfinished songs for bootlegs years later.

I remember Robert Smith saying he recorded solo albums for his own amusement, I wonder if they will ever come out.

I don't believe a word of that

I remember Robert Smith saying he recorded solo albums for his own amusement, I wonder if they will ever come out.

one of'em is called The Top iirc

I also felt he might be lying. He talked about it in the early 90s if I recall correctly. When I first read about this I imagined he was keeping a masterpiece from us but now I think maybe he didn't want to release it because it wasn't anything special, possibly just quickies he fired off without much care.

For a long time he was talking about going solo but I think breaking up doesn't seem like an issue anymore because they don't feel obliged to do anything now unless they feel like it.

yeah, basically. Even the existence of the infamous 4:13 dark companion seems pretty far fetched to me

Well, there are several songs that have never made it to an album yet, some that were from the time of their eponymous album that Smith felt were important and he wanted to get them out eventually. I'm sure there were demos floating around the internet.

"A Boy I Never Knew", "Please Come Home" and "Strum" were some of them. Some have been played live. I'll need to check youtube.

And of course the elusive and mythical "Ariel"

I believe the latest update on the 4:13 Dream companion disc is that the songs were supposedly recorded when Porl was still with the band. Now that there's a new line-up, it doesn't feel appropriate to release it as a stand alone album lest people consider it "the new Cure record." Maybe it will be released a bonus disc somewhere down the line after the new line-up records new songs. So yeah, we're never going to see it... if ever existed in the first place.

should've read "released as a bonus disc" and "if it ever existed in the first place"

And of course the elusive and mythical "Ariel"

Never knew about this film!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekYs8-XKjso

at this point does anyone really hold out hope that the Cure will again release a great new album? I don't.

I ain't holding my breath. I've heard that Robert pretty much manages the band directly at this point and they just go about their business doing tours as they choose. Nice work if you can get it.

I've seen clips from that film on Youtube over the years, but never the whole thing. I always enjoy watching footage from the Andy Anderson years.

Great album, no, but if they released one or two more as good at the s/t or 4:13 Dream I wouldn't complain. Those are nice albums.

Apparently The Cure have never played "Burn" in concert before last night in New Orleans? Sounds good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwldFacE_ms

Great album, no, but if they released one or two more as good at the s/t or 4:13 Dream I wouldn't complain. Those are nice albums.

Honestly, I'd rather they didn't. This is a band that, when it finally decides to go, really should go the hushed, spare final album with no final tour route. Not sure what to make of its current Morrissey-emulating model - no new album, occasional random show/tour, occasional slight shift in line-up ...

Man, it's so hard to point out just what's off about Jason's playing - I was going to say "too precise," but Boris was famous for being able to play the same part over and over, perfectly - but it's amazing how all these years later I still don't hear him as an adequate substitute. He just doesn't ... swing on those primal bits. Was "Burn" the last released Boris track?

Burn is from that intermezzo phase in the history of the band, where youw onder who played on what.

I thought 4:13 Dream was a major improvement and very surprising in some ways (it seemed to me their most accessible thing since Boys Don't Cry). I liked a lot of their s/t but it sounded a bit tired in a lot of ways, whereas 4:13 Dream sounded comparatively refreshed and energised, had some of their earlier gorgeous sound that hadn't been around for a while (Porl?). I recall Smith at the time saying how he was becoming very conscious of repeating himself with diminishing returns and while it hardly reinvents them, it seems plenty fresh to me. It wasn't a masterpiece but I don't have any complaints about it either, but I think Wish, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers and s/t all were incredibly uneven.

Yeah I mostly agree with this - I think 4:13 mainly suffered from bad and overstuffed production and just a general sense of tiredness from fans. I think the songs are quite good but I listened to it for maybe a week or two and have never gone back to it.
When RS sacked half of the band in 2004 I was hoping he would go for a raw and kinda lo-fi sound which would rejunevate the band but that hasn't really bene the case and he still insists for squeezing tons of sound and vocal effects which just hurt the songs.

I just want him to indulge is weirdo angry side and do an entire album of repetitive shouty/screamy songs like "Lost", "The Scream" and "It's Over"

Like Wish and Bloodflowers a lot. Don't dig Wild Mood Swings, s/t or 4:13 at all, really.

very conscious of repeating himself

I know what he's talking about, but the first thing that popped to mind was the xgau riff:

Samey samey samey is the strategy--repeat repeat repeat repeat the same four-bar theme for sixteen, twenty-four, forty-eight, sixty-four bars before Robert Smith starts to whine, wail, warble, work. Because Smith hasn't veered this far pop since he was a boy, most of the themes stick with you, and in a few cases--my pick is "Just Like Heaven," which gets off to a relatively quick start--his romantic vagaries have universal potential. But especially over a double album, the strategy gets pretty tedious unless Smith happens to be whining, wailing, warbling, or working to you. B

pfff I'd forgotten what a monster of a song 'Burn' was

I'd kind of like a return to weirder stuff too, but not necessarily more agressive or raw. I'd like to think he has more of The Top and The Glove spirit still in him.
I remember when I got the internet nearly a decade ago I was a little shocked how different the internet review sites and fan communities treated some albums compared with the british music press; I think The Top embodies that for me. Every time I saw The Top mentioned in NME, Uncut or Mojo it was always treated as a horrible embarrassment, even an Uncut interviewer acted that way with Smith; but most fans seem to love it. I love it.

WISH has incredible tracks like "Open", "High", "Friday I'm In Love" and "To Wish Impossible Things" but those highlights feel all too brief to me. I easily find it their most tedious album despite the highlights and a general nice sound.
BLOODFLOWERS should get credit that it seems like the were really trying for something different. The songs are denser, louder and longer than usual but not much of it really worked for me.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/im_alive._im_dead_the_cure_in_concert_1984

Two 1984 gigs, one from Glasgow and one from Munich. The Glasgow set list is similar to the Concert set.

I was at that Glasgow show, I think. (Well, I was at a Glasgow show in 84, and I doubt there was more than one.)

Certainly Concert features one of the best set lists—probably the very best—of any Cure tour before or since.

lol, how many Cure tours since have featured a consistent set list at all?

Concert is great, but it was before Kiss Me, Disintegration and Wish so I think many tours had amazing setlists after too.

lol, how many Cure tours since have featured a consistent set list at all?

There was a time when you knew they were just about done when you heard the opening keyboards for 'A Forest.' This was from about 1990-2004.

Just sayin'.

ok now tell us the order of all the other songs they played

Well, if you heard 'The Walk' you could bet that 'Let's Go to Bed' was next. Same with 'Inbetween Days' and 'Just Like Heaven.'

Shake Dog Shake to open, Piggy in the Mirror or Six Different Ways somewhere early, couple from Pornography, then Primary / Charlotte / The Walk somewhere, A Forest, 10:15, Killing an Arab, done.
I think I'm showing my age.

The Wish tour setlists were the most rigid ones they've had - otherwise, yeah you can always expect a couple of curveballs per show

Behold! 4:14 Scream

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/03/the-cure-new-album-live-dvd-trilogy-shows-2014

I hope they don't keep that title

also WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I wonder if there's any allusion there to Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis? Exciting news, anyway.

Huh, is this featuring the keyboard-free four-piece version of the band? I didn't like that line-up live much.

yeah I dunno any news from The Cure is exciting, esp when it comes to recording - but I'm a bit disappointed these will just be eftovers from 4:13 released 5 years later. C'mon how about getting back in the studio?
Live DVDs OTOH...

Well I'd been wanting to hear that other set of songs since they announced it, they kept talking about a second album. They definitely have had a weird/relaxed rest on their laurels career for the last few years, though -- though they pulled it off really well, based on all the various live shows and broadcasts and etc.

Any updates on the reissue series?

They definitely have had a weird/relaxed rest on their laurels career for the last few years

Indeed. I'm a bit surprised RS has seemingly accepted for teh Cure to become solely a nostalgia act. A bit disheartening considering how well Depeche Mode - their most obvious peers - have managed their twilight years.

Well, what's interesting to me is that Smith hasn't NOT been doing stuff -- he's on a seemingly endless round of one-offs, collaborations, remakes, etc. Maybe he just wants to do that.

I'm a bit surprised RS has seemingly accepted for teh Cure to become solely a nostalgia act. A bit disheartening considering how well Depeche Mode - their most obvious peers - have managed their twilight years.

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 3 February 2014 17:44 (1 hour ago) Permalink

Yeah, Depeche Mode have managed their twilight years quite well, but at the same time it's arguable that Depeche's situation has a lot to do with the fact that they never fail to do a mammoth tour every time they release an album. If one was to judge Depeche's last 7 years or so based on recorded output alone, the opinion of whether they've managed their twilight years or not would depend upon how much of an obsessive hardcore fan you are. It goes without saying that I love Depeche Mode, and at their very best they're incredible. They're still able to go around the world touring (as are The Cure) and pack the venues, but their recorded output isn't what it once was, I'll admit. In spite of that, I'll still follow them regardless, and I am exactly the same with The Cure.

I like dp's last couple a lot better than the cure's. Which I maybe listened to once. DPs I listened to at least twice, maybe three or four.

Xp Well I wasn't talking about tours but simply that DM post-peak albums >>> Cure albums (and I consider myself first and foremost a hardcore Cure fan)

I'm probably in the minority thinking that DM's last 5 albums or so are pretty much on par with the rest of their albums (Playing the Angel being a career highlight IMO) but beyond that - DM just seems to have maintained a pretty steady path, releasing a decent album ever 4 years and touring behind it. I don't see them doing trilogy shows or festival tours for the time being

Yeah, they've pretty well spent this century working on becoming a great goddamn live band through and through, with one standout album in Playing and good albums in general otherwise. I get a sense Dave really takes his second chance at life very seriously but also from I can tell exuberantly, and the fact he seems to have gotten better as a singer/performer is helping as Martin's voice, originally a key saving grace when Dave ran himself too ragged, is starting to audibly give ground. Handy, really.

But to turn back to the subject at hand -- Robert and the band, in whatever formation, seem to just keep on keeping on. That Lollapalooza live set last year was A+.

Jesus H, this setlist!

Shake Dog Shake
Kyoto Song (First time since 2008)
A Night Like This
alt.end
Wailing Wall (First time since 1984)
Bananafishbones
The Caterpillar
The Walk
A Man Inside My Mouth (Live debut)
Close to Me
Lullaby
High
Birdmad Girl
Just Like Heaven
Pictures of You
Before Three
Lovesong
Like Cockatoos (First time since 2004)
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Want
The Hungry Ghost
One Hundred Years
Give Me It

Encore:
The Empty World (First time since 1984)
Charlotte Sometimes
Primary
The Top

Encore 2:
Dressing Up
Piggy in the Mirror (First time since 1997)
Never Enough
Wrong Number

Encore 3:
Three Imaginary Boys
M
Play for Today
A Forest

Encore 4:
The Lovecats
Let’s Go to Bed
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry
Hey You! (First time since 2004)

A Man Inside My Mouth (Live debut)

wau

oh man

Everything about that set list is great.

is Lol back?? seems weird doing the Lol n Bob album without him.

The Top is pretty much Robert solo, he wrote and played everything exept for the drumms.

"Wailing Wall" !!

So it looks like 4:14 Scream hasn't appeared yet!

Knew those shows would be great. Gutted...

I'm looking for the 3-bluray box already. They ARE recording this, right?

whoa.

"Wailing Wall" !!

i would have loved to have been at that show, wow what a set-list!

The only album that doesn't seem to be represented is Bloodflowers

I do like how "The Hungry Ghost" seems to be becoming a standard choice for them.

Always thought that The Hungry Ghost sounded like it should've been on the Head on the Door. It would've fitted in well.

London gigs up on d1m3 now

Not a member. Will this trickle down to other places?

"So it looks like 4:14 Scream hasn't appeared yet!"

I'm happy not hearing anything new from them frankly.

Grinch

Yeah despite all the disillusions I will never not be excited about prospects of new Cure music

"Hungry Ghost" was a good one and I thought the last album was generally fun, so I'm looking forward to the next album.

I think Smith said he wasn't that bothered about creating new music, so I doubt there will be much more.

So I was watching this documentary on YouTube, and it was interviews with British Cure fans talking about why the Cure are so "important", "influential", etc. I think that to their millions of fans they are canonical, but there just seems to be something about them that irks rock canon types. Part of me thinks perhaps it is their diverse fan base and the way they reached American suburbia in a way that "important" groups didn't. And what is so WRONG about suburban mopey kids anyway? There will always be that personality that will never be accepted by cynical critic types. But why is cynicism / drug addiction / urban street cred so necessary to be regarded as "important"? Are music critics really fantasists, and being a suburban fanboy or fangirl just not part of that?

Any thoughts / writings on this would be appreciated.

there just seems to be something about them that irks rock canon types

The lipstick.

It is weird that so many bands that were dismissed by the hetero macho rock crew back in the day have been completely embraced, but not the Cure. It's kind of a cool thing about them that they remain so divisive even as they are becoming the Grateful Dead of their era.

I like it when grandmothers drop the Cure's name or when I hear them at the drug store.

At 2x speed, this reads like affectionate parody. Live the dancing:

http://youtu.be/v4osvtUlrEc

Anyone see this silhouette and think robert smith looked like some weird monster with an elephant dicknose?

http://www.8ball.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/700x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/T/h/The_cure_-_robert_silhouette_-_wht_girls_cu.jpg

Still not sure exactly what's going on with his hands here. They look so weird an big.

I always liked that photo in the earlier versions.

Yeah, this is a newer version. I couldn't dig up any old versions (didn't look all that hard though). Had it in much more sharp contrast on a yellow bumpersticker when I was a kid.

http://www.thecure.com/discography/1289/boys_dont_cry_(new_voice_new_mix)
http://www.thecure.com/discography/1307/join_the_dots:_b-sides_and_rarities_1978-2001

Oh, it was a single sleeve? Mine looked more like this:

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/12/121633/1685202-l_575b2bfdbd899a9e25e9943569727f5c.gif

Was just wondering: when the Cure debuted, were they compared to anyone in particular? There's something weirdly insular and sui generis about the band, and that's sort of true for all its eras. Especially the pop era, maybe. Something like "In Between Days," or "Just Like Heaven," they're instantly familiar yer kind of rootless in a way. No one would hear those songs and say, "hey, that sounds a lot like ..." Or would they?

I suspect they got a fair amount of initial Jam comparisons given the Chris Parry association, but also the tight three-piece arrangements etc.

Maybe really early on, but that seems an outlier, doesn't it? Because of all the things the Cure doesn't resemble, its the Jam.

The Trouser Press Record Guide said that "Inbetween Days" sounded "exactly like New Order", which doesn't seem that far wrong.

I suspect that they were seen as just another post-punk band at the beginning, really... progressing from that to being accused of ripping of Joy Division/New Order and Siouxsie & The Banshees.

In 10 Imaginary Years, Chris Parry even says he was initially trying to duplicate his success with the Jam by finding a group that sounded like the Jam. Those early demos (disc two of Three Imaginary Boys deluxe edition) seem to indicate that this was true.

I think I heard they were described as a Southern Buzzcocks in the music press in their early days. They were certainly quite punky then but even then they seemed a bit out of sync with the rest.

I still chuckle about the fact that The Cure were originally signed to Hansa... they were part of the same competition that Japan entered to get a record deal. The Cure won, but Hansa signed Japan anyway. The Cure, of course, left for Fiction without releasing anything on Hansa, and Japan managed three albums before ending up on Virgin.

Didn't they get weird comparisons to Pink Floyd circa 17 Seconds?

https://youtu.be/MDXAIerOQSk?t=1m38s

I remember seeing a review for the remaster/deluxe edition of Seventeen Seconds that called it "Pink Floyd for stoners that didn't have anyone to smoke with."

he has the exact air of Ronnie O'Sullivan in that interview :D

Gah, no, I don't hear the Jam in them at all. Joy Division is a better comparison for early to mid-career Cure, due to the relative foregrounding of the guitar. Even at their synthiest (e.g., "Prayers for Rain") they didn't sound all that New Orderish. I agree with Josh that they mostly sounded like themselves. The poppier Cure records with horns (e.g., "Close to Me") sounded like nothing else at the time.

I grant that something like "The Walk" may have a vibe in common with pop songs by other bands that incorporated keyboards into a basic rock-band framework, but in my mind many of those songs postdate similar Cure tyoons or simply share precursors.

Maybe the sound of "Just Like Heaven" or "Letter to Elise" doesn't sound that far off from the Church or the Furs or Roxette or Dead or Alive or EMF or whatever. But none of those bands could also have coughed up anything like "Carnage Visors."

Pornography is one of the most singular records any band has ever made or will ever make

Pornography is just Joy Division's 'Atrocity Exhibition' stretched out over an entire album, but recorded with all the levels in the red and with a superior singer. Still a good record, though.

I think a lot of people are missing the original question -- not what happened a little bit later, but at the start, when they 'debuted.' Bringing in later work is an irrelevancy. To quote Austin earlier:

In 10 Imaginary Years, Chris Parry even says he was initially trying to duplicate his success with the Jam by finding a group that sounded like the Jam. Those early demos (disc two of Three Imaginary Boys deluxe edition) seem to indicate that this was true.

No, it's not the only thing, obviously. But it's a clear ghost hanging over the era, and Parry was extremely well known/influential in music industry circles, the Jam connection was incredibly clear to make when he started up Fiction. Imagine if the band had done nothing more BUT that if that'll help.

It's hard to say what kind of profile The Cure would have had if they'd done the first album and only the first album, and then split up... for all we know they could have just ended up being a post-punk era curio or, I dunno, at least a band with the profile of The Comsat Angels or something.

The Trouser Press Record Guide said that "Inbetween Days" sounded "exactly like New Order", which doesn't seem that far wrong.

yeah, the first time i heard it on the radio i really think it was a new order song until the vocals came in. i don't think that was an uncommon reaction tbh, bearing in mind that it came out just a few months after 'low-life'

Even with the Parry connection, it's very difficult for me to link The Cure with The Jam musically... in my mind, I tend to link very early Cure with yer PiL's, Magazine's and early XTC's, which they shared some elements with without wholly sounding like them. The scratchy guitar particularly.

xp: It doesn't help that "Inbetween Days" in the same key as "Dreams Never End" and uses the same I-IV chord progression with the same rhythmic cadence as its verse.

Yup. Although lots of New Order/The Cure songs have that same I-IV chord progression in a variety of keys. 'Age of Consent', 'Plainsong' etc.

I've always though it interesting how a few of the unreleased tracks from the Faith/Pornography era that surfaced are really quite cheery, almost pre-empting the Let's Go To Bed era onwards, it seems that Smith really wanted to retain a certain sombre tonality wrt the records and the public face, but then at some point in '83 he must have thought 'well, fuck it...'

I hear Wire in early Cure, not so much after SS.

At peak punk they were really out of step with other punk stuff. At peak New wave they were as stark and not new wave as it gets. The JD comparison I always thought focus too much on the gloom and not enough on the actual music, which is much less aggressive/metallic than Joy Division, which still owes much to punk or the Velvet Underground.

'Pornography is just Joy Division's 'Atrocity Exhibition' stretched out over an entire album, but recorded with all the levels in the red and with a superior singer. Still a good record, though.'

This isn't far off, but Pornography has a sort of nightmarishly psychedelic vibe that's unlike anything Joy Divison ever did.

"Atrocity Exhibition" is missing the thunder and bombast that runs throughout all the songs on Pornography

At peak punk they were really out of step with other punk stuff. At peak New wave they were as stark and not new wave as it gets. The JD comparison I always thought focus too much on the gloom and not enough on the actual music, which is much less aggressive/metallic than Joy Division, which still owes much to punk or the Velvet Underground.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, January 8, 2016 6:45 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Three Imaginary Boys came out in 1979, this was after the release of: First Issue, Black and White, Real Life, Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, White Music, Go 2, The Scream, Tubeway Army just to name a few. They weren't out of step at all - if anything, they were slightly late.

The only other soundalike besides 'in between days' IMO is 'just like heaven' which is practically a Robyn Hitchcock n' the Egyptians impersonation

This isn't far off, but Pornography has a sort of nightmarishly psychedelic vibe that's unlike anything Joy Divison ever did.

― mozart, Friday, January 8, 2016 7:05 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Atrocity Exhibition" is missing the thunder and bombast that runs throughout all the songs on Pornography

― Very selfish, and very ironic (DJP), Friday, January 8, 2016 7:29 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well yeah, this is kinda what I was referring to with the "recorded with all the levels in the red" thing. Hannett's production on 'Atrocity Exhibition', as great as it is, sounds quite thin by comparison, but you can see where it all came from: the "tribal" drumming, the squalling guitars, the emphasis on the bass.

The tribal percussion stuff extends even into the pop era, because Boris sure uses his toms a lot.

I guess in the barely punk era they do have a lot in common with other angular post punk bands. But the Cure drops that pretty quickly I think. Helps that Bob is such a different kind of singer, and that the band always had a weird knack for melody to go along with the minimalism.

By the time of Seventeen Seconds and Faith, Smith definitely had absorbed more than his fair share of Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees records. John McGeogh was a definite influence on Smith's playing, particularly his work with the Banshees. Also, the "usual" influences such as Bowie - the number of times I've been listening to music on shuffle and confused the intro of 'Soul Love' with 'The Drowning Man' and vice versa is staggering.

Pre-Three Imaginary Boys Cure (The Easy Cure) were playing Status Quo and Thin Lizzy covers.

They had influences, for sure, but I don't really hear them.

Dud

So where's this fucking album, Robert?

Sorry for being a lazy bastard and not reading thru all this thread, but... The last Cure album I bought was Disintegration. Back in 1989 #ifeelold

My tangential knowledge of their catalogue since then suggests it hasn't been great. But now and again I go back to the Cure and think I may be missing out. Is there a post-Disintegration album I really, really, *really* have to own?

Bloodflowers.

Wish.

Bloodflowers is alright, but I'm not sure I would call it essential.

Bloodflowers is my least favourite, it's difficult to rank the later albums because they're mostly patchy. Get the Join The Dots compilation or The Glove side project if you don't have them.

Thanks for answering. I have Join The Dots, which is great on the whole - but the later stuff isn't so inspiring.

My prejudice tells me that Bloodflowers is awful, for some reason. Maybe the cover. I've never dared to listen to it, but maybe I should.

The Glove seems a great recommendation - thanks.

-Wish is quite frustrating because it's overall a really nice sounding album, 4 totally brilliant songs but the rest just bore me. It's probably the album I'd be most reluctant to listen to as a whole.
-Wild Mood Swings is good but spoiled by a third of the album.
-Bloodflowers is heavier and really dense and deserves credit for trying something really different, it seems like an interesting direction they could have kept going in but I just don't enjoy much of the songs.
-The Cure exists in a few different track listings. It can be a slog but I still think there's some great stuff in there.
-4:13 Dream is the most consistent of these, one of their most accessible albums ever but it doesn't have the heights of most of their albums. But I think it's fun.

The Cure was the highest placed (#12) post-Disintegration album in the poll I ran a few years ago. Bloodflowers was #14, Wild Mood Swings was #16.

I am in that camp which adores Wish but then I was 17 when it came out and would have adored anything they put out

Actually Wish was #8, missed that one.

Bloodflowers is really slow; I will concede that. It's essentially a rehash of the second half of Disintegration, but everything is really refined.

Yes, the cover art is terrible.

i guess people didn't like my Cure thread bump from yesterday.

anyways, Bloodflowers live is pretty amazing. a bunch of those songs are really good but yeah not an album i go back to often.

I think Wish is one of the band's best records, I'll often reach for that over Disintegration which I find a bit of a slog.

I think everything post-Wish is very patchy with WMS and the self-titled album having the highest high points.

here's a short* playlist of post-disintegration stuff i reckon is good

Want
Labyrinth
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
Doing The Unstuck
Watching Me Fall
39
Open
The Promise
End

*it's like an hour long lol - basically they became p crap at short, punchy songs, but they gained a weird knack for overwrought epics that actually work, imo jusslike

Playing Bloodflowers now. 'Out of This World' is such a damn fine opener.

as far as their later stuff goes I like 'Underneath the Stars' a lot

4:13 Dream would be much better if it didn't have such fucking shocking production.

Yup

I'd probably rank post-Disintegration like this:

Wish >>> Bloodflowers > 4:13 Dream > Wild Mood Swings > The Cure

Took the plunge and am listening to Wish on Spotify... Odd how I'm slightly scared of ruining The Cure for myself by hearing their less great output. All good so far. (And this album is 14 years old!! Where have I been?)

Erm, I meant 24 years old!!

The Wish b-sides are arguably better than half of what's on the proper album.

The one track I would bump from Wish would probably be 'Wendy Time', although I've never been much into 'Trust' or 'To Wish Impossible Things', either. The rest of the LP rules.

yeap, Wish is a good album. also agree with the b-sides from this era, great.

seeing them in two weeks, can't fucking wait!

Oh man, that's going to be a great show. I expect full details.

Setlist from the opening night of the tour in New Orleans:

Open
alt.end
All I Want (first performance since 1987)
Push
In Between Days
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Step Into the Light (new song - live debut)
Sleep When I'm Dead
A Letter to Elise (first performance since 2008)
High
The Walk
Lovesong
Just Like Heaven
Trust
Want
The Hanging Garden
One Hundred Years
End

At Night
M
Play for Today
A Forest

Dressing Up
Piggy in the Mirror
Shake Dog Shake
Give Me It

Burn

It Can Never Be the Same (new song - live debut)

I guess there'll be a new album soon then.

I am still staring at the Seventeen Seconds encore followed by the The Top encore and going "wooooooooow"

i was about to post that set list. so excited, just a few more days until i go.

Not holding my breath for a new album since those two songs are probably part of that old set of 2008 leftovers.

I don't think I listened to the last three albums more than once, and doubt I will again.

cool story

glad they played Push /danbait

I'm spinning 4:13 Dream for the first time in ages and... christ, this would totally be one of the very best of their late-period records if they'd taken the time to get it to sound decent. I honestly don't think there's a bad song on here!

I can't go that far (hi dere "The Reasons Why" and "This. Here and Now. With You") but I do agree that 4:13 Dream has very, very strong material on it that is sometimes undermined by how it was mixed, although I don't know if I really want "The Scream" or "It's Over" to be mixed any other way.

Oh, I like those two... but 'The Scream' is definitely one of my highlights, I just love the build on that.

I don't dislike them but they are, to my ears, the most ungainly songs on the album.

What about 'Switch'? I can't help but feel that one's a touch underrated!

I agree with you. I think the entire album is underrated aside from the two songs I called out.

I recall "Hungry Ghost" being the highlight.

Question for Cure nerds: Robert Smith is obviously the iconic face of the band, but the Cure has always seemed more collaborative than it gets credit for. By Kiss Me and Disintegration lots of musical ideas/demos were coming from the other guys, right? And I assume on Wish, too? So do you think the dissolution of that awesome five piece line-up (and especially the departure of Boris) sort of screw with the group's mojo enough that Smith has been having trouble coming up with the goods? Or all of them have been struggling? I imagine it's hard to keep the winning streak going as you get older, but the band's always been more or less unstable (except for that - coincidence? - super run of Head through Wish, with all its attendant, prolific b-side goodness). What's different now? Has Robert talked about writer's block?

I remember Smith saying after the last album that he was often trying to write new songs and kept scrapping them, saying "I've done this before and it was much better the first time" and that he didn't care that much if there wasn't another album.

i've always really enjoyed 4:13 Dream. What's wrong with the sound of it? The guitars sound good to me. Maybe the vocals are a little too upfront? I dunno. Please tell me!

Listen to, I dunno, 'High' from Wish back to back with, say, 'The Only One' and it should all become clear.

Apparently, after doing this, it all becomes very muddy. Except for 'High', that thing sounds great.

Yup. It all sounds a bit flat, particularly the rhythm section.

I have to say though, "This. Here and Now. With You" is kinda great.

the last two albums just don't sound good, bad mixing decisions, roger's keys all but absent. don't know what they were thinking. also, both albums entirely too long. great albums inside them though.

Roger wasn't on 4:13 Dream at all! That was when he and Perry Bamonte were "let go" from the band and Porl Thompson was back in. Now Roger's back and Porl is out, and Perry will probably never come back. A shame, as that was a decent line-up. Not exceptional, like the classic 1985-1992 line up, but still decent.

oh right. perry bamonte never felt like a real member of the band to me even though he was there for like 25 years. with porl was still around though.

And of course even that classic lineup is three different lineups.

ned, you going to the shoreline show?

I have a soft spot for the s/t album. The band sounds amazingly young on that record. "Lost" feels like the work of a 19 year old

^^^ same, loved that record, felt like they regained a sense of dynamics after bloodflowers

In general, Simon writes a lot more than most people realize.

Hehehe... yeah, even the classic line-up was three different line-ups, although to be fair the "core" of the band remained the same: Smith, Thompson, Gallup and Williams... with Lol contributing very little, Roger in and out of the band after one LP, and Perry joining at the last minute before both Williams and Thompson left.

a transition from the likes of boris to jason cooper is just devastating imo

ned, you going to the shoreline show?

Sure was -- and frankly, was pondering the best ride down and back, but of course you're on the other side of the Bay!

In fact, thinking about it, the most underrated Cure line-up was probably the Smith/Tolhurst/Thompson/Thornalley/Anderson line-up circa '84.

a transition from the likes of boris to jason cooper is just devastating imo

It's a little weird to realize that Jason's the third-longest serving member of the band now!

As can be seen here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure_personnel#Timeline

Yeah, I was just about to mention that... but at the same time, he's played on about as many Cure studio records as Boris or Lol did!

(Sticking strictly to drums contributions and excepting Lol's keyboard contributions, if any)

if you asked me the name of the cure's drummer I'm quite sure 'jason cooper' isn't a name I would remember, not would I ever associate that name with someone in the Cure. Poor guy.

Yeah, Boris is undoubtedly the first person I'd think of if someone asked me to name one of the Cure drummers. In a way, I kinda feel sorry for Jason in the sense that he joined the band at a time when gaps between albums were starting to get longer and longer, and he's spent quite a lot of his time in The Cure replicating Boris' and Lol's parts live. They haven't really created a sizeable body of work during his lengthy time in the band, and weirdly, I don't think a lot of Cure fans have taken to his drumming even after all this time. On the other hand, he's in The Cure, playing gigs to large crowds and probably earning a truckload of money.

I don't think Jason's ever really looked the part either... I remember seeing one press photo circa 4:13 Dream where the whole band were clad in their regulation Curewear, with the make-up and all that. Of course, Robert, Simon and Porl pulled it off as well as they ever did, but Jason just looked daft and uncomfortable.

Played "Disintegration" for the first time in ... probably a decade, the other day, and loved it.

And it did prompt me to ponder that I don't think I've ever seen "Robert Smith not being Robert Smith" ... by which I mean I have a sense of who he is and he's always been that.

Watch the videos to 'A Forest' or 'Play For Today', and marvel at the way Smith looks like an ordinary bloke in a post-punk band, as opposed to the more familiar birds nest hair and make-up that's become his trademark look.

Jason Thudfist is actually the second-longest running member of The Cure ever - Simon has left at least twice during Jason's tenure (there was a proper break around the Cogasm / Wrong Number period, and iirc an invisible-at-the-time dummy spit over Ross Robinson's involvement in The Cure).

my ticket:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aVVIi1wa0l6LgVm4ZZ1x1PXOFQNR_oIP0g1o7VsEpy6N8rCOD__TGriCNyMBTu-fSemPHJWsvTqLTRObvM-sNKKn9HvcjdNP8QBM4dCitsRyqH_Gg5RdeFmi3HUWi_BloYj8LYAVzTonupr6nrY4p6JLFV6UZY8GU7C9z-mUA5UhZYECyt_DxkMzLxtKVPhNsWcl2bzPgHpsyKH2Aqcdp_yG9uU5RKDl_pdk0JG5z46tXo0axT7FJ-IlT4JTL0PIQRbGhzNJWDw_NhV8mp9bHWtaf4GKrS1HuXoQ_6PgEirJMKhMGut9iCCiZQHwQh7nIhkg8m6Pu-LNc6dhNcpjnGvFc9NPCeiKlgQPyLQWBeKF8_S6qYia7aG3RmwWTuGkglBAUi3LoU-ZkFDVchHmcTCW8LdK6dflPc3UZxX7DHb55JYbW1Yq2jcX1LnT4mOGnlJrNF66VuRlZDmEj0L7fnyDEB23mIPGOWZ9VNohRa4MeBijHev2epWur6j-4nmdxotyc38Jm5aXgamh1XPUlkIrgNsr56Mka46eV_CFpZg=w835-h470-no

Robert says they've decided to do different songs both nights, although we don't know that yet. :) So all of the usual suspects that were skipped last night, probably expect them tonight?

oh wow, i will have no idea what they are going to play by the time my show comes around. so excited, this is right around my birthday. so im being pampered, which mainly means i don't have to drive. win-win.

I try hard not to think about Tony Soprano when I see pics of Robert these days. I was going to post a photo but I decided it was a cheap shot (as if the comment's not a cheap shot already). And to clarify, I say this as an obsessive Cure fan up to (but definitely not including) Wish, though I also love the Trilogy DVD.

So, this is basically going to be the greatest tour, ever...

The Cure start with "Plainsong" tonight. They also played "A Night Like This" and "This Twilight Garden."

if they play those songs at my show. i could die a happy man. i also have no idea what songs they are going to play in their encoreS.

how can someone not love Wish

What a crazy goddamn setlist:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/2016/kiefer-uno-lakefront-arena-new-orleans-la-5bf16b14.html

wow. looking forward to the shoreline show a lot. haven't seen them in ... 12 years? whenever that tour with Mogwai and some crappy bands was.

Curiosa. Which I avoided because why do I want to see a Cure festival set when I could have the real thing. As it were. (Mind you, that tour is where Ben and Aly met that eventually led to School of Seven Bells, so it was all worth it for that.)

listening to the S/T record for the first time since it came out and I kinda dismissed it. I am really enjoying it! getting super stoked about seeing em in LA on the 24th and working through the discography backwards. for a band that has been around forever its a pretty manageable body of work just looking at the LPs.

hoping they'll play Jupiter Crash on this tour.

The Cure start with "Plainsong" tonight. They also played "A Night Like This" and "This Twilight Garden."
― Bee OK, Wednesday, May 11, 2016 11:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if they play those songs at my show. i could die a happy man.

otm X 1000

Atlanta if you're reading robert

Ahhhh i can't wait to see them ahhhhh and yah Jason sucks

I saw them on the Curiosa fest and thought they were pretty good (a little before that I saw them in a club behind Bloodflowers; they were great). But then I saw them at a bigger place, as a 4-piece, in 2008, and was not feeling it for some reason.

Last time I saw them was 2008 in LA -- four-piece lineup as mentioned, their non-keyboard years, and I liked it for that reason. Stellar set and the new songs were great. I think for sheer stately wonder my favorite time seeing them was the Rose Bowl 1992, though I would have loved to have been at Dodger Stadium 1989.

my favorite show was the medium-sized stage tour they did in... 1998? I was in the 8th row for that one and it was fantastic

Yeah, anyone who caught that one I'm quite envious of. The other one I wish I had seen was the Reflections tour in LA but other factors prevented me from going, sadly.

ah, it was 1997: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/1997/orpheum-theatre-boston-ma-33d7e02d.html

hoping they'll play Jupiter Crash on this tour.

would lose my shit

are you talking about the pantageas show ned? yah i was there it was amazing.

i sorta love wild mood swings though. i was obsessed with it in high school bc i tended to be drawn to records that fanbases majorly hated

yeah Wild Mood Swings was my first Cure album that I paid attention to on release. Like, I bought The 13th CD single before the album dropped, and got WMS on release day. I feel that process of anticipating and being there when a new album comes out and hearing it fresh without any weight of history or consensus or reviews or anything is the best part of being a fan of any group.

My favorite is Jupiter Crashes, but I love Mint Car because its The Cure at their brightest and shiniest. I also have a lot of love for The 13th. Maybe my favorite Cure song with horns? Really the only song I actively dislike is Round & Round & Round. I also don't like that so many of the songs just have one word titles because it makes them hard to remember by name.

i loooove "the 13th"

Yeah, 'The 13th' easily one of my favourites on the album! 'Jupiter Crash' never really did all that much for me.

are you talking about the pantageas show ned? yah i was there it was amazing.

Very envious! Yeah I knew a number of people who went. Would have been a treat; I have a couple of good bootlegs from the various shows around the world.

I said Jupiter Crashes instead of Jupiter Crash and now I am embarrassed.

"The 13th" was definitely a skew-whiff effort in the best of ways, it really was unexpected in terms of what had come before as well as the context of 1996. And it just seems to float in its own universe.

Wish and Mixed Up were my first and favourite Cure records, because I was 13-14 when they came out, and emotionally they just seemed to *fit*. Weirdly, after that I bought a lot of the back catalogue but never any of the new releases - except the cassingle of The 13th.

I seem to remember the live versions of 13th had a female vocalist on the chors, and being disappointed she wasn't on the recorded version. Is that right?

"The 13th" was great and really elevated my expectations for WMS

When I got it and heard "Want", I was like "OMG YES YES YES THIS IS INCREDIBLE"

Then I heard "Club America"

I am still mad 20 years later

WMS has a bunch of good songs (Want, Jupiter Crash, The 13th, Trap, Treasure, Numb, Bare) and some songs that are ridiculous but I like anyway (Gone!, Round and Round and Round) but it also has some of the absolute worst things they have ever, ever recorded (Club America, Strange Attraction, Return, Mint Car, This Is A Lie) and my dislike for those songs has only increased as time has gone on, moving WMS from "their least successful album" to "unambiguously the worst album they've ever done and if I ever hear the whole thing again I may be force to cut someone"

I take it back about only disliking 'Round & Round & Round' on WMS. 'Gone!' is pretty terrible. And the lyrics to 'Numb' are unfortunate, to say the least. 'Treasure' is quite lovely!

awww, I like 'Return'!

tbf I didn't like "Gone!" that much until I encountered the Ultraliving mix

"Return" is, without a single doubt in my mind, the absolute worst song they have EVER recorded. I could probably write a novel about how much I hate that song.

I agree with Ned, re: 'The 13th' in that it was one of those singles that didn't seem to fit in anywhere... As the first new material from the band in ages it didn't really seem to logically follow on from Wish, but it sounded really out of whack with everything that was going on at the time. It was almost as if it been made by someone locked away in the studio and ignoring the outside world completely, only to re-emerge and be like "hey, have this!"

I like the sitar-y guitar part in 'Club America', but I've just been having a quick listen to Wild Mood Swings now and... a lot of this really hasn't aged very well, has it!?

Saw them from fourth row in June '92 at the Miami Arena. The set list.

check out all those Seventeen Seconds selections.

xxxp? i would read a synopsis of the "why 'Return' is the worst song The Cure have ever recorded.

As for the 13th, horn sections were kinda having a revival at the time with ska/swing/lounge music kind of bubbling up into the mainstream. so, its not totally out of step with the times. It still doesn't really fit in, but I can see the idea of thinking, "the kids will dig this!" at least from the point of view of a record company picking it as the first single.

and the Cur had always liked horns

'Mint Car' is still ace, IMO. I have never, and will never understand why folks dislike it.

"Mint Car" is saccharine nothingness, completely empty and shrill with none of the parts of the song coming together in any satisfying way. HOWEVER, all of its b-sides are amazing (particularly "Home").

"Return" takes that same saccharine nothingness, speeds it up, adds in an even uglier vocal and some of the cheesiest, most obvious keyboard riffs and horn blasts imaginable in a wholly self-satisfied, concentrated pile of aural garbage.

i think "strange attraction" rules. i love how cheesy it is

but then i also enjoy "return." good horns

I liked "Strange Attraction" for a couple of weeks and then one day the rambling meter of the verses mixed in with the super clunky chorus got on my nerves, like it was trying to be pop-goth inverted version of "We Belong Together" and failing miserably

that said, I do sill like the "I'm sorry/Blame infatuation/Blame imagination/I was sure you'd be the one but I was wrong" part of the song

first Cure album I picked up was Wild Mood Swings. Guess it was always going to take a while to get into them properly

"This Is A Lie" is one of my favourites on that album.

there are so many songs on this album where lyrically it feels like Robert completely lost his grip on the natural cadence of the English language

My first Cure show. Yes. Old. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/1985/radio-city-music-hall-new-york-ny-4bd7f70e.html

I never liked "Mint Car" much but I feel bad for Smith because he thought it was one of the greatest pop songs he'd ever done and was saddened that it didn't surpass "Friday I'm In Love" as a single.

lessons learned IMO

(seriously though, if they'd dumped half of WMS for the b-sides, it would have been so much better)

Talking about how bad WMS is kind of makes me sad. I don't understand what happened to them post Wish.
On most songs I want to tell Robert to calm the hell down and on the others he puts me to sleep. Also I'm not really sure what kind of sound they were going for, some with lots of cheesy synths, some very acoustic. Just a mess.

"Mint Car" is embarrassing. "Strange Attraction" could be great but at the time the production sounded like Jam & Lewis six years too late. I like, not love, "Want", "Jupiter Crash", "Gone!" and "The 13th". The rest is either awful or boring.

Well, Wild Mood Swings was really recorded by what you could call a "broken" band. They were pretty much auditioning drummers during the recording process, if I remember correctly.

"Strange Attraction" could be great but at the time the production sounded like Jam & Lewis six years too late

precisely why it rules

pretty much auditioning drummers during the recording process

Without the qualifiers, yes, they did this. Auditioners who played on the record are thanked in the sleeve, including Martin Gilks from Weknowwhereyoulive.

I think one of the things I do miss on Wild Mood Swings is Boris' approach to the drumming. Boris had a real knack of "composing" his drum parts which not only served the tracks but became hooks or riffs themselves. I love 'Want', for example, but often when listening to it I can't help but wonder what Boris would have done with it. There's certainly a lot of clattery drum fills on Wild Mood Swings which Boris would have probably avoided. Jason's use of the hi-hat spoils some of the earlier Cure songs live, too.

Conversely, I think Jason's bludgeony style is perfectly suited to songs like "Lost", "The Promise", "The Scream", "It's Over", "Before Three", and "All Kinds of Stuff"

Thought this revive would have been about the six deluxe edition CD reissues on Rhino released tomorrow. Not sure if these were previously released in the UK (I believe this was the case with the recent Sabbath reissues) but they're new to me! Definitely picking up Faith and Seventeen Seconds, and, if they're cheap enough, Pornography and Three Imaginary Boys (no real interest in HOTD or KMKMKM).

these came out years ago. are they being reissued or something? it's fucking time to do Wish (and then quit because I don't care about deluxe anything after that)

Wild Mood Swings suffers from the same problem that Wish had; in that its b-sides were all better than at least half of what made the proper album.

Also, RE: the inner band turmoil in that period: don't forget that 1995 was one of the times that Simon quit (albeit, temporarily, but that is Robert playing bass on some of those songs).

This also reminds me of a couple things related to Wild Mood Swings. It was originally intended to be an all (or mostly) acoustic album. That's why a lot of the songs have acoustics and live string sections up front in the mix. Of course, just like many of his other ideas, Robert couldn't stick with it to completion, so the album ended up as the mix bag it is.

Many years back, I made my own version of the album, getting rid of the songs I didn't care for and incorporating all of the b-sides. To this day, it's the only way I listen to the album and it's the only version I have saved in my iTunes. The tracklist is such:

Want
Waiting
Home
This is a Lie
Ocean
Jupiter Crash
Treasure
The 13th
Adonais
A Pink Dream
Mint Car
Gone!
Trap
Numb
It Used to be Me
Bare

It's a much moodier affair in this configuration; much more of a proper "Cure" album. Wild Mood Swings will never be my favorite and/or top rated Cure material, but because of this iteration, it has always retained a special spot with me.

Didn't realize there was any hate for "Strange Attraction", it's probably my favorite single post-Wish. Well, I guess Wrong Number is better. Love the Jam-Lewis style beat and hearing "can I use some of your lipstick?" gives me immense joy. Pretty great lyrics all around, actually

It's a really hokey song.

Strange abomination

one of the times that Simon quit (albeit, temporarily, but that is Robert playing bass on some of those songs)

Robert plays four- or six-string bass on some of every Cure album from the mid-'80s on iirc

I'm really surprised how many people don't seem to like "Wish." I love the three guitars, I love Boris, I love the songs, I love those songs live, probably more than any other Cure album's songs. I've got no problems with it.

Wish rules, naysayers are crazy

these came out years ago. are they being reissued or something?
― akm, Thursday, May 12, 2016 10:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It appears so! Like I said, this may be the first time they've been released in the US with the bonus discs. Was "Carnage Visors" ever available elsewhere? Anyway, I'm excited, as I've never heard a lot of these demos / rarities.

They were definitely all released in the US (assuming these are the same deluxe versions as the first go round); I have all of them.

"Carnage Visors" was packaged with Faith on cassette back in the 80s.

Yeah, everything up through Disintegration was issued by Rhino in the US in these deluxe editions starting about 10 years ago. I guess they've been out of print? It looks like these are just straight reissues of the same deluxe editions.

I think time has made me kinder to WMS - it still doesnt really work but I see it now as the last time RS tried something new. Every album since then as been very safe, Cure by numbers
Oh and Return used to be a guilty pleasure, but by now I've lost all the guilt - it's a great song. Stolichnaya, Banco da Gaia (remember him), Bad Timing on TV...

I don't think Bloodflowers sounds like the others very much.

and the s/t in its non-"taking off" songs gets pretty wild

The way I see the stalled Cure reissue series is this -- the first reissue came out in 2004. The first Siouxsie reissue came out in 2005. The Siouxsie series went along, completely stopped, stalled and then finally completed...and the Cure reissue series STILL hasn't budged since 2010!

As far as the reissues go, It's great to hear tracks from the early gigs that were bootlegged from European radio broadcasts at the time, like the version of In Your House with completely different lyrics that appeared on the Curiosities cassette.