The Cure: Classic or Dud?

There's a passage in Ten Imaginary Years where someone (could have been Robert, don't accurately remember right now) says that they look bored in all of their old promos and TV performances because, well, they were.

I have the close-up of Simon's big exaggerated sigh from the "Forest" video permanently burned into my memory. Very classic.

I'd never heard this before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7wJ8vEe20

no offense but that was pretty ghastly to me

Can a drummer explain to me why Lol was deemed sub-par? I (someone who knows nothing about drums) quite liked his drumming up to Pornography

As a drummer, or former drummer, myself, I think he was perfectly fine for the early stuff. Good, even. But of course he wasn't capable of doing the more intricate stuff that Boris eventually added to the band. Also, as I understand it Lol had an alcohol problem, which probably didn't help.

I haven’t read Lol’s book, but aiui all parties agree that his consumption did not impact his performance until several years after he was moved to keyboards, at which point he was self-medicating over being further sidelined as a social and contributing member of the group

(this vicious circle also being exacerbated by the other members continuing to socially bond via alcohol)

The book is very good -- was just talking about it earlier today on FB. It's definitely written from someone who realized the depths of the problem, took accountability for it in the end while also noting how environment and family shaped him in that regard. I found it very well considered, and that it ended with he and Robert reestablishing their friendship and working a bit together again was a lovely conclusion.

Others like Ned can correct me, but Smith among rock autocrats doesn't strike me as vindictive or mean?

I mean, he's griped about others he's not fond of, especially if he gets associated with them -- his long standing antipathy for Morrissey being a good example -- and I suspect there's more going on in those opaque intraband dynamics than we know about. I'm sure he's no plaster saint, no less than any of us. But I think it's a sign of something that when they got the Rock Hall nod just about every member past or present was there, and they specifically shouted out Andy Anderson, who had either just passed or had announced he was ill.

Smith among rock autocrats doesn't strike me as vindictive or mean?

the stories about how the whole band bullied lol in the midst of his alcoholism are pretty unpleasant so i think smith is quite capable of being mean

That's true. Never mind.

Again, though, Lol is pretty clear about seeing it otherwise in his book! It's not a sense of "I deserved it," but of "I was really being fucking awful!" That he might want to put his own frame on it is clear enough, combined with the fact that they're all not a bunch of guys in their twenties any more.

Allegedly we have a formal album title

NEW ALBUM TITLE: SONGS OF THE LOST WORLD #thecure #robertsmith https://t.co/nAZvD7A0Rm

— curefandocumentary (@curefandoc) March 3, 2022

I look forward to hearing this either by the end of the year or never

otm

don't really believe a single word of this statement, but Robert Smith making amorphous vaporware album pronouncements has in itself become a welcome and soothing event within the CureSpace

i like the title better than Live from the Moom

Hoping it’ll stand up to 4:13 Scream

Hoping it's actually his unused film score from the Jurassic Park sequel.

But seriously—
Recently dove into the Mixed Up super duper expanded edition and was pleasantly surprised by the more recent remixes (for the most part; some were meh). I just wrote it off when it was new because it seemed silly. Still kind of unnecessary, but not a total waste of time. If nothing else, it all definitely fits in with the spirit of the original album.

And I forgot to add why I bring that up:

If it's any indicator of the new material, I think it will probably be very good comfort food.

Huh I thought most of the new remixes were garbage

Enh, the bad ones / good ones ratio I thought was about 75/25. So yes, most. Good ones I really liked: "Just One Kiss (Remember Mix)", " A Night Like This (Hello Goodbye Mix)", "The Last Day of Summer (31st August Mix)", and "Cut Here (If Only Mix)." A few embarrassing ones in that lot unfortunately, but most of them followed the original arrangements pretty closely, so it was at least listenable. It's a lot better when listening with the thought that the mixes were inspired by the original Mixed Up album. Some of them genuinely would've fit right in. Of course, the original Mixed Up was also an uneven album so the bonus material appropriately yields similar results.

WE HAVE JUST ADDED A BLUE/YELLOW LOGO T-SHIRT TO OUR OFFICIAL STORES - ALL PROFITS WILL BE DONATED TO UNHCR @Refugees - PRE-ORDER AT https://t.co/JPIxEAlwXE pic.twitter.com/mgKTl9qZ4D

— The Cure (@thecure) March 15, 2022

THAT'S NICE ROBERT

I can see Morrissey selling Putin shirts in response.

Albums! The Cure! Cleaners From Venus! Mötley Crüe! And more! NME, 30 May 1987. #NME #MyLifeInTheUKMusicPress #1987 pic.twitter.com/ozdgiE41PE

— nothingelseon (@nothingelseon) March 17, 2022

NME's review of Kiss Me... for those interested.

i know there is a poll thread right now but this topic has been talked about here
https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-cure-new-album-songs-of-a-lost-world-interview-update-relentless-tour-3229589

“We will be releasing a new album,” Smith told NME. “I get fed up of saying this now! We will be playing from October and the new album will be out before then. We walked on [stage at the Ivors today] to a bit of new music, actually. Hopefully no one recorded it!”

At this point, Shakira interrupted the interview to shake hands with “her favourite band of all time”, before Gallup replied: “It is a surreal day”.

Back to ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Smith then confirmed that “it’s almost finished”.

“Reeves [Gabrels] our guitar player has come over from America for the day just to finish a couple of solos, I’ve got to finish a couple of vocals,” he revealed. “Essentially it’s a 12 track album. It’s there, it’s kind of half-mixed and half-finished. It’s a weird thing. It’s kind of evolved over the last two years. It hasn’t always been a good thing to have been left alone with it. You pick at it, like picking at seams, and everything falls apart.

Smith continued: “It’ll be worth the wait. I think it’s the best thing we’ve done, but then I would say that. I’m not doing an Oasis when I say that, ‘IT’S THE BEST FOOKIN’ ALBUM’. A lot of the songs are difficult to sing, and that’s why it’s taken me a while.”

Discussing the themes and character of the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream‘, Smith said that the album “doesn’t have very much light on it” and that it sounds “more like ‘Disintegration’ than ‘Head On The Door’.”

“It’s pretty relentless, which will appeal to the hardcore of our audience, but I don’t think we’ll be getting any Number One singles off it or anything like that!” he laughed. “It’s been quite harrowing, like it has for everyone else.

“I’ve been more privileged than most, but lockdown and COVID has affected me in as much as I’ve lost an entire generation of aunts and uncles in under a year. It’s things like that which have informed the way I’ve been with the record.”

As for the mysterious second record that they’ve been working on, Smith said Cure fans would likely have to wait a little longer to hear that.

“While there are a handful of really good songs, I’ve kind of fallen out of love with others so we’re going to have to record another four or five perhaps,” he said. “If it gets finished, it’s very upbeat. It’s the flip-side to the first one.

“I can’t wait to sing it, actually. I feel quite distraught singing the same songs over and over again.”

oh and there is this about the remastered version of Wish

“I’ve just finished doing the ‘Wish’ remaster, and there are so many of Simon’s demos that never got past the demo stage and remained instrumental – purely because I couldn’t think of any words for them. That’s really sad, because some of them were really great!

“They’re all coming out as instrumentals, and I think there are about 36 unreleased songs coming out on the package. That’s the same every time we do anything. There’s always loads of music, and a lot of it is Simon’s. I just run out of words!”

YES!

wkiw simon

how many years has it been 'almost done' for now

but at least they have a goal in releasing it before the tour

it’s kind of half-mixed and half-finished.

In Cure speak this means that it will be another decade or so before the project is formally abandoned.

uh huh

that’s wildly unfair

it’s nineteen years since the Trilogy DVD sleeve said that the Wish remaster would be out in a few months, and here Bob is, still faithfully promising that

I wonder if Simon's departure was related to writing credits on his Wish demos?

Perhaps management are going to force them to release the album ahead of the tour, threatening them with looking like fucking idiots at least

Management? Which management? I think at this point it’s basically RS and his nephew

it’s nineteen years since the Trilogy DVD sleeve said that the Wish remaster would be out in a few months, and here Bob is, still faithfully promising that

― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Friday, May 20, 2022 12:48 AM

big oof.

At this point, I hope it's 140 minutes of relentless kazoo, klezmer, and fart noises with Robert screaming "WHY ARE YOU FUCKING THAT DEAD CAT???????" over it

that was the original chorus and title of "Why Can't I Be You?"

as long as simon plays on it, i'm still interested.

I've waited hours days weeks months years decades for this...

"This Twilight Garden" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:45 (Originally the B-side of "High", 1992)
"Play" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:36 (Originally the extra B-side of "High", 1992)
"Halo" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 3:47 (Originally the B-side of "Friday I'm in Love", 1992)
"Scared as You" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:12 (Originally the extra B-side of "Friday I'm in Love" 12", 1992)
"The Big Hand" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:53 (Originally the B-side of "A Letter to Elise", 1992)
"A Foolish Arrangement" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 3:51 (Originally the extra B-side of "A Letter to Elise" 12", 1992)
"Doing the Unstuck" [Saunders 12" Remix] (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 5:55 (Previously unreleased remix made in 1992, intended for a "Doing the Unstuck" single that never came to be, 1992)

"Doing the Unstuck" was supposed to be a single? I never knew that before, what I have learned on this board. I always felt they should have released "Open" as a single, as I think I would have worked the same way as "Fascination Street" did with the big guitar sound. My all-time favorite Cure song is on Wish and so looking forward to that reissue.

oh, I did know about "Doing the Unstuck" thing as it was told on Join the Dots, I had just forgot.

Lost Wishes EP

Four instrumental tracks taken from the 'Wish' sessions at the Manor Winter 1991. Released in 1994 as a limited edition cassette, through mail order only.

Side A
No. Title Length
12. "Uyea Sound" 5:21
13. "Cloudberry" 5:19
Side B
No. Title Length
14. "Off to Sleep..." 3:38
15. "The Three Sisters" 4:11

yeah Lost Wishes is excellent, I really hope we get a full fidelity version of that.

On April 13, 2018, in an interview with BBC Radio 6, Robert Smith confirmed that the deluxe edition of “Wish” is finished. A release date is yet to be announced.

The B sides won’t be on it, they’ve omitted everything on Join the Dots from all the previous reissues.

so ultimately they were great from the beginning and started going downhill after mixed up and most will agree they dominated the 80s!