The Cure: Classic or Dud?

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.