The Cure: Classic or Dud?

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