The Cure: Classic or Dud?

I suppose it's down to your entry point into the band, though... for me, I got into the pre-Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me stuff first, whereas someone who heard Disintegration first might rate it higher? Disintegration to me is like a ramped up version of Faith... Faith on steroids.

Disintegration is a bore. Don't be sorry.

hey now

disintegration was my first cure record and it took me a long time to love it (although i fell for "plainsong" immediately) but it's sorta got everything in there while also managing to sustain an incredible mood

idk what my favorite cure record is though. faith?

I got all I want (!) from glacially paced dour Cure listening to "Sinking."

I prefer the vinyl config that cuts 'Last Dance' and 'Homesick', and it's still a long record even then.

I have a fantastic bootleg from the Top tour with Phil still on bass and Boris in on drums (maybe his first or second show ever, if I recall correctly). I'll post it when I get home if enough people are interested.

i have the vinyl, i hate that it's missing homesick. I would have cut something else, dunno what. anyway it's been reissued as a double with noithing cut.

The Head on the Door
Faith
Pornography
The Top
Japanese Whispers
Seventeen Seconds
Disintegration
Three Imaginary Boys
Wish
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
4:13 Dream
Bloodflowers
The Cure
Wild Mood Swings

...is the way I'd rank them overall, I think.

x-post:

'Homesick' is my least favourite song on there by a zillion miles (dare I say it, one of my very least favourite songs of their so-called "classic" period) so I don't miss it on the vinyl version.

KMKMKM so far down that ranking is astonishing to me

Disintegration is a bore. Don't be sorry.

Listen you

at least turrican and I agree on the bottom 4

not loving disintegration to me is weird. but putting head on the door tells me you like different things about the cure than I do (which is towering monoliths of gloom sound)

also how anyone can dislike homesick I don't know

xxxx-post:

Yeah, but look at the albums above it! There's a lot of tracks I love on Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, but there's also a lot of stuff that would have easily been chopped if they'd had to whittle it down to a single album.

I've never really been a big fan of 'Fight', for example.

not loving disintegration to me is weird. but putting head on the door tells me you like different things about the cure than I do (which is towering monoliths of gloom sound)

― akm, Thursday, May 19, 2016 6:39 PM

I like sex-crazed drug-addled pop Cure.

Yeah, akm, but I ranked Faith second and Pornography third, and we're talking about a less than paper thin difference between the rankings at the top end there.

also how anyone can dislike homesick I don't know

ditto

xx-post:

as opposed to... sex-crazed drug-addled gloom Cure?

you bet!

Ah, for me it's never really been a question of "happy Cure vs. gloom Cure" ... I think it's entirely possible to like both sides of what the band do, and I do. I just prefer the way they did the former on The Head on the Door to the way they did it on Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and the way they did the latter on Faith and Pornography to the way they did it on Disintegration.

There's a lot of tracks I love on Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, but there's also a lot of stuff that would have easily been chopped if they'd had to whittle it down to a single album.

I might let you cut some tracks off KMKMKM, but only if I get to replace them with "A Japanese Dream", "Breathe", and "To The Sky".

The Cure in Las Vegas tonight. it's getting closer, i could not be any more excited for Sunday Night.

I'm also bemused by the disproportionate focus on Disintegration in the band's catalogue.

Love a good ranking exercise:

Faith
The Top
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Wish
Japanese Whispers
Seventeen Seconds
Pornography
Disintegration
The Head on the Door
Three Imaginary Boys
Wild Mood Swings
The Cure
4:13 Dream
Bloodflowers

In terms of how often I play them -

Seventeen Seconds
The Head on the Door
Concert
The Top
Faith
Japanese Whispers
Disintegration
Pornography
Standing on a Beach
Three Imaginary Boys
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Bloodflowers
... the remainder, played once or twice each ...

Pornography
Faith
Disintegration
The Top
KM^3
Japanese Whispers
Wish
4:13 Dream
Seventeen Seconds
The Cure
The Head on the Door
Three Imaginary Boys
Bloodflowers
hi-def coprophagy videos
pounding nails through my fingertips
Wild Mood Swings

wow, 4:13 so high?

yup

punk Cure and gloom Cure >>>> pop Cure

pornography
the top
seventeen seconds
faith
the rest

pop Cure is great but I prefer it as frosting on a morose cupcake

i've always felt they hit their peak of well-frosted cupcakes on Hi-Def Coprophagy Videos

ew cupcakes

The Head on The Door
Japanese Whispers
The Top
Wish
Three Imaginary Boys
Seventeen Seconds
Faith
Seventeen Seconds
Disintegration

Seventeen Seconds
Head On The Door
Disintegration
Faith
KMKMKM
Japanese Whispers
Pornogrphy
The Top
Three Imaginary Boys
Wish
Never Heard anything recorded after Wish

No 'new' songs on this tour last night, but given what they've dug up so far who can complain?

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/2016/the-chelsea-las-vegas-nv-6bfebac2.html

killer #17-20

hopefully by the time they reach Washington State they've realized everything after 1989 is pointless and just play the good stuff (except Never Enough, they can play that).

Wish is not pointless!

You're right. Wish isn't bad. It is the album that made me give up on them though. The songs I liked best felt like intentional rewrites of Disintegration highlights.

When they played that secret gig in 91 and premiered 4 new songs, I really thought that album was gonna be the greatest thing ever. It's still pretty good but perhaps it could have been great had they not started second-guessing things during the recording sessions.

i haven't listened the s/t in years and am finally diving into a copy that includes "truth goodness and beauty" and "going nowhere." anyway wow "lost" is so wild, I kinda forgot

in preparation for the concernt, I decided to use my trial Tidal membership to listen to the Cure discography from beginning to end...

damn...following up Three Imaginary Boys with Seventeen Seconds is one of the great "step yo game up" moves in rock history jesus...it's kinda crazy how much they improved and focused what the band was about...like one minute they are petering out the end of an album with a half assed "Foxy Lady" cover then they are dropping shit like "A Forest"

I really love two albums which are not proper albums but absolutely wonderful as they condense what i love about the cure. "Mixed up", the remix album from 1990 which got very bad reviews at the time but which updated their sound and still holds today and is a terrific album for parties. The other one i love is "entreat" the live album from the disintegration period which i listened to before disintegration. And somehow i find the live versions more to the point, more touching than the studio versions. Of the proper albums faith and 17 seconds are my faves. I quite like wish - it hit me when it came out - and never understood the appeal of the top which actually was the 1st album i ever heard of the band and which turned me off them for quote some time.

I still maintain that Boys Don't Cry > Three Imaginary Boys

Disintegration
The Top
Wish
Faith
Pornography
Seventeen Seconds
Kiss Me
Head on the Door
Japanese Whispers
Three Imaginary Boys
Bloodflowers
The Cure
4:13 Dream
Wild Moon Swings

mooon swings. whatever.

yeah BDC is better than 3 Imaginary Boys.