The Cure: Classic or Dud?

Did Robert make the little cat paw gestures during "Lovecats"? I love when he does that

yes he did. the song was a lot of fun.

sorry to hear about this brontosaur, i had a very difference experience Sunday Night. everyone was so happy and friendly in my cheap seats. i thought it was one of the best large crowds i have seen. most of them were also drunk, lol.

One Hundred Years from Sunday Night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWn2QKfM0UI

how great is this song? i think it is, brand new Cure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_HzXtAEzF4

Wow, sounds really good!

And Rob looking in good health, too! Like he's maybe dropped some weight.

He slimmed down a couple of years back -- was looking extremely good on the Reflections tour and I think has generally maintained that since.

I will never tire of Simon's Prancercize moves as he plays

I've noticed a lot fewer phones out during club or theatre shows, smaller things, but it's as bad as ever in arenas and larger venues, to the extent that bands like Coldplay or Taylor Swift encourage people to wave them around, which looks pretty cool, actually, and saves them some light show budget. But yeah, watching a show with your own eyes but also through several screens capturing the exact same thing you're watching, but smaller, is really distracting, and it's a lot of effort - probably impossible - to train your gaze to ignore them.

Brontosaur, you nail exactly why I avoid 'big' shows, and I absolutely relate to your inability to just relax and try to ignore these things. I saw Neil Young a year or so ago and it couldn't have been less, err, magical, for all the reasons you describe. I can't think of a single living artist I'd pay more than $25 to see in a venue this size, and it has everything to do with the behavior of (modern) crowds. A music festival in 2016 is kind of my idea of a living hell.

one of the reasons why I'm skipping radiohead's SF stop this year at outside lands. this album really doesn't lend itself to a festival setting and the crowds are awful. I'm still seeing the cure tonight though.

Festivals are way better than stadium / arena shows, because: the crowds at any one stage are more likely to be club or theatre sized; people are most likely there to have fun, not eat in a seat, talk to their friends, and get to a car park to drive away afterwards; and there's enough room to just move away from any dickheads who are talking, aggro, or on more drugs than they can handle.

(They're not a good way to see just one band that you're really interested in, though.)

new song is excellent

Festivals are way better than stadium / arena shows,

this is the biggest crock of shit ever posted

Ain't that the goddamn truth.

I found myself wondering what Robert Smith's lounge looks like, today.

I've not really spent much time pondering pop stars lounges (aside from I once thought "I bet David Sylvian has a nice lounge").

With apologies once again for perhaps being lazy, but... A question:

Which of the Cure remasters are really worth getting in the deluxe 2CD edition?

I'm about to order a bunch of these to replace my LPs. Most of the single CD remasters are very cheap, and I reckon in most cases the album on its own will suffice. I'm not really interested in demos of songs on the album, for example (I think).

Are any of the 2nd discs really essential? Thanks for your help - I've been listening to lots of Cure lately because of this thread.

I should say in my defence that Amazon Germany doesn't give details of the second disc!

If you're interested in the "deluxe edition" type stuff in the first place, they're all worth getting eventually.

The Top

Xpost - I imagine I'm not. I don't really need demos or live versions of songs on the album. But I'd be interested in outtakes.

I suspect The Cure will never play a significant role in my life anymore. I've sort of "moved on" (for want of better phrase). But now and again I love to revisit them. They mean(t) an awful lot to me. So maybe the core albums are enough.

Thanks. I'll check out The Top's extras. One of my favourites.

No album has ever been improved by a "deluxe" version.

I agree. I've many bonus discs that I never listen to. There's a collector's urge to get them, tho

There's very few albums I prefer with all the bonus stuff but Chapterhouse's Whirlpool is even better with all the extras I think.

Doesn't The Glove deluxe edition have Robert Smith vocal versions of all tracks? I'm getting it for that stuff.
Getting Faith for Carnage Visors and Charlotte Sometimes. Pornography for Airlock. I think most of them have some songs you can't get easily on disc.

I remember Carnage Visors on cassette. Do I need it?? (Question to self!)

Robert's vocal versions on the Glove are recent recordings.

Airlock is very pointless and not good.

How recent? That's odd.

i thought they were the demos, no recent recordings.

It's new vocals over the regular album's instrumental tracks.

(Since the original album didn't have Robert vocals throughout only because of contractual restrictions, they made fake "RS demos" for the re-release.)

duh, it's 00s robert singing over the instrumental demos

or maybe that, it's been a decade

in a pinch, I'd skip the 2-disc deluxe editions and make sure I got Join the Dots, the b-side collection... it has tons of great, essential tracks.

^^^Top advice.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a Cure diehard and didn't even question getting the deluxe editions on release day — and I actually think there's a handful of otherwise essential tracks among those bonus discs. But, really, it's not like your life will be incomplete as a Cure fan if you skip them.

Why haven't the Cure released a collection of their actual 12" versions? I was really disappointed in the deluxe versions actually. The demos are ok to hear the first time, but I would have preferred a live show from the album tour or the actual 12" mixes from the singles. Like Primary, for example. I think lots of those 12" mixes have never been released on CD.

Yeah, considering they've done a box set and deluxe editions for half of the catalogue, the availability of their back catalogue is still fairly incomplete.

I mean, even the remaster campaign has been totally inconsistent. They skipped over Concert entirely, but gave Entreat a complete remodeling.

"Airlock" is not worth it, but "Carnage Visors" totally is.

I never, ever, ever listen to 'live' tracks on these things. It's not like The Cure are the Grateful Dead or something where the live versions reveal something that the good-sounding album tracks don't. I remember having this argument with a friend who's collecting all the recent Stones live things. I don't get that at all.

I bought these deluxe reissues, but can't say I plan to listen to any of these bonus discs more than once. Still, they were awfully cheap, so, you know, what the hell.

So, here's a shortlist of tracks from the bonus discs that I would consider a highlight reel for the deluxe editions:

Winter (Three Imaginary Boys)
10.15 Saturday Night {Robert Smith Home Demo} (Three Imaginary Boys)
Boys Don't Cry (Three Imaginary Boys)
Jumping Someone Else's Train (Three Imaginary Boys)
Carnage Visors (Faith) <technically not on the bonus disc, but you need to buy the deluxe edition to get it>
Primary <first studio demo> (Faith)
Going Home Time (Faith)
Charlotte Sometimes (Faith)
Demise (Pornography)
Temptation Two (Pornography)
And All Around Us the Mermaids Sang (Blue Sunshine)
Ariel (The Top)
Sadacic (The Top)
A Few Hours After This <Demo> (The Head on the Door)
Why Can't I Be You? <Live> (Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me)
Delirious Night (Disintegration)
Pirate Ships (Disintegration)

Great Bay Area show tonight! Tired as hell but worth it.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/2016/shoreline-amphitheatre-mountain-view-ca-13fe8985.html

Yes that was incredible.

Why haven't the Cure released a collection of their actual 12" versions?

That "Mixed up" was going to be exactly this, then they listened to them and decided they didn't like them for the most part.

It's not like The Cure are the Grateful Dead or something where the live versions reveal something that the good-sounding album tracks don't.

eeehhhh, sometimes they do! but the live versions on the deluxe albums are usually fairly crappy versions off cassettes iirc

That "Mixed up" was going to be exactly this, then they listened to them and decided they didn't like them for the most part

Out of eleven tracks, there were only three properly "new" mixes on the Mixed Up album, counting the Close To Me remix released as a single a couple of months earlier. (There were more newly-made mixes on the various B-sides of the time, including the best one of all, David Harrow's Red mix of Primary.) Two songs were straight-out re-recorded because the master tapes had been lost.

Yes, but how many old mixes just did not get included?

Weeeell, it was never announced as a categoric collection of all their remixes ever. I agree it's a bummer that the deluxes didn't find room for more actually-released archive material, but it's a bigger shame that Robert's busted ears botched so much of the remastering.

No, it wasn't. But I believe that was the spark of the idea.

Funnily enough, it's the one I played most back in the (series of) days.

to try and nail this down (I have a CD-R of most of these somewhere that I wish i could cross-reference now), 12" versions not used on Mixed Up:

- Primary (Extended) [1981 - new mix on a Mixed Up b-side, but I think it's actually another new recording due to missing masters, so this one might not count]

- Let's Go to Bed (Extended Mix) [1982 - new mix on a Mixed Up b-side]
- Just One Kiss (Extended Mix) [b-side of the LGTB 12"]

- The Love Cats (Extended Version) [a whopping 4:37 in 1983]

- In Between Days (Extended Version) [1985 - new mix on a Mixed Up b-side]

- Close To Me (Extended Remix) [1985 - new 7" and 12" mixes done for a pre-Mixed Up single]

- Hey You!!! (Extended Remix) [a whopping 4:06 on the b-side of Hot Hot Hot in 1987. this is a good one though!]

...and just in case you poke the goalposts again on the grounds that that there were 7" remixes too:

Close To Me (Remix) [already on Standing On A Beach, new 7" and 12" mixes done for a pre-Mixed Up single]
Just Like Heaven [7" remix not included, new mix on a Mixed Up b-side, 7" now on Galore]
Hot Hot Hot!!! [7" remix not included, but the 12" remix was; 7" now on Galore]
Lullaby [7" remix not included, but the 12" remix was; 7" now on Galore]
Fascination Street [7" remix not included, but the 12" remix was; 7" now on Galore
Lovesong [7" remix not included, but the 12" remix was; 7" now on Galore]

and Boys Don't Cry (New Voice · Club Mix) was still in print in 1990. Neither the New Mix nor the Club Mix have been included on any audio-only compilation since, AFAIK.

^ memory and checking against wikipedia and discogs, further pedantry welcome

That's brill.

"Never Enough" had a few versions, didn't it?