The Cure: Classic or Dud?

What's really kind of funny about that (in a dark way) is that Wish contains a rather large number of references to heroin use.

I never saw PSB as part of that collection of 80's bands. Nor did they, really - if you read their book 'Literally' you'll discover that they were really surprised to be lumped in with "rad" bands like OMD and U2 when they came to States and instead considered themselves more in the lineage of club music and Madonna. Perhaps they faded out of the alternative music view over time but for the global gay community they remained urgent and they still managed to craft a great contemporary dance pop track ever few years or so.

In comparison, U2 and the Cure have basically been inert since the mid 90s, totally comfortable being touring businesses.

The era surrounding Bilingual was probably the first time I can really remember reading anything negative about the Pet Shop Boys. Of course, it wasn't the end: they've given us Fundamental and Electric and Bilingual itself is actually a great record. At the time, though, they'd been releasing records for over 10 years, so did feel like a veteran band.

The Cure's new single is called Lady Gaga? Wossthatallabout?

Haha!

http://thequietus.com/articles/22262-the-cure-kiss-me-kiss-me-kiss-me-review-anniversary

"Ned Raggett slips back 30 years in time to reassess the double album The Cure released when they were first making footholds in America."

Ah, I enjoyed reading that. Although, if I had to rank The Cure's '80s releases, I'd probably put Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me at the bottom, although I'd have to point out that their '80s run is ludicrously strong from top to bottom.

My favorite. It has everything I love about them. The long slow burning songs, the aggressive dark ones, the quirky pop hits, and the experimental weird stuff. Best b-sides era too.

I love that bright orange KIss Me b-sides 12" so much, more than the album really

Well I mean I forgot the album has Just Like Heaven, which is probably one of the ten best pop songs ever written by anyone

My favorite. It has everything I love about them. The long slow burning songs, the aggressive dark ones, the quirky pop hits, and the experimental weird stuff. Best b-sides era too.

My feelings exactly.

I think the first half of the album is mostly strong and full of highlights, but that stretch of songs from 'One More Time' up to 'Fight' is the least essential batch of '80s Curesongs. I reckon it would have been vastly improved by including some of the B-sides and trimming it down a bit.

One More Time, Like Cockatoos & The Perfect Girl are among my favs from this LP. We have wildly differing opinions on that stretch of songs.

I like 'The Perfect Girl' ... that'd definitely make the LP if I was doing some trim-it-down-to-a-single-LP exercise, the other two I'd probably relegate to B-sides. The problem I have with 'One More Time' is that I think that they did the same type of song better on 'The Funeral Party' ...

I'm more eager to ditch Torture, Fight, Shiver and Shake, The Kiss, and The Snakepit. I'm just not that angry and sad anymore. I used to enjoy wallowing in that misery, but I can't relate anymore.

My essential list from KM^3 would include The Kiss, Catch, How Beautiful You Are..., The Snakepit, Just Like Heaven, All I Want, One More Time, Like Cockatoos, The Perfect Girl, and Fight. As a unit, side 3 is my favorite part of the album.

aw cmon the guitar on the Snakepit is A+++ xp

all i can remember of Snakepit is 'writhing, writhing, writhing in the snakepit'. Maybe i'll actually listen to it again. It's been a very long time since i've actually heard it.

and my eyes feel like they're bursting and they're splitting like plums

^^^ that line alone makes the song indispensible

'Torture' has lyrics which come across as gloomy when read cold off paper, but the music basically ensures that I'll never be able to take 'em seriously. "It's torture/and I'm almost there" with those synth horn stabs etc. Also, "hanging like this/like a vampire bat" I think is a fucking hilarious lyric in the sense that it sounds like an Automated Random Goth Lyric Generator(tm) came up with it.

'The Snakepit' used to bore the shit out of me and I could never understand why, because there's many Curesongs that do what 'The Snakepit' does: a two chord groove that doesn't seem to go anywhere in a hurry. It grew on me eventually, but when I heard it for the first time it gave me the impression that the band weren't even trying.

1. The Kiss
2. Torture
3. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
4. Why Can't I Be You?
5. How Beautiful You Are
6. Just Like Heaven
7. All I Want
8. Hot Hot Hot!!!
9. The Perfect Girl
10. The Snakepit

^ My 10 track Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me right there.

10 track KMKMKM - in order they appear on the album

1. Catch
2. How Beautiful You Are
3. Just Like Heaven
4. All I Want
5. One More Time
6. Like Cockatoos
7. The Perfect Girl

Hmm, that's only 7, so toss in:

8. If Only Tonight We Can Sleep
9. Why Can't I Be You
10. Hot Hot Hot

I'm glad we are all agreeing that side 3 is fire

These days "Icing Sugar" is the song I'm most likely to put on from that album. So kickass

'Icing Sugar' is one of those tracks that I can remember the music for with the click of a finger, but I can never remember the top line on it. It's a great piece of rhythm section work, kinda their version of a Duran Duran middle 8 circa 1982 or something. It sounds unfinished, though, like there should be more to it.

Thanks for the kind words! Fun to write this.

Great article! It's probably my favorite album of theirs for nostalgic reasons, I think I was 14 when it came out and evidently needed "an album to drown in" as you say. Side 3 is great, Like Cockatoos punches all naysayers straight in the chops.

can never understand why How Beautiful.. wasn't a single. the Bob Clearmountain remix on the box set is a bloody marvel. supposedly Chris Parry wanted him to (re)mix the entire album? i'd like to have heard that.

I love Clearmountain's work on Roxy Music's Avalon. I think his remix of Free's 'All Right Now' is great. I loathe that 'How Beautiful You Are' mix, though.

'A Chain of Flowers' — quite possibly my overall favorite Cure song.

'Icing Sugar' is one of those tracks that I can remember the music for with the click of a finger, but I can never remember the top line on it. It's a great piece of rhythm section work, kinda their version of a Duran Duran middle 8 circa 1982 or something. It sounds unfinished, though, like there should be more to it.

I get what you're saying but I feel the opposite. I love the long instrumental and the short vocals in that song. I think it fits perfectly with the theme of the lyrics. It's an unusual melody that Robert sings incredibly, and he tells the whole story with just a few lines. Even the drum-less version from the orange vinyl was very cool.

a marvelous read, Ned. You had fun writing it.

Darn right!

If I could switch any album tracks with B-sides, I would replace "One More Time" with "Breathe" and "Shiver and Shake" with "A Japanese Dream". I'd also try to squeeze "To The Sky" somewhere on the album.

That Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is leagues ahead of Wild Mood Swings shouldn't even need to be said, but Wild Mood Swings is definitely another Cure album that would have benefited from having some of the lesser tracks swapped out and replaced with B-sides and trimmed down.

I latched onto the Cure with Standing On a Beach (note the indefinite article!) and played it along with the B-sides to death, then dove into the albums in pretty much reverse order. My first new release as a fan was KMKMKM and I remember feeling I had missed the peak and they would be diluted from here on, which I still feel really. Disintegration is excellent but feels a little calculated, and Wish snapped the thread of my fandom - I never bought it and have never regretted that; I did enjoy the Trilogy DVD though. The Cure are basically three modes for me - feral pop (3IB, THOtD, The Top etc.), focused angst (the early trilogy and Disintegration) and fan service (Wish onwards). I know, get off my lawn etc.

guys i found the best site ever http://cureforall.eklablog.com/audio-c24555404

That'll keep ya busy.

Neat.

still super-duper looking fwd to my contributor copy of that live compilation put together here!

Wait you NEVER got that?

Slicing Up Eyeballs is doing a Cure poll at the moment: http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/04/24/vote-for-your-favorite-cure-songs/

It will be interesting to see how the results compare to the one done on this board a couple years ago.

The very first time I listened to "The Kiss," I shut it off after the first few seconds thinking the tape was warped. I went back to the record store, told them I had a defective cassette, and they exchanged it for another copy. I popped in my new copy of the album and realized it was supposed to sound that way.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is my go-to suggestion whenever anybody asks what they should listen to as an introduction to the Cure. I feel like out of all their albums, it's the only one which really tried to show off the full range of what they were capable of doing. Well, Wild Mood Swings tried it too (and I actually like WMS), but Kiss Me did it better.

Hmm. I'm not convinced it does show off the full range of what The Cure do, but then I'm not sure any Cure album does.

Just like Disintegration is Faith for stadiums, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me just builds on the template set by The Top and particularly The Head on the Door, but twice as long and with filler.

I designed the cover for that ILM live comp and also never got one!

me neither!

Huh. Okay you three (counting (sic)), contact me -- ned at kuci dot org -- and I'll arrange something.

Hi folks,

An Amazon mix up means I now have two copies of the Pornography and The Top deluxe editions.

I'm happy to send them to the first EU Ilxor who PMs me. This site allows private messages, right?

Sorry non-Europeans, but shipping elsewhere becomes difficult.