The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys Don't Cry Poll

was it an artistic choice or did the kids consider putting singles on the albums to be the record companies double-dipping and it pissed them off?

I don't know for sure but I'm pretty certain it was standard label policy from the standpoint that the barrier to the end consumer, particularly young, hip consumers who may not be flush with cash, is much lower with a string of singles than it would be for an entire album, so the idea is to get the audience hooked on the cheap stuff so that the save up for the more expensive product down the line.

yeah it's not "leaving singles off albums," it's "recording singles and releasing them." The majority of genres and musicians that make song-shaped recordings have always done this, rather than being purely album-focused!

In the Cure's case, Robert does seem to have been especially conscious of not "double-dipping" in fans' wallets: it took until Disintegration before he released a bunch of singles off the one album in the same form (Close To Me was re-recorded, Hot Hot Hot was remixed), and he made a condition of the rip-off Greatest Hits album that a) there be a whole bonus disc of new recordings and b) that both the new songs be released as singles so nobody had to buy the album to get them.

(then got fucked over on the second point)

And even with the Disintegration singles, the single versions of "Lullaby" and "Pictures of You" are distinct from the album versions

We definitely treasured the cassette version of Standing on a Beach as great value for money, although the jags at the record store charged a couple extra bucks for it.

Lately Robert has been conscientiously protecting fans' pocketbooks by holding off on releasing 4:14 Scream for 13 years, the Wish remaster for fifteen, and several new and old concert DVDs forever.

an upcoming box set shaped like an accordion will have all of those things in it

ha yep wasn’t a new album almost finished like 3 years ago

I haven’t been hugely thrilled by the newer songs that have had a run live though

would actually really love if RS recorded more solo stuff in the vein of Small Hours or Pirate Ships (but originals)

Ah you missed that "I always give good advice to myself" song...

only two!

the other half of 4:13 Dream was abandoned in 2008 to put out a single album

he then wrote lyrics and finished recording it as 4:14 Scream in 2014, and for good measure announced a bonus vaporware album of his original 2008 "instrumentals with words" concept as a remixed 4:26 Dream double-CD

in 2019 he announced they'd recorded 19 (all 10-12-minute-long) songs, then that they had to re-record a few of them but the album would be out that year.

ILM voting for ”Jumping Someone Else's Train" over the greatest pop song of all time is so on-brand.

yeah, and it only got two votes!

Boys Don’t Cry is the only Cure album I’ve felt the need to own other than Staring at the Sea.

It got me through a cold dark Minnesota January in 1992 in my freshman year of college.

i went through and tracked down all the statements robert's made about the new album over the last two years, here's a summary

march 2019: they have been in the studio working on their first new material in a decade and they're hoping to release a new album from it in 2019. they recorded 19 songs that are generally about 10-12 minutes long and he wants to take 6 to 8 of them to make a single album out of, but some of the other band members want to release everything as a triple album. they were hoping to finish the album before they tour in the summer

july 2019: the new album is mostly recorded but they're going back into the studio in august to re-record a few songs between tour dates

october 2019: three new albums are planned: one is almost done and tentatively titled 'live from the moon' with a november or december release planned, there's a second album that's 'freer', and a third that's a noise/ambient album. he mentions that they keep having new song ideas and recording new demos & he still wants to re-record and re-work some of the songs for 'live from the moon' (no wonder it didn't come out then really)

february 2020: he clarified that the noise album is a solo album, and reiterated that there are another two cure albums in the works, with recording on the first one nearly done and then they're going to mix it, but he refused to commit to a 2020 release for it and said that until it's done 'no one will believe him'

september 2020: quarantine has given him time to finish working on both the cure album & his solo album at last since there haven't been distractions (no mention of a second cure album here)

so a release this year for 'live from the moon' or his solo noise thing seems like it could be possible but whatever the second album they were planning from all that material has no doubt fallen by the wayside, probably to try and focus on just finishing 'live from the moon' at last

i guess "there will definitely be new cure material soon" is the 21st century version of "the band is definitely 100% breaking up after this tour"

Ah you missed that "I always give good advice to myself" song...

hm yes don't think i need an album's worth of that - somehow when RS fires up the electronics at home it ends up feeling claustrophobic rather than intimate? cf that mixed-up "sequel"

if he didn't hate "virtual" albums, he'd probably find himself very happy churning out four to six Bandcamp collections a year of shredding or textures or whispered demos.

i see i voted for "Three Imaginary Boys" in this poll and don't regret that vote at all. if this poll was new today and i had to pick then i would probably vote for "Boys Don't Cry" as i think this song is getting better through the years.

more iconic would be the word.

amidst youtube scans today i bumped into a 1980 cure video and was totally floored at normie conventional looking robert smith. and i had a duped cassette of three imaginary boys in like late 82, so it's not like i shouldn't have had some level awareness of his arc.

ha this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dOANVRy5Vk

they looked so great during 17 secs era

was stoked to find a relatively affordable copy of this recently as I absolutely love that pic on the cover

(it also has the weird extended mix of Primary which is just like Primary but the instrumental bits go on forever - it’s actually kind of cool in that it feels a bit like time is dilating while you listen to it)

also my poll vote would have gone to “another day”, which is might be the exact point the cure find Their Sound? ok its probably not as tidy as that but it definitely feels like it points towards what’s to come

also my poll vote would have gone to “another day”, which is might be the exact point the cure find Their Sound? ok its probably not as tidy as that but it definitely feels like it points towards what’s to come

iirc I was one of the votes for it, it's so good

Yeah, really one of their most overlooked ones. Completely encapsulates teenage boredom.

yeah, that song could have easily been on Seventeen Seconds.

that Robert Plant cover is amaZING, thanks for posting MatthewK!

and Jimmy Page too, the person playing guitar i thought might have been Porl.