The Cure: Classic or Dud?

NME's review of Kiss Me... for those interested.

i know there is a poll thread right now but this topic has been talked about here
https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-cure-new-album-songs-of-a-lost-world-interview-update-relentless-tour-3229589

“We will be releasing a new album,” Smith told NME. “I get fed up of saying this now! We will be playing from October and the new album will be out before then. We walked on [stage at the Ivors today] to a bit of new music, actually. Hopefully no one recorded it!”

At this point, Shakira interrupted the interview to shake hands with “her favourite band of all time”, before Gallup replied: “It is a surreal day”.

Back to ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Smith then confirmed that “it’s almost finished”.

“Reeves [Gabrels] our guitar player has come over from America for the day just to finish a couple of solos, I’ve got to finish a couple of vocals,” he revealed. “Essentially it’s a 12 track album. It’s there, it’s kind of half-mixed and half-finished. It’s a weird thing. It’s kind of evolved over the last two years. It hasn’t always been a good thing to have been left alone with it. You pick at it, like picking at seams, and everything falls apart.

Smith continued: “It’ll be worth the wait. I think it’s the best thing we’ve done, but then I would say that. I’m not doing an Oasis when I say that, ‘IT’S THE BEST FOOKIN’ ALBUM’. A lot of the songs are difficult to sing, and that’s why it’s taken me a while.”

Discussing the themes and character of the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream‘, Smith said that the album “doesn’t have very much light on it” and that it sounds “more like ‘Disintegration’ than ‘Head On The Door’.”

“It’s pretty relentless, which will appeal to the hardcore of our audience, but I don’t think we’ll be getting any Number One singles off it or anything like that!” he laughed. “It’s been quite harrowing, like it has for everyone else.

“I’ve been more privileged than most, but lockdown and COVID has affected me in as much as I’ve lost an entire generation of aunts and uncles in under a year. It’s things like that which have informed the way I’ve been with the record.”

As for the mysterious second record that they’ve been working on, Smith said Cure fans would likely have to wait a little longer to hear that.

“While there are a handful of really good songs, I’ve kind of fallen out of love with others so we’re going to have to record another four or five perhaps,” he said. “If it gets finished, it’s very upbeat. It’s the flip-side to the first one.

“I can’t wait to sing it, actually. I feel quite distraught singing the same songs over and over again.”

oh and there is this about the remastered version of Wish

“I’ve just finished doing the ‘Wish’ remaster, and there are so many of Simon’s demos that never got past the demo stage and remained instrumental – purely because I couldn’t think of any words for them. That’s really sad, because some of them were really great!

“They’re all coming out as instrumentals, and I think there are about 36 unreleased songs coming out on the package. That’s the same every time we do anything. There’s always loads of music, and a lot of it is Simon’s. I just run out of words!”

YES!

wkiw simon

how many years has it been 'almost done' for now

but at least they have a goal in releasing it before the tour

it’s kind of half-mixed and half-finished.

In Cure speak this means that it will be another decade or so before the project is formally abandoned.

uh huh

that’s wildly unfair

it’s nineteen years since the Trilogy DVD sleeve said that the Wish remaster would be out in a few months, and here Bob is, still faithfully promising that

I wonder if Simon's departure was related to writing credits on his Wish demos?

Perhaps management are going to force them to release the album ahead of the tour, threatening them with looking like fucking idiots at least

Management? Which management? I think at this point it’s basically RS and his nephew

it’s nineteen years since the Trilogy DVD sleeve said that the Wish remaster would be out in a few months, and here Bob is, still faithfully promising that

― Yul Brynner film festival on Channel 48... (sic), Friday, May 20, 2022 12:48 AM

big oof.

At this point, I hope it's 140 minutes of relentless kazoo, klezmer, and fart noises with Robert screaming "WHY ARE YOU FUCKING THAT DEAD CAT???????" over it

that was the original chorus and title of "Why Can't I Be You?"

as long as simon plays on it, i'm still interested.

I've waited hours days weeks months years decades for this...

"This Twilight Garden" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:45 (Originally the B-side of "High", 1992)
"Play" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:36 (Originally the extra B-side of "High", 1992)
"Halo" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 3:47 (Originally the B-side of "Friday I'm in Love", 1992)
"Scared as You" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:12 (Originally the extra B-side of "Friday I'm in Love" 12", 1992)
"The Big Hand" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 4:53 (Originally the B-side of "A Letter to Elise", 1992)
"A Foolish Arrangement" (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 3:51 (Originally the extra B-side of "A Letter to Elise" 12", 1992)
"Doing the Unstuck" [Saunders 12" Remix] (Bamonte, Gallup, Smith, Thompson, Williams) – 5:55 (Previously unreleased remix made in 1992, intended for a "Doing the Unstuck" single that never came to be, 1992)

"Doing the Unstuck" was supposed to be a single? I never knew that before, what I have learned on this board. I always felt they should have released "Open" as a single, as I think I would have worked the same way as "Fascination Street" did with the big guitar sound. My all-time favorite Cure song is on Wish and so looking forward to that reissue.

oh, I did know about "Doing the Unstuck" thing as it was told on Join the Dots, I had just forgot.

Lost Wishes EP

Four instrumental tracks taken from the 'Wish' sessions at the Manor Winter 1991. Released in 1994 as a limited edition cassette, through mail order only.

Side A
No. Title Length
12. "Uyea Sound" 5:21
13. "Cloudberry" 5:19
Side B
No. Title Length
14. "Off to Sleep..." 3:38
15. "The Three Sisters" 4:11

yeah Lost Wishes is excellent, I really hope we get a full fidelity version of that.

On April 13, 2018, in an interview with BBC Radio 6, Robert Smith confirmed that the deluxe edition of “Wish” is finished. A release date is yet to be announced.

The B sides won’t be on it, they’ve omitted everything on Join the Dots from all the previous reissues.

so ultimately they were great from the beginning and started going downhill after mixed up and most will agree they dominated the 80s!

I know that Wish is not considered a Cure classic album especially following the last record. I tend to disagree and think it's great, it has "Open," "High," "A Letter to Elise," "End" and the Cure's best song on it "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea." OH yeah "Friday I'm in Love" is remarkable too.

I know that Wish is not considered a Cure classic album

What? In what universe?

(He says, quite literally wearing a shirt from that tour.)

My favorite band of the 80s and probably all-time, so I'm a bit bias.

Reacting to xzanfar post, when he cut it at Mixed Up,

My favorite band of the 80s

I would have guessed New Order.

I could see that with my history of this board but The Cure own my heart.

The Cure and New Order in the early/mid 80s seemed very linked

I think it's clear the Cure and Joy Division influenced each other.

https://post-punk.com/when-joy-division-opened-for-the-cure/

i always considered the cure and depeche mode on par as dominating the 80s and they were label mates!

What? In what universe?

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, May 22, 2022 7:53 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

(He says, quite literally wearing a shirt from that tour.)

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, May 22, 2022

Seconding -- that lineup's most fully realized album.

I was an INTENSE Cure fan in the mid-late 80s, heard Wish once and knew I was done.

Wish is the last album anyone needs to hear from the Cure. All the big 80s bands should have quit in 92/93 (Depeche Mode, New Order, The Cure, PSB). Yes they have written good songs here and there since then, but nothing that changes their legacy has happened after 93.

Seconding -- that lineup's most fully realized album.

IMO Wish was a surprisingly strong effort from a band whose relevance was waning - but would suggest it is in fact the weakest of that line-up's LPs (if we are talking about the Smith-Gallup-Thompson-Williams core here) - HotD, KM3 and Disintegration all much more satisfying and consistent albums

All the big 80s bands should have quit in 92/93

I'm not that big a Depeche Mode fan, but Ultra still shows them in a growth arc.

Re: Wish -- maybe it's because it was the first Cure record I every listened to (aged 13-14), but IMO it's start-to-finish fantastic, and I'm never quite sure why it's had a slightly feeble reputation with the fans. I agree it's their last fully interesting album -- although tbh Faith, Boys Don't Cry and Disintegration are the only ones I've ever been able to listen to all the way through.

(I guess Boys Don't Cry isn't a proper album but I never realised that at the time...)

but would suggest it is in fact the weakest of that line-up's LPs (if we are talking about the Smith-Gallup-Thompson-Williams core here)

hey, Disintegration's there waiting to be denounced.

I'm not entirely sure a 92/93 cut-off works for PSB. Significantly more great stuff than actively bad stuff for maybe a decade beyond their commercial imperial phase.

You'll have to prise Nightlife from my cold, dead hands, etc, etc

Wish is their New Jersey, clearly

Elysium seems like their only entirely neglible EP. I haven't heard Hotspot

The Top is such a great album. I listen to it more often than Seventeen Seconds or Faith. I think it's a better album than Seventeen Seconds, which feels increasingly thin to me.

the only thing the top has over seventeen seconds is THE MIGHTY BANANA SONG.

my challops re:the top is that i prefer it over pornography and always have.

You can make a credible argument that any Cure album in the run from Seventeen Seconds through Disintegration is their best album

(It’s really Pornography, though)