"4:13 Dream" by the Cure

Ha, "Sirensong" and "Switch" were the first two songs I really liked on my initial listen (hadn't made it to "The Scream" or "It's Over")

re: that tribute album, I would really, really, REALLY like to see someone do a covers album where every song was from WMS or later.

JESU "THE FUNERAL PARTY"

!

listening to this now via the myspace page. this is worth the price of the album alone. jesu(s) fucking christ, this is gorgeous.

Yeah, supposedly I'm getting a copy of that shortly. And I agree with Dan!

I think I'm alone in loving Bat for Lahses, but I really really dig her cover of A Forest

"Underneath the Stars" (duh!), "Scream", and "Hungry Ghost" off this are definitely my frontrunners off this so far. But listening to that JESU cover of "Funeral Party" makes me realized I would love to hear them make something new that is along the minimalistic lines of that. Could be an interesting turn.

About that putative double-album plan:

I mean, you'd expect the Cure - a band with past double opus form, thanks to 1987's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - to be able to release a double album, right? Er, sadly not. Their new album 4:13 Dream is the "light" first half of a double collection, with the second "dark" half to be released separately in 2009.

Robert Smith recently told me the rather shocking factors behind the release strategy. Basically, Geffen were only prepared to pay them royalties equivalent to a single album, even if the album was priced as a double. In effect the label were penalising the band for wanting to give their fans more music for less. Smith insisted he didn't care about making any more money but the principle was paramount; he was furious at the idea of a major label conning him out of making the record he wanted. So he held back the second half of the album for six months and one day later, the earliest moment that his contract permitted. The concept would be intact, it would just be up to the fan to Sellotape the two "episodes" together.

Because songs like "The Scream" and "It's Over" are so light!

So the title will be 11:15 Nightmare or something.

Seriously excited for that other half!

Interesting! i don't really understand the last 3 sentences though

So it's gonna get even DARKER? Great news! I dunno, overall this album seems to have a lot of anger/frustration/exasperation in it, to me, though I do need to give it some more plays all the way through.

in all honesty, i probably didn't enjoy this quite as much as i'd hoped -- largely because "underneath the stars" stopped me dead in my tracks and nothing else quite lived up to that. what is it about the cure and opening tracks? honestly, my adoration of "plainsong" has probably fucked my enjoyment of the rest of "disintegration" for ever.

that said: there's something enveloping and enticing about this album that was sorely missing from the last one. i think that when i listen again, without thinking O JOY ALL THE SONGS MIGHT SOUND LIKE THIS FIRST ONE, i might warm to it more.

Yeah, some songs are growers. The first-time-through standouts that I hadn't heard previously were "Sirensong" and "The Scream." "Underneath the Stars" does pretty much set a high bar, though -- that's what they opened with at the Hollywood Bowl.

i'm over this album already. my attention span is freakishly small these days. i'm also trying to finish my own album right now and having a hard time dealing with anything else, so that might play a part of it; buy my initial excitement wore off very quickly, partly because I find the album so fatiguing to listen to.

I'm so sad. I picked up a physical copy of this today to go along with the iTunes version I bought last week.

I gotta say I'm with akm at this point. Despite my intital enthusiasm, I too find it fatiguing to listen to, and I find I can't even get through "It's Over" without wanting to turn it off already. There are a couple of pretty good tracks here, but the rest doesn't leave any real impression and I just get tired of the overall ANGST I get from it. It's like I just wish he'd chill out a bit with the mood. I don't know, maybe some of that is to do with the compression or the way his vocals are recorded, but even from a pure songwriting sense, I don't think there's much to latch onto here.

I think I said this elsewhere but I've basically listened to nothing but this album since I bought it.

I've been thinking a lot about their 1997+ output and I seriously believe they've released a string of flat-out brilliant songs that have had the misfortune of being spread out across multiple albums/b-sides. That list would include:

Jupiter Crash
Treasure
It Used To Be Me
Home
Out Of This World
The Loudest Sound
Lost
Labyrinth
Anniversary
Going Nowhere
Underneath The Stars
The Scream
It's Over
The Only One
All Kinds Of Stuff

I put together a two CD collection of B-sides/one-offs/etc. from 2000 to now that's essentially a continuation of Join the Dots -- I'll dig up the tracklisting here when I'm home...

um help, I srsly can't stop listening to this

I thought the Portishead album was going to beat this for me this year but apparently I'd forgotten exactly how much uncritical lizard-brain affection I have for The Cure

Actually, wouldn't that make a great tour, the two of them together.

+ Santogold

I need to get back to this album. As a lot of posters here it seems, I love the songs, especially RS's vocals on this (which for me had been the weak point of the last releases) bu the compression is really preventing me from playing it on repeat

Two weeks on, I must have played 'Hungry Ghost' 50 times already. For some reason that song really sticks out for me

That song's been coming to mind a lot too, especially the chorus. I don't suppose there'll be another single from this but it would be an interesting choice.

Not a big fan of this album a few spins later. I think the self-titled record may be better, actually.

I think this album is a lot better than The Cure, and I'm on of the few people around here who still likes that album.

btw "The Real Snow White" and "The Hungry Ghost" grew on me massively over the weekend

oh hey I just read [nabisco]'s review; obv I disagree with the score and the conclusions drawn but it's a great write-up

"I think this album is a lot better than The Cure, and I'm on of the few people around here who still likes that album"

I am the other one who thinks this album is quite good. Obviously, we are right and the rest of the world is ridicolously wrong. : )

Yay us! ("The Hungry Ghost" is rapidly turning into a massive favorite, that's an astonishing chorus.)

saddened by absence of "Watching Me Fall" from Dan's mixtape (for reasons of space?), altho I haven't rly listened to Bloodflowers much save for that song

maybe tonight is the night I give it a full appraisal

"Watching Me Fall" is a great song but it's WAAAAAAAAY too pompous. I like it a lot but the other Bloodflowers songs I listed are much better IMO.

well I'm a sad-sack pomposity-junkie who thinks "The Promise" is the best song they've done since "End", new album notwithstanding

and yeah I'm gonna give Bloodflowers a proper listen, let's do this

Have you heard "This Morning"?

nope, haven't. is it a soundtrack number/single?

ah it's a The End Of The World b-side, and a promising 7 minutes long! ;-)

It's really, really, really, really great; probably the best description of it would be a weird hybrid of "It Used To Be Me" and "Fear Of Ghosts".

btw it should have been on my list upthread, I have no idea why I left it off

Robert: still peeved at UMG:

APOLOGIES TO THOSE THOUSANDS WHO BOUGHT 4:13 DREAM ON ITUNES AND DIDNT GET ANY ARTWORK OR BOOKLET

NEEDLESS TO SAY

IT WASNT INTENTIONAL

NOR WAS IT OUR FAULT

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET IT FIXED...

BUT...

ITS MERELY DRIVEN ME TO ANOTHER EXPOSE OF THE KAFKAESQUE WORLD THE MIGHTY U MOVE IN...

AN EXAMPLE OF THE CORRESPONDENCE SO FAR?

>

TO:

<INSERT NAME HERE OF MAN HIGH UP THE MIGHTY U FOODCHAIN>

DO UMG HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST US?

PLEASE TELL ME!

AS I AM FINDING IT MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO RECONCILE THE DIFFICULTIES WE FACE IN OUR DEALINGS WITH THE COMPANY

"Due to an internal miscommunication the “iTunes” version which has a different UPC was not scheduled which is why the booklet did not get delivered."

WHAT KIND OF "INTERNAL MISCOMMUNICATION"?

THE SAME KIND THAT HAD "HYPNAGOGIC STATES EP" UP ON ITUNES WITH THE WRONG TRACKLISTING AND SELLING @ £4 MORE THAN WE AGREED?

WHY DOES NO-ONE EVER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THESE "MISTAKES"?

AND DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS

"With regards those who have already purchased the album, unfortunately they will not be able to receive it but anyone who purchases from 10th will get the booklet – there will be 2 versions available, with and without the booklet"

IS A FAIR RESPONSE?

IN NO WAY INSULTING TO THE THOUSANDS OF CURE FANS WHO HAVE BOUGHT OUR ALBUM ON ITUNES?

WE NEED TO MAKE THE BOOKLET AVAILABLE NOW TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BOUGHT OR WILL BUY THE ALBUM BEFORE NOVEMBER 10TH - PLEASE CONFIRM THIS WILL BE DONE

(AND WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE WANT 2 VERSIONS AVAILABLE? WHY WOULD WE WANT A VERSION WITHOUT A BOOKLET? IF WE DID WHY WOULD WE BE SENDING ANY OF THESE EMAILS?!!)

DO UMG HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST US?

PLEASE JUST TELL ME...

THANKS

RS

why doesn't he just put a pdf on the cure website or something?

Okay, fair points all, but it might help things out if Bob could write like a normal human being and not like a 5-year-old that just learned how to use e-mail.

I'm pretty surprised you put The Only One on that list, Dan. Along with Sirensong, it's the only track that I often skip on the new one.

I really adore that song. I love the guitar tone, I love the breezy tempo, I love the turns the chord progression takes in the chorus and I love oh I love oh I love how he structures the verse with innocent images and dirty words; I love all the repetition, it makes me smile.

I got a nice e-mail from Apple yesterday telling me my booklet was now available for download. Really, they shouldn't have bothered. Because it's not a very good booklet. Hey ho.

and yeah I'm gonna give Bloodflowers a proper listen, let's do this

I went back and listened to it again for the first time in years. And you know what? It's gorgeous. So much so that, umm, it's slightly overshadowed 4:13 Dream for me.

I'm sorry to say this, but Bloodflowers is a hundred times better than 4:13 Dream could ever hope to be.

YouTube commenters are really laying into Jason the drummer.

I'm sorry to say this, but Bloodflowers is a hundred times better than 4:13 Dream could ever hope to be.

OTM, but it might be more because of that tour than anything else for me.
4:13 is much better than their last album but hardly in the mood to play it despite being a huge Cure head. i think i need to wait until becomes colder but being in Southern California, that might be awhile.

The highlight of the three shows I caught on the 2008 tour, for me, was finally seeing them do Out of This World, Maybe Someday and Bloodflowers in Houston. Much, much better than any of the new songs, and they stand nicely against the back catalog material as well. Three totally classic songs!

Okay so there's TWO new Cure tribute albums out, the one mentioned above with Bats for Lashes that I need to get around to and then there's this one:

http://www.alr-music.com/curetribute/mediapage.php

Mix and a match so far but the Dean and Britta take on "Friday I'm in Love" is great.