"4:13 Dream" by the Cure

it seems See Tickets still has them - just realized the show was on a Tuesday - no way I can make it to London on a weekday, bummer. I wonder whether they'll add a couple of extra nights at the RAH.

Correction: it is sold out. It says so on the tickets page.

But that's fine with me, as I've just saved myself £100 for a ticket, plus around €90 for the Eurostar to London, plus God knows how much for a hotel room.

And while we all wait on these next shows, another Robert guest appearance, this time with 65Daysofstatic:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/12599-come-to-me-ft-robert-smith/

I hadn't heard "Vapour Trail" by Ride in a really really REALLY long time and I suspect neither had anyone else, otherwise wouldn't someone have mentioned how much of it was lifted for "The Holy Ghost"?

I think I did, or at least I thought about it.

ah yes now you mention it - can hear it in the intro

Newly on the Twitters:

https://twitter.com/thecure

that is the worst fucking picture

a twitter page without tweets. that is utter genius.

I actually think there's some decent songs on this album, but I don't think they're done any favours by the way the album sounds.

Most of the album is great; it only really sags with "Sirensong" and "This. Here and Now. With You. I Mean It. Not Playing. Go To Your Room."

I don't mind either of those songs, tbh... although for me this album is all about 'The Reasons Why', 'The Real Snow White' and 'The Hungry Ghost'... I reckon those three are up there!

def cosign the last two; also really REALLY love "The Scream" and "It's Over"

also, have they ever had a bad opening song on an album? I don't think so

i can't listen to this album or the previous one, they sound so awful. even if there are some good songs.

Okay so the word is that they're playing Lollapalooza later this year...maybe a new album, at last? Or at least the rest of the reissues...

And a year later and some more shows and um well this

http://thecure.com/news/1935/as_clearly_and_succinctly_as_i_can

So it only took him 7 or 8 years to figure this shit out?

If ever there was a band that should be releasing stuff just for fans it's this one. Limited edition, subscription-only, online only, whatever. I've no hope for another "good" Cure record, so I'd just assume Mad Bob sneak out some solid EPs or experiments or anything, really. Aside from more live sets/DVDs.

As much as it pains me to say it, I don't know if I would listen to another new Cure album. Even when they have good songs the production makes them unlistenable.

At the rate they are going, it seems pretty unlikely you will have to worry about listening to a new Cure album.

I was reading earlier Robert's response on Facebook to the Guardian's review of the Teenage Cancer Trust show from a couple of days ago (he hated it, stating that the reason that the band play shows that long is, of course, because they don't want to short-change fans)

Then there was a follow-up piece in the Guardian today here (Robert's response is quoted).

What interested me more was this piece, also in Guardian, yesterday in which Robert Smith describes the upcoming 4:14 Scream as a "sore point", and it's mentioned he's 'barely convinced that the record is worthwhile'

they're playing an awful festival in Napa here. on the fence about going to it just to see them (only doing that if they put single day tickets on sale).

it would be my fourth? fifth? time seeing them. nothing's ever going to be the disintegration or wish tour again, should save myself the bother I suppose

I dunno, I saw them a few years ago, and they did a pretty damn amazing 3-hour show. Sounded great, played all kinds of stuff, wow. Would go see them again in a second.

Especially if, as people are saying, the upcoming tour will involve playing the Top, Head on the Door, and Kiss Me in their entirety.

A festival show wouldn't.

it would be funny if they just played stuff from the top at a festival show

It would be excellent if they just played stuff from The Top at a festival show, and maybe threw in a few curiosities from around about the same era, like 'Throw Your Foot'.

I'd say you're in for at least a few surprises because they've finally started playing b-sides and rarely heard album cuts in the last year or so.

i would love to see the Cure yet again. i think i have seen them around 10 times. hmm Napa is about 500 miles away...

i liked 4:13 Dream but the production was awful. i hope the rerelease will fix that. "Underneath the Stars" is a great song along with a few more i can vouch for.

The great thing about 'Underneath the Stars' is that it's an old outtake from Wish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anfVeYG60iA

A year on, and still no 4:14 Scream...

Haha - as if that was ever gonna happen

I make up for it by playing "The Scream" on a loop

Part of me thinks that Smith/The Cure should just concentrate on new music rather than trying to make something out of the 4:13 Dream off-cuts. I mean, it's clear to me that Smith (and the band) have problems with this material for a variety of reasons. The bizarre thing is, it almost feels like Smith is unable to get to working on new music until he gets this "era" of the band out of his system.

In an interview from a few years ago he said he didn't feel the urge to make new music anymore. I think his attitude is that if it happens then it happens but he's not going to try for its own sake.

And I don't really see why this Scream album won't come out.

Well, nobody involved in making the album seems to be particularly enthusiastic about it.

In some respects, cruise control is kinda all right for them. That said I'd REALLY appreciate the rest of the reissues now, I mean even Siouxsie and the Banshees got theirs completed and it seemed dead in the water there for a bit.

I daresay I've been waiting for the Wish reissue more fervently than any new material.

It'll be funny if 4:14 Scream comes out in 2018, ten years after the first lot of the sessions was released.

Too bad RS is such a proud luddite cuz he could have put all of this up on Bandcamp and be done with it

He's been doing dedicated streaming microsites since ...1998?

Having recently revisited this album and its associated b-sides in light of all the recent Cure activity, I came up with my ideal revised tracklisting for this album:

Underneath the Stars
Down Under
Switch
Sleep When I'm Dead
The Hungry Ghost
Freakshow
Sirensong
The Perfect Boy
All Kinds of Stuff
NY Trip
The Scream
It's Over

This exercise made me very fond of this set of songs for the first time, it's just a shame that Robbo decided to stick a few glaring clunkers on the album proper and the mix is generally really bad.

Reasons Why is missing. It's one of the better ones. Would prob ditch Freakshow instead
4:13 is one of the rare latter Cure albums where the B-sides are not partic strong IMO

Probably because they were saving the better of the additional material for the second part of the album, which again reminds me...

Where's this fucking album, Robert?

i hate 'reasons why'. the melody is just so...ugh. obvious? annoying?

The chorus is good but the verses get on my nerves.

I think The Real Snow White is underrated

I remember a lot of the songs sounding much better, esp Hungry Ghost and Reasons Why, when they premiered the album live in Rome at for a TV special. Haven't managed to dig up an audio rip

'The Real Snow White' is great, one of my favourites on the record - absolutely love that chorus.