The CaterPOLLar -- ILM Artist Poll #23 -- The Cure -- voting thread

ballot sent

I still have to start ranking the songs on my shortlist (blame the Olympics).

I discovered The Cure around '89, the Disintegration singles (all of their singles, in fact) were all over our local alternative radio station. So like most others here, I heard their gloomy side and their pop side right from the start, it was always part of who the Cure were for me. But I've never talked with anyone who followed them in the early 80's, who identified with their most gothic phase, had to suffer through their possible breakup (back when that might have seemed like the real deal and not a cliche), and then suddenly a year later they're back and releasing "Let's Go To Bed" and "The Lovecats", WTF?? Or maybe it wasn't so unexpected at the time?

listening to every Cure song I own - about 147 - in hopes of having a beautifully diverse, obscurity-rich ballot and the damn thing is turning into hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-album track-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit. They were more than an amazing singles band but holy shit were they an amazing singles band.

so is the deal that I can vote for both the regular version & the Mixed Up version of the same song? like I can vote for both "Close to Me" & to the Closer remix of it?

Yeah I'd say that's ok.

I really dislike this idea of splitting votes for songs based on alternate versions. I haven't seen this allowed in any other poll in which I've participated. Is everyone else really OK with this?

I mean, I'd love to specify the full 7+ minute version of "Just One Kiss," but I don't want to split the vote from people who don't specify a version.

Are really early Cure a punk band? I feel like there might be a separate genre for the Cure/U2/Jam/Joy Division strain that's kind-of-rough-n-powerpop-but-a-bit-weedy-not-fighty, but I'm pretty sure it isn't called that.

On another topic - why do most CD versions of "Charlotte Sometimes" and "The Walk" sound so terrible and muffled? The JW version of "The Walk" is the only decent, crisp-sounding version of that song that I've heard, and I've yet to hear "Charlotte" not sound wretched (which is weird considering how clear most Cure recordings from this period sound).

the pre-3IB demos have some stuff that sounds surprisingly like the Vibrators

Are really early Cure a punk band?

yes, imo (same w/Warsaw-era Joy Division)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmoFgi2EB9c

At the very least, The Easy Cure were punk if the Buzzcocks were

so is the deal that I can vote for both the regular version & the Mixed Up version of the same song? like I can vote for both "Close to Me" & to the Closer remix of it?

yeah, I could have easily squeezed the closer remix into my top 40 solely on loving the original the two originals so much, but I stayed away from the Mixup Up album, except for "Never Enough"

I got to thinking about who were the biggest thing to come out of the punk movement. I guess U2 have it in a walk, but The Cure might be second? Or Blondie, I don't know - it's kind of hard to get a handle on, when their peaks are happening decades apart.

Biggest in what sense? If chart success, you could make a case for Adam & The Ants.

I was thinking about playing arenas, but yeah The Ants, The Stranglers, The Rats, The Jam, Blondie, etc all had much bigger hits. Probably Talking Heads too. There are likely other threads for this, it's not exactly what you think of when you think of The Cure.

I've just realised I forgot to vote for that one that goes "ooh, I love cats!"

Ok, when I said that remixes off Mixed Up were ok to vote for, I thought that they were different enough from the originals to be considered different songs. Close To Me certainly is, I'd say. After relistening, I realise that maybe some are and maybe some aren't but it's obviously going to lead to confusion to allow some remixes but not others, so I'm going to say that remixes aren't allowed, and the only song from Mixed Up that is allowed is Never Enough. Sorry for any confusion.

uhh the Closer Mix and Closest Mix are a lot more different to either the single or album versions of Close To Me than the Big Mix is to the single version of Never Enough, wtf

Thanks - that makes more sense to me.

Sic, I think Nate means "Never Enough" qualifies even though it's original album is Mixed Up - not that alternate versions are allowed.

How many ballots so far? Only 4 days left!

Sic, I think Nate means "Never Enough" qualifies even though it's original album is Mixed Up

single came out a couple of months before Mixed Up tho! and Big Mix is the only one on the album. I demand more pedantic pollrunners http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer/SAEmoticons/emot-colbert.png

iirc: single version of Close To Me has some new recording compared to album version (ie the horns), Close and Closer versions are different mixes of a new re-recording?

(A Forest and Primary* were def. completely re-recorded in order to be remixed, bcz Polydor had lost the masters. Which raises some questions about the album remaster project.)

* for the Keith LeBlanc mix on the 12" of above

How many ballots so far? Only 4 days left!

Only 13 so far. I'm a bit disappointed with the turnout to be honest, especially considering (for example) Paul Simon got 33 ballots. Are The Cure not as popular on ILM as I thought? Are people bored with these ballot polls? There's been a couple of normal Cure polls recently, maybe people have run out of things to say about The Cure?

Anyway, I have to extend the voting period because it's my son's birthday this weekend and I'm away Tuesday night, so voting will now end at MIDDAY on WEDNESDAY 15th. So get your ballots in, folks.

Lots of people wait until the last two days, I've noticed.

Still, part of it may be The Cure aren't loved around here like they once were AND their discography is gigantic and hard to narrow down for a ballot AND maybe there's some poll fatigue. Personally, I'm looking forward to taking a break for a few polls after this one.

I wouldn't worry Nate, twenty ballots is enough for a decent poll - and you probably need even fewer for this one since you're asking for forty songs. You might even have enough already.

I would say, though, that raising it to forty songs makes it much harder to vote. These polls are most fun when there's a lot of people pitching in imo, so anything that makes voting more onerous is best avoided.

I definitely plan on voting but haven't had time to work through the options yet. I reckon there will be a healthy influx in the last day or so. No reason to doubt the appeal of the poll - this is a catalogue where the big hits aren't necessarily the best-loved and album tracks loom large, so the results should be full of surprises.

Most of the ballots are always sent close to the deadline. I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, even with the ballots I've already got the results are pretty interesting so far with no clear front runner.

Nate - In keeping with every deadline I've ever had in my entire life I am fairly certain I will wind up sending you mine on 11:59 am on the 15th if not a couple hours later with a note begging for forgiveness. I suspect others will do the same. I really wouldn't worry.

Just voted to relieve nate's stress.

I'd never actually thought about what my favourite Cure song was before now and it's not what I expected. Easier to pick the whole 40 than to settle on the top one.

I'm shuffling my rankings right now trying to nail down a final lineup. All this Cure listening lately has made me: (a) discover some excellent new tunes, and (b) want to kick Robert Smith in the face from time to time. :-(

All the Cure listening that's happened in our place in the past couple weeks has made me realize that I dislike The Top even more than I thought and that I no longer have much time for the overly dramatic and whiny stuff. That's not entirely surprising but it was definitely reinforced.

;_;

overly dramatic Cure is THE BEST, "New Day" and "Lament" and "Siamese Twins" and "Piggy in the Mirror" and "Prayers For Rain" and "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" pwn

"A Thousand Hours" is a bit much, tho

A Thousand Hours is a top 3 dead cert for me.

I've been trying in vain to figure out why some overly dramatic Cure works so well for me and other songs in ostensibly the very same vein don't do it for me. He really is a hell of a guitarist, and I think when he and Gallup brew up a storm that does justice to the over-the-topness of Smith's delivery, that's when those songs work best. Maybe.

Will definitely be voting -- a 20-song ballot.

A Thousand Hours is a top 3 dead cert for me.

that was one of the first songs where I thought to myself "man this isn't so much 'singing' as it is 'unpleasantly moaning on pitch'"

also didn't help that my brother used to ask why Robert Smith sang like he had a horrible migraine all the time and then follow up by moaning "For how much longer/Can my heaaaaaaad hurt so muuuuuuuuuch?" in the most overbearingly melodramatic way possible

(he also used to moan "The spiderman/Is giving me a heeadaaaaache toniiiiiight" but because that isn't really a moany song it made me laugh)

I'm doing 25... There were a few from Disintegration I didn't originally consider pre-listening that realized I couldn't not include.

x-post: haha DJP

Does Smith play all the guitar? (NB just realised I know nothing about them btw, not even how many members or whether there's a second guitarist)

for many years I underrated (as is my wont with singer-guitarists) to what extent Smith instrumentally dominated the first ten years of the band's existence. He also played a fair share of the keyboards and synths.

Does Smith play all the guitar? (NB just realised I know nothing about them btw, not even how many members or whether there's a second guitarist)

depends on the lineup/era

"Disintegration" itself is such an amazing song... Rocketed into my top 5 when I played the album in full again (for the first time in some years).

ballot sent!

When the sequencer riff takes over toward the end: song dies happy. It's their "Soon"--everything (well not everything, but a lot of things) awesome about the band rolled up into one song.

on record, Smith was the sole guitarist up through The Top, after which Porl Thompson joined as lead guitarist/keyboard player/saxophonist. As of Wish they added Perry Bamonte as a third guitarist/keyboardist, which is why so much of the Wish material has a massive wall of guitars on it. Porl left after Wish and Bamonte was released right after The Cure. Porl came back to tour with them for 4:13 Dream and Reeves Gabriel is now touring with them.

poor Lol

Lol never played guitar, did he? He was a drummer/keyboardist.

lol Dan I do not like any of those songs

I am sorry.