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

I tended to turn my girlfriends into Cure fans, by which I mean I would incessantly play The Cure at them until they lied and told me that they liked them so I would stop, and then would realize in horror that this just meant I would start playing the super mopey sadface stuff at them

One retaliated by playing They Might Be Giants at me, which you know, fair play

(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.)

"The Walk" and "A Forest" for sure. "Primary" sounds like the original vocal to me, though they prolly recorded some new samples (there was no guitar on the original).

I do believe the "lost masters" issue is that the original multi-track masters were needed for remixing (so individual instruments could be isolated), but they had been ruined by being stored near a washing machine....IIRC. The actual 2-track mix-down masters were not (though I suspect "The Walk" may be gone due to the crap sound quality of ever reissue of that song post-Japanese Whispers - not sure why they don't use the Fiction or Sire CDs as a source).

"The Walk" and "A Forest" are the only tolerable tracks on Mixed Up, IMHO.

there was no guitar on the original

really?

yeah, it was two 6-string basses + drums (video makes this very clear)

lol sorry, two 4-string basses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xrZ61cuKLk

The performance from Count Down is awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZFYh6B7Fr8

Man, two six-string basses would have been SICK. (Especially if they were part of one double-neck bass.) That was a top 5 song for me!

"The Walk" and "A Forest" are the only tolerable tracks on Mixed Up, IMHO.

I should clarify: of the new versions/mixes...

Made an effort to include something after 1989 but in the end, nah.

I only had a 20-song ballot and I put at least three post-89 songs on it. Nothing post-99, though.

I paid no attention to the Cure post THOTD. SCHOOL ME, PEOPLE. (Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography are as defining for me as I I have ranted about the Cocteau Twins elsewhere)

hah -- and those are the three albums I can barely finish!

you will probably still appreciate them through Wish; specific songs of note (keeping in mind I am a big mopey goth):

KMKMKM
The Kiss
Why Can't I Be You?
How Beautiful You Are...
Just Like Heaven
Like Cockatoos

Disintegration
Plainsong
Pictures of You
Lullaby
Prayers For Rain
Disintegration

Never Enough

Wish
Open
High
Apart
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
End

Wild Mood Swings is largely a misstep, though there are some decent songs on it ("Want", "The 13th", "Trap", "Numb")

from that point on, they are basically in superfans-only status, although there are still a bunch of songs worth exploring ("The Last Day Of Summer", "The Loudest Sound", "Lost", "Labyrinth", "Before Three", "Fake", "Going Nowhere", "This Morning", "Underneath The Stars", "The Only One", "The Real Snow White", "The Holy Ghost", "The Scream", "It's Over")

their b-sides have largely remained fucking brilliant, seek specifically "A Japanese Dream", "A Chain of Flowers", "Breathe", "Babble", "Out of Mind", "2 Late", "Fear of Ghosts", "This Twilight Garden", "Play", "The Big Hand", "Ocean", "Adonis", "It Used To Be Me", "Home", "A Pink Dream", "All Kinds of Stuff"

also "The Same Deep Water As You" is one of the best things they ever recorded

Ditto. I found that a big surprise actually - indie(ish) acts *never* have their lull in that period

Ditto to Alfred that was

I submit that if you can't finish Faith or Pornography you might be totally high and/or trippin'

it's true that I'm probably listenign to "High" instead.

"High" is great, too! IT'S ALL GREAT (except WMS)

Cheers Dan, I was familiar with about 50% of that (and was voting for a couple of thewm) and obviously I am a big mopey goth too

oh well in that case, don't forget "Torture", "The Snakepit", "To The Sky", "Last Dance", "Homesick", "Untitled", "Trust", "Watching Me Fall", "Bloodflowers", "Jupiter Crash", "Bare", "The Promise", "The Perfect Boy" and "Sleep Til I'm Dead"

OH SNAP

oh shit also "Halo" and "Scared of You"

this is way too hard guys

i know no one is going to vote for it, but i love this cover of "pirate ships" so much that i feel like bringing it up just in case ppl haven't heard it
it's so pretty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BnGQ31YOYM

Ballot sent.

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.

― Get wolves (DL)

Same for me, I got my top 40 pretty quickly but then really struggled to pick between about five songs for my number one. For most of my other favourite bands there is usually an obvious favourite. Very happy with what I decided to put at number one.

Really looking forward to the results of this one.

(Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography are as defining for me as I I have ranted about the Cocteau Twins elsewhere)

hah -- and those are the three albums I can barely finish!

One thing I've really enjoyed about trawling the discography is that their arrangements and production are always subtly evolving and inventive. Which is true for most of the acts getting polled, actually, but still a pleasant surprise for a band operating in an idiom that isn't particularly imaginative.

But those three albums are the flat ones imo, and not in the uniquely flat way that makes their earliest stuff a slightly weird joy.

It struck me what an odd relationship I've had with this band. Discovered them at 14 via the Lullaby video, loved Disintegration, got all their previous albums, played them all intensively for a couple of years, then lost interest overnight as soon as the first single from Wish came out. Didn't listen to them at all for a decade, to the point where I was embarrassed about having liked them - lol moody teenager - and then came to appreciate those 80s albums again as an adult, but nothing post-Disintegration has any kind of emotional resonance for me. Considering how easy it was to choose 40 songs I loved, it's weird that my serious fandom lasted for such a short period.

This excellent K-Punk blog about Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography helped reignite my passion around the time the first reissues came out.

http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/006087.html

It's so weird, that's almost exactly the same with me, except I was 14 and the video was In Between Days.

one thing about this poll that has enraged me is the unavailability of Join the Dots on US Spotify

ugh, ballot sent

3 TIB/BDC
0 SS (! wtf)
3 Faith
4 Pornography
2 Japanese Whispers
2 The Top
1 HOTD
3 KMKMKM
3 Disintegration
2 Wish
0 WMS (shocker, lol)
0 Bloodflowers
1 The Cure
2 4:13 Dream
3 Blue Sunshine
11 non-album tracks (lol fanboy)

ended up voting for 5 singles and 16 songs that appeared as a B-side (including live versions)

I could submit an entirely different ballot with maybe a ten song overlap

0 SS?? i know where you live and i'm gonna find you and i'm gonna find some stairs and i'm gonna throw you down the stairs

4 SS tracks floated around the fringes of my ballot and ended up not being on it when I finally said "fuck it, send it now or else you never will"

also lolling a little that a good chunk of my late period boosterism started to fade once I started ranking songs, I only have four songs from 1996 or later on my ballot, a lot of them falling victim to b-sides

Yeah wtf? 0? I haven't even actually begun to think about a real list yet but I just thought quick about 17 seconds and mine will without a doubt have 2 if not 3 songs off it.

pretty psyched to see your ballot, DJP. My ballot wound up really hits-centric, about 70% a-sides, 30% album tracks (with 1 b-side that I really hadn't noticed before revisiting everything), but I'm interested to see a more idiosyncratic, esoteric mix.

i think i had 2-5 songs from every full-length through (and including!) WMS, and nothing after.

I would make a Spotify playlist but almost a third of it would be missing ;_;

I def won't have anything after WMS and probably not anything from it either.

My distribution is sort of comical (but unapologetic)

6 TIB/BDC
1 SS
2 Faith (if you count the 2005 expanded edition)
0 Pornography
3 Japanese Whispers
1 The Top
8 HOTD
10 KMKMKM
8 Disintegration
1 Wish

About to send. No surprise that my ballot leans heavily on THOTD.

2 Faith (if you count the 2005 expanded edition)

o fuck I forgot about "Carnage Visors"

FUCK

I def struggled when I got to #30 though.

Hit 20 ballots! Thanks all!

still super pissed I forgot "Carnage Visors", that had a realistic chance of placing high on my ballot

deadline still today?

deadline was never today, it was Friday, but it's been pushed past the weekend

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.

― nate woolls, Tuesday, August 7, 2012 2:29 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just made an initial list.

TIB/BDC comes in with the most picks at 8.

HOTD, KMKMKM and Disintegration all wound up with five though that could change a bit as I'm only at 35 and will probably pick five more before submitting.