POLLography: The Cure poll results, ILM artist poll #23

he was a big pop fan too

I guess Bowie's pop too (in England)

A Nick Drake fan too.

i hope this is one of those polls where there's tons of non hits in the Top 20 but i guess they've had far too many great singles for that.

I can see Smith loving Drake's mopey englishness but I don't hear it much in his songwriting or guitar-playing really

I think I can guess what the highest album track will be. Is it too early for predictions?

I got Boys Don't Cry for Christmas in 1992, and sometime in the next month I had it on the family stereo while my mom was taking down Christmas decorations. "F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O" finally made her demand it be turned off.

I got over it pretty fast myself.

he was a big pop fan too

do you mean just whatever top 40 stuff was current at the time in the UK...? This is one of the most curious things to me about Smith's ouevre, that he has very clear pop smarts for hooks, arrangements, song structures, etc. but they're filtered through this bizarre (or at least highly unusual) stylistic tics - his voice, odd instrumentation, broad swathes of digital reverb, strange effects, harsh synth and guitar tones etc. The pop angle was mostly dormant for a lot of their overly goth period (Faith, Pornography etc.) but it really came to the fore later obviously.

xp

Love love love this one

#21 - The Funeral Party, 433 points, 16 votes

Faith, 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLV1YwfIkGA

now that's an album track i'm glad to see everyone's behind

wow almost 20 more points than "Fire In Cairo" with 4 fewer votes

haha love this song, but not nearly as much as my dad does (it's his favorite Cure song, he used to make me play it on repeat)

the harmony on it really makes it IMO, which is probably why live performances of it tend to fall flat for me (ps Robert, in case you are reading this my falsetto is good enough to do your harmony parts, yr ppl should call my ppl, where "my ppl" is me speaking in a funny voice)

Didn't think this one would beat "Faith" and "The Drowning Man". I guess it's prettier.

Never really been a fan of this myself

#20 - Lullaby, 443 points, 17 votes

Disintegration, 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqxYy8OOTOE

I like Fire In Cairo, but I never got why people like it THAT much.
I mean, over "Killing An Arab"??

?? Can see no argument for "Killing an Arab" over the much better "Fire in Cairo." "Cairo," like "Grinding Halt," has feeling and mystery; "Killing an Arab" has feeling but opens up to say "hey look I'm name-checking stuff from a book" -- plus "I'M ALIVE. I'M DEAD" is too on-the-nose as far as I'm concerned. Not saying it's a bad song, just that it's below the median for early Cure.

(To be fair, "Boys Don't Cry" is pretty lyrically on-the-nose too, but dude, those triplets!)

well... "Killing An Arab" is going to be pretty on-the-nose considering the lyrics are taken pretty much verbatim from the book, so that doesn't bother me

"Lullaby" is fantastic and, looking back at my ballot, I am astounded that I didn't vote for it

It's existentialist, man! (x-post)

"Lullaby" didn't make my ballot either, but it's a great great pop single.

I like Fire In Cairo, but I never got why people like it THAT much.
I mean, over "Killing An Arab"??

― LeRooLeRoo, Friday, August 17, 2012 12:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Why does it have to be one or the other? I love and voted for both.

xp: I mean, it's super creepy, the video is wonderful, and it's in my vocal range; this shit should have been in my top 5

clearly I'm on a happy/poppy kick ATM, if I did my ballot now it would be all "The Walk", "Friday I'm In Love', "Boys Don't Cry", "The Perfect Girl", "Hey You!", "Hot Hot Hot!!!", "Six Different Ways", "The Caterpillar" etc

#19 - Lovesong, 461 points, 17 votes

Disintegration, 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU6wkCxDHCk

totally dreamy song, not on my ballot, I can sing this one too

probably the 2nd-weakest song on Disintegration (after "Closedown")

Never cared for this

I'm still thinking about what Cure song my dad might like. Maybe "Plainsong" or something with Santana-esque shred guitar ("Cut"?).

IIRC my dad really liked all of their albums up through Disintegration except for Pornography which he just thought was tuneless whining with no real songcraft; the closest he got to liking that album was "Siamese Twins" and even there the meandering vocal melody drove him insane.

Starting to suspect we're past the point where "Burn" might have shown up. Thanks a lot, DJP!

;_;

s'ok

I was just listening to "Burn" yesterday, what a great great great song

not quite as great as "To The Sky" or "A Chain of Flowers" or "A Japanese Dream" tho

"Closedown" is gorgeous. "Lovesong" is alright. It was nice to hear it on the radio in 89.

I had "Lovesong" low on my list, but couldn't leave it off. Apart from being a fine pop tune, I remember how weird it seemed that the Cure had a top 10 hit. A significant moment in that late '80s wave of "college rock" taking over.

Good run this, that's four of my top dozen or so in the last five places

Lovesong was a top ten hit?

it hit #2 in the US!

It's lyrics played a key role in an episode of 'One Tree Hill'. Does it get any better than that?

I don't love "Lovesong" but thought it would be higher, maybe because I'm the right age to remember this being massively huge and ubiquitous

I'm amazed. Lullaby was top ten in the UK, which isn't that unusual, but dive said it was impossible for them to do that in the US.

I didn't remember it reaching #2, but I do remember that a lot of people who made fun of newwave/postmodern/weirdo rock before that were all of the sudden very into that song (in my own sphere, natch, but I bet that was the case in a lot of places). It was on the radio all the time, the video was constantly played on MTV, and The Cure owned America for about three weeks.

The Cure's top forty history in America:

Just Like Heaven #40
Lovesong #2
Friday I'm in Love #18

not quite as great as "To The Sky"

i remember taping this off the radio! still totally love that song

#18 - Let’s Go To Bed, 473 points, 20 votes, 2 #1 votes

single, 1982

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w8vhe_LiuQ

I was looking at my grim, dour ballot and thinking "I don't really want to change any of this, but something's not quite right..." and then I put "Let's Go To Bed" on at #40 and went "perfecto"

<3 lovesong and let's go to bed

I was looking at my grim, dour ballot and thinking "I don't really want to change any of this, but something's not quite right..." and then I put "Let's Go To Bed" on at #40 and went "perfecto"

Yeah, me too although I think it was 38 from memory.

"Let's Go To Bed" has the best lyrics for any chorus in the world, and singing to match.

yeah, it's kind of too bad that Robert can never remember them

would have been in my top ten for sure, maybe top 5

btw is there a Banshees poll in the pipeline?