The Cure's finest album

The Head On The Door

It's still Pornogrpahy.

You lurking fucks are still going to vote Disintegration.

I'm aiming for quiet resignation instead of outrage this time.

I've listened to Pornography, Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Disintegration in recent weeks. Seventeen Seconds in creeping closer to Pornography but Disintegration is still miles behind the other three. It's probably behind Kiss Me x 3 too.

I should really give their last three a decent listen again. It's been a while.

we've done this so many times - I'd be more interested in a post-Wish poll tbh

Why don't you do one?

Not really fair on people like me who have never done one before :)

The Head On The Door

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, March 8, 2013

"Shake Dog Shake" is my favorite of their openers though.

Kiss Me x3 or 17 Secs. One because it's all over the place in a great way and the other because it's so of a piece.

^^^
Exactly. My two faves as well.

Secrets is beautiful

I'm sorry, JJJ. I've just never liked it! TBF though I haven't listened to it in years. Maybe I will today and report back if my feelings have changed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwA8V6hcqQo

Slow day at work so I made a live version of The Top cut together from two concerts in '84, Washington & London (although not from the recordings that were used for 'Concert')

It's one continuous MP3 file.

Here is the link, remove the parenthesis and close the gaps.

http://we.tl/u3osk (please don't hurt me mods, there is nothing commercially released in this link) DnDer

Now for the real Cure geeks among us can we do a live Top without 84 tour material? Not sure they ever played Birdmad Girl and Empty World after that tour

http://www.cure-concerts.de/main/1989.php

Birdmad Girl used in two soundchecks but no gigs

Did they play Wailing Wall post 84?

Hahaha doubt it

yeah this is exactly the kind of early 80's exotic experimentation that must make Robert cringe these days

*waits patiently with arms crossed for ENBB's reevaluation*

xp Read that as 'erotic experimentation' and just no.

scene opens on a pair of big goofy white hightops thrown carelessly by the side of the bed

Throw your cock away!
You're shagged out and your face is grey...

this is not the Warm Bodies fanfiction thread

Stiff as toys an.....nevermind

No go on...

suck harder! suck harder!

Glad to see that Disintegration is not the consensus favorite. I was impressed at the time, but I don't think it's worn as well as several of the others, including the first three and Head on the Door (my pick).

If I could vote Live at Orange, though, I might!

Pornography > Faith > Seventeen Seconds. Their songcraft got better but they never nailed a mood as perfectly (and, unlike Disintegration, concisely) as they did on those three.

Disintegration would be perfect if "Closedown" wasn't on it

I like Disintegration a great deal, but I'd be the first person to admit that I find the album a little bit overlong. I generally prefer the vinyl configuration of the album over the CD version. Having all of the longer, more atmospheric tracks towards the end of the album isn't the greatest idea in the world, in hindsight... especially sequencing 'Prayers For Rain' and 'The Same Deep Water As You' back-to-back. I'll always think that the title track justifies its length and feels shorter than its 8 or so minutes no matter what mood I'm in (and I guess I could say the same for the longer pieces on earlier albums, such as 'One Hundred Years' and 'Faith' etc.), but if I'm in the wrong kind of mood for this album then tracks like 'The Same Deep Water As You' and 'Homesick' can feel like they go on for an eternity.

When I was in high school, one of the first things I did with my taped copy of Disintegration was take a blank C-120 and fill both sides of it with "The Same Deep Water As You", so suffice to say I vigorously disagree with you

even now, when I play Disintegration I usually start with "Prayer For Rain"; the song from the front half I go to the most is "Lullaby"

xxxp
And last dance
And lovesong
And a couple of others

xxxpost:

Christ. Did you have insomnia? I'll bet it "Cured" it! hohohoho!

I can see what 'The Same Deep Water As You' is trying to do... it's another of their long atmospheric numbers a la 'Faith' or 'All Cats Are Grey'... I find those tracks from Faith engaging pretty much 100% of the time, whereas 'The Same Deep Water As You' can either take me with it or bore me rigid. More often than not, it's the latter. 'Lullaby' is one of those Cure songs that I've heard that many times that I've reached a point with it where I can listen to it, but it no longer has the same kind of power for me that it once had.

I honestly had no idea TSDWAY was over 9 minutes long until many years later when I finally picked up the album on CD; in fact I had no idea any of the songs on the back half were as long as they are

I didn't know either, but it explains a lot

"faith and pornography are great but just a little too bleak for me."

My feelings exactly

Just about bleak enough imo.

One of the reasons why I like 17 Seconds is because of its brevity, actually.

Faith is bleak. But like I said, I can handle it if I'm in the mood.

Pornography is way too bleak/dark. It takes me back to very dark times of my younger days. I appreciate it and like it, but almost never listen to it. The one track I have gotten back to from that record the most is "Cold" (recorded a cover of it, too, actually!). But "100 Years", for example, is very difficult to listen to.

100 years is the one I have the least problems with I love it (apart from the tiger thrashing in the water bit), the rest is claustrophobic

what's the best cure record from a vocal standpoint? i'd say the top is one of my faves cos robert is all over the place vocally. his acrobatics on "the caterpillar", "birdmad girl", "bananafishbones", "dressing up" etc are mad brilliant imo.

He was definitely on the most drugs, if I recall correctly.

I remember reading that he spent hours (if not a couple of days) getting the "right sound" of the spinning top.

I'm going by memory, but if by vocal standpoint you mean versatility, Kiss Me.

But then you have Japanese Whispers, which has really beautiful to nice vocals. Head on the Door seems to have very mature/"accomplished" vocals; e.g., Sinking has very strong vocals; as well as Push and Baby Screams. The vocals are similar to that of The Top. Unless I am remembering things completely wrong, as it's been ages since I've heard The Cure and any of their records (just a few tracks here and there). Someone correct me if I'm remembering things incorrectly.

A good candidate is the first album songs like object, its not you and 10:15 have fantastic vocals

17 Secs.

Robert Smith was making the Banshees' Hyaena at the same time, in a different studio in a different part of the country, so he was moving backwards and forwards between working on the two albums and getting very little sleep. Stir in the fact that Andy Anderson was chief magic-mushroom tea maker in the studio while they were working on The Top, and it isn't surprising that his memories of making the album are a little sketchy.

Ah, found the quote I was looking for...

"Around that time I started making the Banshees album, Hyaena, and The Cure's Top and I wasn't sleeping at all. The Cure were living in a pub, an incredibly stupid thing to do, and recording in Reading while the Banshees were at Eel Pie studios in Richmond. So I'd finish with the Banshees, get in a cab to Reading, and the barman would leave the bar open for us because we were living there. I'd usually meet up with Lol Tolhurst and Andy Anderson, then Andy would make a big pot of magic mushroom tea before I'd start work on the next song for the Top album. Then I'd stagger to bed at lunchtime, get a couple of hours' sleep, take a taxi back to Eel Pie and continue with the Banshees. I didn't exactly have a breakdown but I was like a clockwork toy that ran down."

Okay, so not exactly a long-distance travel between the two studios, but still...

Think I would have just gone mad. The dual album thing explains why he let things slip. As you say vocals mostly great and the live outings have proved most to be great songs (titles v good too). Its the music that lets it down on the album.

The Caterpillar excepted