A thread for the Cure reissues

I can only buy these three latest reissues one at a time. I'm buying one of the editions this Friday and I'd like to know which I should acquire first. I do plan to buy them all, though.

Right now I don't own Seventeen Seconds at all. Faith is my favourite LP of theirs and I've got "Carnage Visors" on a CD-R but I'd love to hear "Going Home Time" (since it apparently sounds like Associates) and the live version of "Faith" from the Charlotte Sometimes single. The bonus tracks on Pornography seem the most intriguing to me and I like the LP just slightly less than Faith. So, what do you all recommend I do?

The fact that the Pornography remaster sounds that good makes me want to get it first, but I have until Friday to decide.

Anyone else who wants one can maybe contact the others for the moment, I guess thats fair?

Dan, as far as I can make out Home, Ocean & Spilt Milk were never played live.

I've found good versions of Lost, The Promise and Before Three.

I can't find Going Nowhere, Never or Anniversary, do you have good quality non-mp3 sourced versions?

I need photoshop help I think, well more than help actually, I was going to adapt the Concert/Curiosity artwork but I don't think I've got the skills (or a scanner for that matter), anyone here wishing to tackle the job? I'll print it all.

I don't, but I can do some digging to see if I can find anything.

I do have "Why Can't I Be You???/The Lovecats" from a June 9, 1989 show in Torino on CD if you're interested.

I got the Faith re-issue yesterday, and it is marvelous, but I had a few questions about the sound quality. Does anyone else notice a touch of distortion in the original album version of "Doubt"? Just where it gets the loudest, there is a bit of fuzz. Try around 1:32 to 1:40 into it. Is this normal? Was it always like this? (almost a "Siamese Twins" quote there, sorry) I just wanna make sure I don't have a damaged disc. Is this something revealed in the remastering or something always there?

Also, I realize the demos and live tracks are going to be of fairlyrough quality, but does everyone else have a period click that runs consistently through both the demo versions of "Faith" and "Doubt"? And a noticeable hiss throughout the live version of "Faith"?

I must admit I hadn't thought about Why Can't I Be You, is there much love for this song in general? I've got some versions of it for sure.

Petroski, I shall do that! Thanks!

That's more than fair. When they hit the playground things REALLY tripped out. (Thus, again, The Top -- "The World is Yours" a la Scarface, where the leetle friend is the flanger.)

The bonus disc is fucking great, though...love the sound quality of the live tracks (I've never heard "Forever" before in any version and I thought it was great, so those later versions must be the best thing ever) and every demo was massively interesting -- the whole disc is full of revelatory moments. "Going Home Time" does sound like a premature version of something from Sulk, and the live version of "All Cats Are Grey" sounds like something that should've been on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom. Shame that "Charlotte Sometimes" sounds even more muffled than on Standing On a Beach, though.

I got the Faith re-issue yesterday, and it is marvelous, but I had a few questions about the sound quality. Does anyone else notice a touch of distortion in the original album version of "Doubt"? Just where it gets the loudest, there is a bit of fuzz. Try around 1:32 to 1:40 into it. Is this normal? Was it always like this? (almost a "Siamese Twins" quote there, sorry) I just wanna make sure I don't have a damaged disc. Is this something revealed in the remastering or something always there?
Yeah, it's the mastering. It buzzed throughout the loudest portion of that song and I heard a bit of fuzz on "The Drowning Man", too. It sounded like it was mastered through an earlier edition of the Audacity programme, and considering that most of the master tapes from that time were erased from having sat by a washing machine or some other appliance, they might have mastered it from some other source and so it's not all that surprising. Eh well. At least "Faith" the song doesn't skip like it does on my old edition of the album. It's startling how full and meaty some of the songs sound, though -- the original pressings sound really thin and I thought it was Hedges' production (Siouxsie's early albums were done by him, too, and so I thought the thin sound was part of his aesthetic or a result of being under-produced) but I guess it was that crap pre-1992 mastering after all, deceiving fuckers.

I do this 24/7.

(It is a vast improvement over the previous CD version in America.)

these deluxe editions have get me vaguely interested in the cure for the 2st time in years+years. the head on the door/kiss me/disintegration era would be my fave.

I assume that when Robert said the masters were erased he meant the original multi-track tapes - which would be most useful for taking the individual bits and mixing them up.

I hope that Rhino wouldn't stick a big "digitally remastered from the original master tapes" label on something if it weren't true. (Truth in the music industry? Hopeless romantic? Me?)

So you're thinking just the original multi-track tapes were lost. So what would these be "re-masters" of? I'm so confused. Regardless, the sound of Doubt on the deluxe version of Faith ain't so good. Oh well.

So, if Faith were recorded in 16 tracks, the tape would be divided 16 ways to record 16 different instruments, voices and effects. This would then be "mixed down" to 2 tracks which would become the stereo album master.

If the original album 2 track master tape is around, one can re-transfer it to a digital format - equalize it, normalize it, remove hiss and static - i.e., remaster. But you can't remix it beyond making it mono or cutting and pasting parts of the full song - no individual instruments.

Make sense now?

I haven't noticed any problems with "Doubt" myself, but I've only heard mp3s (still waiting for the CD to be delivered).