The Cure: Classic or Dud?

Incredible set list for Mexico City performance (over four hours!): http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/04/22/cure-mexico-city-50-song-setlist/

Lookit all the Wish numbers!

They may never release anything again but if they keep up this kind of activity I will not complain!

"Mint Car"!

I wonder if all the "Wish" stuff is because it's next on the reissue agenda and is therefore fresh in mind? Also, those songs are awesome live.

When did they make the drummer dye his hair? Also, LOL, Reeves is wearing eyeliner.

and they, er, opened with its first two numbers.

Wish remains my favorite. Looking forward to the reissue and its B-sides.

"This Twilight Garden" and "Play" and "The Big Hand" and "Halo" are so so so good

(you can totally see the massive cliff that is WMS coming in "A Foolish Arrangement" though)

Dad joke of the gods:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969756_10201282758175931_2033499428_n.jpg

Would anyone be able to recommend me a good book about the Cure? I've been listening to "Join The Dots" all weekend and am in the mood.

I've done a cursory search the "Someone recommend me a book about music" thread appears to contain no Cure suggestions. This thread has a recommendation for "Faith" by Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, but the Amazon review of that book (for what it's worth) dismisses it as "stunningly banal". My own searches of Amazon throw up a couple of unconvincing-looking works such asJeff Apter's "Never Enough".

Is it worth worth spending €20 on a second-hand copy of Ten Imaginary Years?

Cheers for suggestions

Yes it is worth spending that much on Ten Imaginary Years.

I can recommend against "Never Enough" by Jeff Apter. Really horrible read. In the first chapter, he makes a comparison between Cure fans and Britney Spears fans.

Cheers both. I might just give Ten Imaginary Years a shot. I get it for just over 20 EUR. New copies are going for a mere £257.52 on Amazon UK.

There are a couple of copies in "acceptable" condition on US Amazon for $10.

I can get a copy here in Europe for about 20 euros, which is fine. Just joking about how expensive the new copies are going for in the UK.

yeah Ten Imaginary Years is fantastic

I got it as an xmas present in '92 and I still recommend it as quick toilet reading; it's especially valuable for preserving clips of original album/single reviews.

Ten Imaginry Years is excellent and I wish I still had a copy

Ten Imaginary Years is fantastic, because it's one of those music books you can read cover to cover in a marathon session and put down feeling invigorated and having your love of the band confirmed. Or you can just pick it up, turn to some random page, read for five minutes and be completely happy.

Never Enough is bad enough that I reshelved halfway through (optimistically, with bookmark still in). I just could not handle another tedious chapter of tour-drugs-album-drugs-tour-drugs-album all blurring together. Which tbh is the story of a lot of bands but blergh did it suffer in the telling.

wow. alex in nyc sure got up to speed well enough (see post #9), such a diffident and even-handed start......

Not that insane four hour Mexico City set -- just two -- but the Lollapalooza performance was a treat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNhojfzV0bc

I just got to "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" and basically this is making my entire day

Whoah!

man they should kind of just call this "The Wish Show" (nb that is by no means a complaint)

Not at all. (Good GOD are they ever going to get around to finally doing proper digital video releases of the official 80s/90s concert films or what.)

Happy birthday 'Head on the Door' - 28 today wtf o_O

Wow, that rendition of the Caterpillar! It's like a more muscular version of the weird Cure.

haha I had forgotten I was typing out the set list as I was listening to this:

Plainsong
Pictures of You
Lullaby
High
The End of the World
Lovesong
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
FROM THE EDGE OF THE DEEP GREEN SEA
The Walk
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Friday I'm In Love
Doing the Unstuck
Trust
Want
Fascination Street
The Hungry Ghost
One Hundred Years
Disintegration
The Lovecats
The Caterpillar
Close To Me
Let's Go To Bed
Why Can't I Be You?
Boys Don't Cry

Yay! They played 'Mint Car'! :D

Was To The Sky released on a single?

Nope. It was a leftover song from the KM^3 sessions that ended up on the Stranger Than Fiction compilation.

fucking reissue Wish already!

Thanks. I love that one and the Resurrection Mix is great as well. Sounds more like Disintigration than KM^3 to me.

I really hope that second half of 4:13 Dream comes out. I hope they don't just give up on it and all is left is unfinished songs for bootlegs years later.

I remember Robert Smith saying he recorded solo albums for his own amusement, I wonder if they will ever come out.

I don't believe a word of that

I remember Robert Smith saying he recorded solo albums for his own amusement, I wonder if they will ever come out.

one of'em is called The Top iirc

I also felt he might be lying. He talked about it in the early 90s if I recall correctly. When I first read about this I imagined he was keeping a masterpiece from us but now I think maybe he didn't want to release it because it wasn't anything special, possibly just quickies he fired off without much care.

For a long time he was talking about going solo but I think breaking up doesn't seem like an issue anymore because they don't feel obliged to do anything now unless they feel like it.

yeah, basically. Even the existence of the infamous 4:13 dark companion seems pretty far fetched to me

Well, there are several songs that have never made it to an album yet, some that were from the time of their eponymous album that Smith felt were important and he wanted to get them out eventually. I'm sure there were demos floating around the internet.

"A Boy I Never Knew", "Please Come Home" and "Strum" were some of them. Some have been played live. I'll need to check youtube.

And of course the elusive and mythical "Ariel"

I believe the latest update on the 4:13 Dream companion disc is that the songs were supposedly recorded when Porl was still with the band. Now that there's a new line-up, it doesn't feel appropriate to release it as a stand alone album lest people consider it "the new Cure record." Maybe it will be released a bonus disc somewhere down the line after the new line-up records new songs. So yeah, we're never going to see it... if ever existed in the first place.

should've read "released as a bonus disc" and "if it ever existed in the first place"

And of course the elusive and mythical "Ariel"

Never knew about this film!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekYs8-XKjso

at this point does anyone really hold out hope that the Cure will again release a great new album? I don't.

I ain't holding my breath. I've heard that Robert pretty much manages the band directly at this point and they just go about their business doing tours as they choose. Nice work if you can get it.

I've seen clips from that film on Youtube over the years, but never the whole thing. I always enjoy watching footage from the Andy Anderson years.

Great album, no, but if they released one or two more as good at the s/t or 4:13 Dream I wouldn't complain. Those are nice albums.

Apparently The Cure have never played "Burn" in concert before last night in New Orleans? Sounds good.

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

Great album, no, but if they released one or two more as good at the s/t or 4:13 Dream I wouldn't complain. Those are nice albums.

Honestly, I'd rather they didn't. This is a band that, when it finally decides to go, really should go the hushed, spare final album with no final tour route. Not sure what to make of its current Morrissey-emulating model - no new album, occasional random show/tour, occasional slight shift in line-up ...

Man, it's so hard to point out just what's off about Jason's playing - I was going to say "too precise," but Boris was famous for being able to play the same part over and over, perfectly - but it's amazing how all these years later I still don't hear him as an adequate substitute. He just doesn't ... swing on those primal bits. Was "Burn" the last released Boris track?