The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me Poll

I'm tempted to go with "The Kiss" or "Shiver and Shake", but the 16-year old in me won't allow me to vote for anything other than "Just Like Heaven".

"The Kiss" is their best opening track in a catalog full of killer opening tracks. Voting for it without hesitation.

This is almost exactly what I was thinking when I clicked open the thread.

We should do a side 1/2/3/4 poll instead (even though it would be just as impossible)

I remember when John bought this album and played it for me; the last time I had as strong an avaricious reaction to music was when my brother first played his Controversy album for me in 1981.

I don't know what my mom thought about my obsession with this album; I used to play "The Kiss" over and over and over, then I started playing side 3 over and over and over, then I started playing side 2 over and over and over, then finally I taped it and gave the original back to John so he wouldn't pummel it and just listened to it over and over and over and over again.

I have to vote "Like Cockatoos" on this, except for that my real vote is going to "The Snakepit", by which I mean I'm voting "Hot Hot Hot!!!" which of course is a smokescreen for my vote for "The Kiss" the translates to "How Beautiful You Are..." because how could I possibly not vote for "Just Like Heaven" and "Catch" is a must-have but "Torture" is so alluring and grimy and nothing is as visceral as "All I Want" and I can't live without "One More Time" and FOR FUCK'S SAKE THIS WHOLE ALBUM IS FANTASTIC, EVEN THE TWO SONGS I DON'T LIKE ALL THAT MUCH ARE INDISPENSIBLE

My first Cure album and the soundtrack of that summer. This record changed my life.

I saw them on this tour, and the show we went to was broadcast on Radio 1. You could clearly hear my sister screaming "Robert!" between songs.

I am tempted to register many sockpuppets so I can vote for everything

― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 05:09

haha ^^^ this

voted for 'like cockatoos' though.

I have this album, need to give it a thorough audition. Now seems as good a time as any.

Voted for Hot Hot Hot (but it really *is* Just Like Heaven)

We should do a side 1/2/3/4 poll instead (even though it would be just as impossible)

OK, we can do a mock poll on this thread. Not sure if this will format properly:

A1 The Kiss 6:14
A2 Catch 2:44
A3 Torture 4:18
A4 If Only Tonight We Could Sleep 4:53

B1 Why Can't I Be You? 3:14
B2 How Beautiful You Are 5:14
B3 The Snakepit 6:59
B4 Hey You !!! 2:22

C1 Just Like Heaven 3:30
C2 All I Want 5:19
C3 Hot Hot Hot !!! 3:33
C4 One More Time 4:30
C5 Like Cockatoos 3:39

D1 Icing Sugar 3:49
D2 The Perfect Girl 2:34
D3 A Thousand Hours 3:23
D4 Shiver and Shake 3:28
D5 Fight 4:27

A The Kiss
B The Snakepit
C Just Like Heaven
D Shiver and Shake

Side B is the weakest, and the choice there was easy, but otherwise this is really tough!

A If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
B How Beautiful You Are
C Like Cockatoos
D A Thousand Hours

:D @ this album so far, especially Torture into If Only Tonight, awesome stuff

The drumming on this album is brilliant. They never really recovered after Boris left.

Oh shit, my copy doesn't have "Hey You!" on it :(

"You're just three sick holes that run like sores" is a lyric calculated to make one recoil. It stings.

A If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
B The Snakepit
C Like Cockatoos
D Shiver and Shake

A If only tonight we could Sleep
B How Beautiful are you
C Just Like Heaven
D Shiver and Shake

not ranking, but icing sugar is grebt.

A The Kiss
B The Snakepit
C what the hell this is impossible
D Fight

Haha, so you're a fan of the boiling, building agony-mounters! :D

(The Snakepit is awesome, but I'm not yet sure it's awesomer than, say, The Wailing Wall)

I've reached The Perfect Girl and this is a super album.

A1 The Kiss 6:14
B3 The Snakepit 6:59
C1 Just Like Heaven 3:30
D3 A Thousand Hours 3:23

On side A, I vacillate between "The Kiss" and "Catch".
On side B, it's "How Beautiful You Are..." and "The Snakepit".
On side C, it is literally all of them. fucking hell
On side D, it's "The Perfect Girl", "Shiver and Shake" and "Fight".

Like Dan this was my Cure gateway, but I gotta admit that the protracted introductions bore me now (Christgau: "Samey samey samey is the strategy--repeat repeat repeat repeat the same four-bar theme for sixteen, twenty-four, forty-eight, sixty-four bars"). I suppose I can defend them as proto-trance or something, but I won't bother, with the exception of "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep," whose Around the World in a Day version of Far Eastern music depends on samey samey samey.

I think the builds of "The Kiss" and "The Snakepit" are flat-out genius, rivalled in their catalog only by "Faith" and "All Cats Are Grey".

I still find absolutely charming their dilettantish approach to "world" music and different styles (fake French accordeons, fake sitars, sloppy funk work-outs etc).

I still think the video to "Why Can't I Be U?" is one of the funniest things ever filmed.

This album is the sound of a band having fun in the studio.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/the-cure-why-cant-i-be-you/1016802999/?icid=VIDLRV01

lol also why did I go all Prince for a second

with the help of red wine and heaps of drugs.

(xxpost)

I think the builds of "The Kiss" and "The Snakepit" are flat-out genius, rivalled in their catalog only by "Faith" and "All Cats Are Grey".

ooooh boy we're gonna have words (when I've worked out just how many awesome Cure build you've snubbed)

*builds

I'm more fond of "Open" as a, well, opener.

Some of The Cure's great builds aren't at the start of the song, see for instance the build to the second chorus of "The Promise"

looking forward to watching LJ school Dan on the cure

So much wisdom will be revealed.

Even something like "The Caterpillar" (which just came on) has a genuinely brilliant, in fact near-perfect build-up, introducing so many musical and emotional themes with busy percussion, playful piano leads and some dramatic off-kilter strings. It's not quite as spectacular as, say, "The Kiss" or "Pornography" or "Homesick" or whatever, but it further adds to the fact that Smith really knew how to write a motherfukken song, and REALLY knew how to make a song's sound work with its title and lyrical themes.

that should read "MERELY with busy percussion..."

The sounds and themes of a caterpillar.

Yeah, but also themes of doubt, of excitement, of confusion, hesitancy, which all tie in with the song's allegorical romantic purpose. All of these themes are musically conveyed by that 30-second intro.

My brother does an amazing fucking impression of how Robert Smith acts in videos.

yeah dude for practical intents and purposes 30 seconds is not long enough for something to qualify as a build in a Cure song

and both "Faith" and "All Cats Are Grey" are better than "Homesick"

You can have "All Cats Are Grey" any day of the week, amazing song. Not so sure about "Faith" yet. *amends iTunes selection*

When that water-drop sound-effect comes in with the keyboards, it's like the saddest moment in music or something

...and even then, it isn't my favourite track on the album (that would be "The Drowning Man")

No, "All Cats Are Grey" owns that album IMO (altho the segues on the second half are among the greatest achievements in Western music)

whoa

It's definitely up there ALMOST alongside "The Drowning Man" for me, somewhere near "The Funeral Party" in a sort-of tie for second. The organ/piano call and response in the outro as well...oh man.

i actually like "Hot Hot Hot!!!" the song is just so funky and fun. they were just throwing things at the wall and made a double album out of it. didn't like it as a single and agree with piscesx that "How Beautiful You Are" should have been the single instead. "A Thousand Hours" need to be on the album as it fits in at the perfect time. "Torture" is stunning, so heavy. i would probably only rank "Shiver and Shake" and "Hey You" in the meh category. the later might just be a product of being left off of the original CD version and never really found it's way back. my two cents in 2020 and good piece Alfred.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Thank you. I prefer the Mixed Up version of HHH!!! but the vocal is an intestinal cramp.

you’re an intestinal cramp

*groan*

I love this record and I really love the b-sides disc it came with. My favourite orange thing in the world.

https://www.popsike.com/pix/20120318/251020704065.jpg

omigod

Oh that is beautiful

I would cut Torture and Fight (both cheesy in similar ways) but the rest is perfect. Why Can’t I Be You also grates.
It took me a while to get into them but these days, besides the obvious ones, 1000 Hours (Dan you are crazy) and Icing Sugar are amongst my faves.

FOR HOW MUCH LOOOONGER CAN I CATERWAUL LIKE A SAD VULTURE INTO THIS WIIII-HIIIIII-HINND

https://ssl.adam.com/graphics/images/en/19578.jpg

I would ditch Snakepit, Shiver and Shake, Torture, and Fight. Only saving Hey You because the album title is in the lyrics and Hot Hot Hot because of the kervorkian remix.

saving Hey You because the album title is in the lyrics
the album title is literally the first line of the first track, "The Kiss"

Bonus, then I’m happy to ditch Hey You too! Are there other albums where the title appears in the lyrics to different songs?

All this debate underscores my point -- thanks to Alfred for singling it out -- that the band essentially provided a full array of choices and left you to decide what works best.

xp: Yes, Wish is another album that has two potential title tracks.

"The Snakepit" and "Torture" are among the best songs on the album, IMO.

At one point I'd turned this album into a very angry/disjointed playlist:

The Kiss
Torture
How Beautiful You Are...
The Snakepit
All I Want
Like Cockatoos
Shiver and Shake
Fight

^^^ 100% baller IMO

Also, I played "Fight" in high school English class after we discussed "Do not go gentle into that good night" and got a bunch of the honors metalheads into the album.

Yeah I dunno. I find Fight pretty cringey these days. And Torture is mostly ruined by that dated horn preset.

Snakepit, If Only Tonight and Cuckatoos are all-time though.

"Torture" has a cracker of a bass line.

Boris/Simon/Pearl are so good on this album

Listening to this straight through for the first time in ages and I severely underrate this album

every song on this is flawless even the bad ones

I listened to that bright orange 12" of b-sides more than the actual album. Also I really loved the cover art during this era of the Cure, aside from the music. My favorite of all their logos!

Amazed I still have my vinyl copy of this after regrettably purging so many good quality records and CDs during my teen years.

It's my favorite Cure album. I think "A Japanese Dream" and "Breathe" should've been on it instead of "Shiver and Shake" and "A Thousand Hours", but it was an embarrassment of riches really.

hi!

speaking of b-sides that should've replaced lesser album cuts, "a chain of flowers" is actually one of their best songs, full stop.