The Cure: Classic or Dud?

the "cure=suburbia" part of Michael Bracewell's England Is Mine is one of the best things ever!

Classic, BTW. Again, my mid-teens coincided with Disintegration and I was full-on obsessed for a couple of years. I bought a shedload of albums at Oxfam last year, and a friend and I drove our GF/wives insane by listening, back to back, to 17 Seconds, Faith, Pornography and the Top. Divorce was on the horizon by the end of that evening.

Thing is, there are SO many B-sides and rarities which have officially surfaced that they'd have to put out a box set. As it is, if the remasters that are surfacing next year are going to include bonus discs for each with room for other oddities, then that will partially settle the problem.

Shake Dog Shake
Fascination Street
A Strange Day
A Night Like This
Lovesong
Push
Sinking
Pictures Of You
Lullaby
Lovecats
Maybe Someday
In Your House
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
M
Charlotte Sometimes
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
Hey You!!!
Play For Today
A Forest

Fire In Cairo (as a 3 piece)
Grinding Halt (as a 3 piece)
10.15 Saturday Night
Boys Don't Cry
I Dig You (with Porl Thompson and Frank The Postman)
I'm A Cult Hero (with Porl Thompson and Frank The Postman),
Close To Me
Let's Go To Bed
Why Can't I Be You
Friday I'm In Love

Fucking hell, just reading that through sends me into space. I'm still shellshocked.

Genius.

!!!!!!

And yes, Frank the postman showed up in all his voluminous glory, the first time they've done any Cult Hero material in (10 years according to Robert).

And was not Charlie saying some months back about how the band has fallen off recently? UNDESERVING INFIDEL! But I will not bear a grudge. Yet.

And I maintain my viewpoint, no doubt. Friday's only iffy moment came 11 songs in, when some (relatively) unfamiliar chords struck up - "What is this," I thought to myself with a grimace, "Joan Osborne's 'One Of Us'?" But no, it was in fact "Maybe Someday".

The Cure should've stopped recording new music after Wish (or more specifically, if you like, after "Fear Of Ghosts"). I love them still, but I shall not be moved on this matter.

Porl, remarkably, is now jobbing as the band's guitar tech!

Wait, what? So essentially he and Perry B. have completed the circle.

Anyway. First batch of reissues in a month. EXCITED!

I am naturally using all my spider-senses to procure a mixing desk feed of the show. I'll be absolutely amazed if nobody recorded it, but nothing yet. Ned, you will be the f...oooh, among the first to know when I find it!

That I had heard, seems to make sense! They and Depeche should just finally tour together. ;-)

In all seriousness, thanks for any leads you might have!

Actually I think Dan was born in 1974 and he went through all that shift you did except he kept loving the Cure as well. Rah!

But for many of us born in or around 1974, this issue is fairly cut and dried. For a decade, The Cure made (mostly) great, emotive music to match the self-indulgent drama of teen angst. I too, found romance with a girl because of it. She was into Sylvia Plath 'n shit and thought Robert Smith was really good at painting with words in his lyrics. I felt the same. Even his terrible voice was welcomed as a strike for the blemished and the meek (read 'indie') against mainstream, hard-rock masculinity (what we call 'bogans' in Australia).

Then, as Paul and others have pointed out, we came of legal age in the early 90's and were lucky enough to be doing so right when music got a huge shot in the arm - with much better drugs and, yes, prettier girls. How convenient it was to feel disillusioned with "Wish" and all Cure work since. But my best efforts at objectivity still tell me, as they do to so many others, that The Cure are 80's classics and 90's duds. You can neatly bookend the best of this band up to and including "Disintegration".

I was born in 1973 and I approve this post.

On Saturday, they're headlining the Pinkpop Festival (after Editors) - there's going to be a livestream on Friday-Saturday-Sunday, several bands are announced already, just not the headliners.
Maybe those haven't decided if they want to be live streamed yet (Friday: Twenty One Pilots / Saturday: The Cure / Sunday: Foo Fighters) - this is the current schedule and also the page where the stream should be:

https://3voor12.vpro.nl/artikelen/pinkpop-livestream-tijdschema-2026

^ update: The Cure has been added to the streaming schedule. The complete set, two hours, Saturday

mailing list links:

Pinkpop, Saturday evening https://www.thecure.com/news/live/pinkpop/

Isle of Wight Festival, Sunday evening, UK ONLY :( - https://www.sky.com/watch/isle-of-wight-festival-2026

Thanks for all these updates StanM, as this point in time shows are fun to keep track of.

oh they are showing bits of some festival on sky arts tonight which is free to air. i wonder if Sunday night will also be? yes, according to TV listings