The Cure: Classic or Dud?

The Top is a great album but I tend to underrate it because of how much "Birdmad Girl" sometimes gets on my nerves.

(more specifically, the chorus to "Birdmad Girl")

weirdly that is the only song on the album i can't bring to mind immediately

like, i try to, and it's 'dressing up'

Does this help:

Oh I could be......... A POLARR BEEEEEEEEAH

hahaha

like a polar beh. euh.

It's imPOSSIBALL

I think "Birdmad Girl" would sound good in the hands of Ric Ocasek

i like that chorus

Sometimes I do. Sometimes it is the most irritating thing in the world.

Birdmad Girl is by far my fav song on The Top.

"Piggy in the Mirror" >>>>>>> "Birdmad Girl"

there is not one bad track on that album. not even sure there's a track that isn't great.

So they busted out "The Perfect Girl" the other night. First time in a quarter century.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/2016/don-haskins-center-el-paso-tx-7bf146b0.html

I will be impressed if they decide to do "Descent" one night.

def glad i decided to get tickets.

sounds like demand is pretty high at least in minneapolis at first it was going to be a "half show" at the Excel Center (hockey arena) where they blocked off half the arena with a big curtain but they've expanded it to a full arena show because of quick sales

Give me It is the only song I skip on the Top

lol that is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite

too chaotic for me - I find Shiver and Shake does that thing better

The Top was my first cure and often my favorite. I group it in my mind with purple rain, fried, and fegmania -- all great mid 80s neon colored pop psychedelia

Nice merch update here -- $25 for shirts is less than I expected:

http://craigjparker.blogspot.com/2016/05/new-merchandise.html

Give Me It is in my Cure top 5

The Top rules. While I can completely understand the shit that Wild Mood Swings gets, I'll never really understand why The Top has gotten so much flak over the years. I love almost every song on it (apart from 'Bananafishbones') and the title track and 'Wailing Wall' surely must rank as two of their most underrated songs. I've always liked 'Give Me It' (the live version on In Orange even more so) mostly because it is chaotic. 'Shake Dog Shake', 'Piggy In The Mirror', 'The Caterpillar', 'Dressing Up', 'The Empty World'... just great stuff.

The two Cure albums where the very first song made me sit up and go "oh shit" on first listen were Pornography and The Top. (Part of me wishes Andy Anderson had rejoined the band at some point over the past 30 years as a second drummer/percussionist.)

(Most of the others aren't bombastic enough to elicit an "oh shit" reaction, or don't kick off immediately, ie I eventually went "oh shit" at "The Kiss" but it took a while to get there)

'Shake Dog Shake' made for a great gig opener, too. I think Anderson's drumming on The Top is great, but they probably wouldn't have risked re-hiring him even if they'd wanted to, given the legendary stories about him freaking out on long tours.

I like Boris Williams a lot and think he is an integral part to the sound of The Cure when they went huge but I can't help listening to "The Lovecats" or The Top and wondering what might have been

I mean, imagine Andy drumming on "Hot Hot Hot!!!" for starters

The Top is amazing. I maintain the album Robert did by himself on drugs is his best stuff. Check the bass tone on this live version it's so siqqqqqqqqqqqq.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHfb-FYXaFM

Andy woulda put those neat hi-hat trills on 'Hot Hot Hot!!!', like he did on 'Birdmad Girl'

Oddly Anderson was briefly in the tribute band Cureheads and got fired for not turning up. What are the stories about him freaking out on tour? He's been with quite a variety of bands.

Getting into fights with security guards and smashing up hotel rooms.

Violent when drunk I seem to recall. Must have been quite a tour given the state RS was in at the time

...and Lol, too!

robert's bullying of the rest of the band is so ingrained in cure culture and it looks like he's still at it. there's some video of him clowning on simon's stuttering problem on stage a few nights ago. i love it.

More people have actually left The Cure than been fired, haven't they?

I mean, in terms of firings, there was Anderson and Tolhurst during the '80s and then Bamonte and O'Donnell in the '00s. All the others: Dempsey, Hartley, Gallup, Thornalley, O'Donnell (the first time), Thompson (both times) and Williams all left. Although rumour has it that Gallup has actually left and rejoined several times over the years between albums, though it's been kept quiet.

wtf is gallup really going to do with his life other than be the cure's bassist, come on.

being Robert's best mate. Isn't that full time?

"Shake Dog Shake" has become my favorite Cure opener

Seing all this The Top love makes me so happy. I think it's brilliant and criminally underrated, especially by the music press who just seem to copy/paste old reviews without actually listening to it.

it's probably my favourite cure album, next to disintegration (which was the second cure album I ever owned). definitely the two I play the most.

It's hard for me to say what my favourite Cure album is, really. The one thing I'm certain of is that it's never been Disintegration!

Don't get me wrong, I like Disintegration a lot, but I've always been mystified by its status as the Cure album one must hear, above any of them.

I suppose it's down to your entry point into the band, though... for me, I got into the pre-Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me stuff first, whereas someone who heard Disintegration first might rate it higher? Disintegration to me is like a ramped up version of Faith... Faith on steroids.

Disintegration is a bore. Don't be sorry.

hey now

disintegration was my first cure record and it took me a long time to love it (although i fell for "plainsong" immediately) but it's sorta got everything in there while also managing to sustain an incredible mood

idk what my favorite cure record is though. faith?

I got all I want (!) from glacially paced dour Cure listening to "Sinking."