The Cure: Classic or Dud?

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Omar raised this question in the "Why are you here?" thread. I put it forth to you all. Were Robert Smith and his ever-changing band musical giants or giant whiners?

― Dan Perry, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

both

― , Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

DUD

― Tom, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Dan, thanks for taking the load of my back. ;) So yeah Dud of course. Classic case of crap voice. The music is nothing special. Occasional decent single like 'A Forrest' but for the rest, it's Fat Bob innit? But I'm interested in how Ned is going to explain to us the appeal of The Cure (no, really!).

― Omar, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Sorry Tom? I didn't quite hear that. Classic, anyway. I don't claim to be their biggest fan, but listening to things like the Boys Don't Cry and Disintegration albums, the good stuff outweighs the duller moments quite comfortably.

― Ally C, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Absolutely classic in almost every conceivable way. The effortless switches from pop-punk squalling to moody atmospherics to venomous pathos to synth-pop typified by their output from '79 through '83 are impressive enough, but the fact that they went on to create pop masterpieces like _The Head On The Door_, _Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me_ and _Wish_ while retaining enough of their darkness to produce _Disintegration_ and _Bloodflowers_ makes them an essential band of the 80's and 90's. Even their lesser efforts have worthy moments (ie, "Want", "Treasure", "Jupiter Crash", "Trap", and "Gone!" from _Wild Mood Swings_, "Shake Dog Shake", "Piggy In The Mirror", "The Top" from _The Top_). And their remix album is pure money.

Anything to add, Ned?

― Dan Perry, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Classic, I 'spose. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but _Disintegration_ is very close indeed (overblown rock histrionics done flawlessly; luckily Smith doesn't whine on it much). Funny how so many of the criticisms of the band you hear refer to the concept of "Fat Bob"; in fact I'd say a lot of the attitudes towards British bands and artists on ILM seem to be heavily influenced by the media's portrayal of them.

― Tim, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

The Cure represented the finest of what the Euro art rock had to offer during the 80s. They were more majestic than Depeche Mode and less metallic than the cult. Classic in my book

― Luptune Pitman, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Forgive me...as I'm relatively new to this forum, I have a hard time with these polar extremes: ('classic'versus'dud'). In the case of the Cure, I couldn't say either term applies (although one could certainly tag them to individual Cure albums). Like many bands cited around here, the Cure have changed styles in as many albums, playing everything from funereal dirges through spritely, radio-friendly pop ditties and much inbetween. I'm not saying they're a "something for eveyone" band, but musically, they've been hard to pin-down. The one strike against them, however (beyond their tonsorial problems) would be Robert's inimitably distinctive (is that a repetitious statement? like "luminous glow" or "alien outworlder") voice, which is so firmly rooted in their 80's heyday. Even if the band were to put out a radically avant-garde album of the most cutting-edge styles and sounds conceivable, the second Robert opened his mouth and let out his signature wobbly warble, it'd be the old "oh, it's the Cure again." And if you can't get beyond his voice, then there's no point in ever purchasing a Cure album, regardless of era and/or particular incarnation. That said, I think they're a marvellously diverse singles band, but I could certainly see why some would avoid them like the plauge (ho ho, pardon the pun, Camus fans). Sorry, I'll shut up now. - Alex in NYC

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

classic. 'charlotte sometimes' is one of my favourite songs ever. each record up to and including disintegration is worth owning and even the one after disintegration is not horrible. i have no interest in them now but robert smith's guitar sound is far more influential than he gets credit for. without robert smith there would likely not be a roy montgomery, at least not in his current guise and that would be a devastating tragedy at least for myself.

― keith, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

What seems to predomine here is "I'm not actively into them NOW, but I spent the first half of my teens with the Cure on my walkman". At least I did. I believe this means classic.

― Simon, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Re: classic or dud polarisation.

The idea is to encourage people to be forthright in their opinion but it's not a vote or anything. It's a catchier way of saying "what do you think of this band?"

Cheers!

(PS: Dud. A couple of the singles are nice musically, even very good, but they have Smith's horrible smeared moan over the top of them. He sounds like a fourteen-year-old with a splinter in his toe: there's something wheedling about his voice which makes me want to smack him and tell him to get a grip rather than empathise with him.)

― Tom, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Classic. Part of my yoof, you see. I've whiled away many an unhappy evening in the company of 'Faith' and 'Seventeen Seconds'!

Seriously.. though it seems the norm to slag 'em off these days, it's amazing just how much good stuff they have done. 'Boy's Don't Cry'/'3 Imaginary Boys' is a great debut, whichever version you have. Scratchy wired glum-pop. In fact it's all classic up to 'The Top', their first major clunker.

'Head on the Door' is great pop. 'Kiss Me X3' is also great pop ('Just Like Heaven'), except where they try too hard to make great pop and fail ('Hot, Hot, Hot'). 'Disintegration' is their last great album. But not pop. No problem.

My last encounter with The Cure was 'Wild Mood Swings'. I swung my copy back from whence it came - Record and Tape Exchange. Still, 'Galore' sums up the later years nicely.

Anyway I like old Bob, a pop man at heart even in his gloomiest moments.

― Dr. C, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

I think I've been asked for at least twice in this thread already. ;-)

Classic. And if you disagree with me I'll shove all twenty or so CDRs of rare and odd stuff I have of theirs down your throat and kill you. *proceeds to light candles to huge _Disintegration_ poster in room*

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Classique. They have enough great tunes and came up with some pretty original sounds. I like how they continually evolve, even if some of their evolution has produced some crap music. I could still listen to "Jumping Someone Else's Train" repeatedly after all these years. I heard some of their last record and it was really bad though. And kill that "Friday I'm in Love" dung, boys! But for the most part, great stuff.

― Tim Baier, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Classic, though their most recent stuff sucks.

The Cure are a band who, like Depeche Mode and a number of others of that ilk, should have just hung it up on December 31, 1989. Their glory days were in the 1980s, Disintegration should have been their last album. It would have been a perfect ending. Instead, they chose to put out three subpar releases in the 1990s. While Bloodflowers was a definite improvement over Wild Mood Swings (did *anyone* like that album?) and Wish (which came out at the peak of my Cure fandom and still disappointed me), it still wasn't close to the material they released during the 1980s.

Yeah, some of their stuff is whiny and pretentious. But I think they manage to pull it off reasonably well, and I think the whininess and the pretentiousness will make them staples of every sad-sack high school kid for the next thirty years, whether they continue to release new albums or not. (And hopefully they won't, judging from the poor quality of their most recent albums--I think that the more bad stuff they release, the less "legendary" they'll become.)

By the way, I *was* a teenage goth girl. I was also an early-20s goth girl. I own a velvet and lace cape and little pointy boots and black lipstick. Heh.

― Nanette, Wednesday, 28 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

Nanette, I'd argue that _Wish_ is a very underrated album. Its mood is radically different from _Disintegration_, which is one thing that I think threw people off when it came out. I, for one, really dig the snarlier tone of "Open", "Cut", "FTEOTDGS", and "End" and their juxtaposition with more contemplative "Apart", "Trust", and "To Wish Impossible Things". _Wish_ also has "High", which I consider to be the last truly great pop song that the Cure did.

_Wild Mood Swings_ is more problematic. It's a very erratic album and contains a couple of songs that never should have seen the light of day ("Mint Car", "Return"). However, it also contains the absolutely marvelous "The 13th", "Want", "Gone!" and "Jupiter Crash". Some judicious editing (and swapping some album tracks for b-sides) would make this a much better album.

For me, _Bloodflowers_ compares very well to their 80's output. It seems that the group got back into a good songwriting groove for this album, which is particularly evident on "Out Of This World", "The Loudest Sound", "The Last Day Of Summer", "Bloodflowers", and "Watching Me Fall" (Cure cliches and all). The album has a strong sense of flow and there are no embarrassing attempts to rewrite "Friday I'm In Love". It was a good ending for them, assuming that Robert's latest pronouncements about the band's demise are actually true this time.

There are individual songs I don't like, and _Wild Mood Swings_ is easily my least- favorite of their albums, but I'd be hard-pressed to say that I actively dislike any of the Cure's albums.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 28 March 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

one month passes...

I'm in sympathy with the way that the 'classic' brigade have articulated that they love the band even though they can see their sillinesses, repetitions and limitations. Possibly a lot of pop love is of this kind.

― the pinefox, Saturday, 28 April 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink

one year passes...

The Cure are damned by having so many annoying fans.

They have many good tunes. However, they have many bad ones, viz "Friday I'm In Love".

Still, at their best they show an impressive ability to make both poppy goth jumpathons and total doomfests.

― DV, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Dud. Possibly something worthwhile beyond Smith's vocals, but I can't get past them.

― DeRayMi, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I've had a love/hate relationship with The Cure that had long since given way to indifference. but recently I've listened again to Robert Smith's 1983 collaboration album with Steve Severin - The Glove is great! (probably like how I'd rather listen to the Andy Partridge solo album Take Away/Lure Of Salvage than most XTC.)

as with many Cure detractors, Bob's voice and self-pity usually get to me. still have fond memories of Seventeen Seconds and Faith but I also enjoy some later stuff where twisted humour, all of Pornography, or tenderness, "The Upstairs Room" and "Birdmadgirl", balance out the self-loathing and sappiness.

the Laurence Tolhurst abuse didn't help Robert Smith's case (and John McGeoch was a better Banshee).
― Paul, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

stop

― Paul, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

The Cure are fucking appalling. As someone else already keenly observed - a classic case of having a fucking awful voice. I mean I don't mind some of the musicianship but fatboy Smith is such a twat. Really.

I had a girlfriend once who was into these boys hard and she used to play is it 'Pictures of You' (?) over and over and over (a sort of pining for a lost love I think; not me, incidentally). Anyway, it used to bore the hell out of me, not to mention what felt like a large hole in my brain.

The thing is, with the Cure, it's like the Manic Street FUCKING Preachers syndrome - people who like 'em don't just like 'em, they fucking LOVE 'em, and think they're prophets or something. No, they are miserable, half-goths with absolutely nothing to say and even less charisma.

That said, I am admit that I am hardly familiar know their canon, since I can't bear exposure to it for protracated periods.

Still; DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUD

― Roger Fascist, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Actually, I think it's that the boring protestations of those who don't 'get' the music always have to be matched by those who emphatically do. One defines the other ..

― Dare, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Not at all, Paul. There's something about The Cure and The Preachers that triggers fervour of a disturbing religiosity in people's heads, well, in my experience anyway. And if you wanna put that to the test, gently question a more avid fan and watch them twist like they was shackled to the cross.

Hmm, having said that, I do get riled when someone fails to 'get' my favourite bands and indulges in the kind of mindless attack I have already posted against The Cure. Yet, I feel that certain bands are wont to attract a more dependent following, who hang the band's music like metaphorical rosaries. And I'm not sure that even among my most beloved artists, there are those which I could hold in such equally mindless esteem.

What say you?

― Roger fascist, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

two months pass...

If i brooded around and had a aweful voice, would i be as good as the cure, which coincidently, isnt even good to begin with

DUD

― Hayward, Thursday, 3 October 2002 02:11 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Oddly enough, I've never really sought out their albums; I'm sure I'll get around to it, but I'm pretty sure they'll always be available... Pretty much all of their singles, though, are flat-out amazing - how could they not be classic?

― Clarke B., Thursday, 3 October 2002 04:37 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

The albums are SO WORTH IT, Clarke.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 3 October 2002 11:13 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Quite.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 3 October 2002 23:38 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

hmmmmmmm .............
dud

― donna (donna), Friday, 4 October 2002 01:02 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I'm exactly like Clarke. Always loved what I heard, but only own 'Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me'... Last year I told a friend of mine that the reason for this is because I pretty much know that I'll like them and am just 'saving it'. Is this like some weird Cure phenomena?

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 01:39 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I LOVE THE CURE. They fill a niche that no other band does. From the acutely depresso Pornography stuff to the silly dance stuff to the haunting gothy Faith stuff to the blatant sunshine pop... they've done all this convincingly and well. Did they invent the drugged up goofy romantic miserable goth ecstatic giddy thing?

Yet I do wonder how much my own nosatlgia plays a role. I still think Wish is great, despite every. review. ever. written. Maybe if I hadn't listened to it for the 1st time as a teenager travelling thru Europe with schoomates I'd think differently.

― Aaron A., Friday, 4 October 2002 03:43 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Where to start, Ned and Dan? I'm thinking _Pornography_, but some of their _Disintegration_-era stuff kills me (esp. "Lovesong").

Also, I really really like the Wolfgang Press song on _Lonely is an Eyesore_, but I've heard their recordings are pretty patchy. Any recommendations there?

― Clarke B., Friday, 4 October 2002 05:30 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

In your place I'd start with 17 Seconds, Clarke. It has their greatest song on it, "A Forest" and I find it the darkest and most powerful of their records. A lot of their stuff didn't age too well (even Disintegration), but this record definitely stood the test of time.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 4 October 2002 07:03 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I wouldn't go for _Pornography_ first; I think I'd get _Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me_ and the cassette version of _Standing On A Beach_ in order to get the b-sides.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 October 2002 11:04 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Classic until "Stranding on a Beach" came out, after which they descended into the depths of self-parody.

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:37 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I kinda saved them also, Kim - owned the two singles compilations for years before actually buying my first proper album (Disintegration) just this year. Though I do like it, it hasn't swayed me into snatching up the others yet. Maybe in another four years I'll get another one.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:51 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

They fill(ed?) a niche no one else did (which I usually characterize as "Harlequin romance rock") and they did a perfectly accomplished and unique job of it most of the time but it's not one I care to listen to much at all. I can play Pornography maybe a couple times per year and it's sometimes nice to hear the singles on the radio but overall there's not a big connection. And I couldn't imagine sitting through a whole album of stuff like "In Between Days" or "Let's Go to Bed". The singles comp (Staring At the Sea?) is probably as much as I'd need of that. I'd buy Disintegration if I thought I'd ever listen to it. Wish and Wild Mood Swings were awful.

― sundar subramanian, Friday, 4 October 2002 18:32 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I honestly cannot comprehend how _Wish_ is AWFUL.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 October 2002 18:34 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

the cure were/are one of the best bands for dancing to whilst only wearing underwear...hopefully not by yourself...

― g (graysonlane), Friday, 4 October 2002 18:47 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Ok, I'm a liar. I totally forgot that I also had 'Standing on a Beach' on cassette - played it to death. I don't have it anymore though. I think my brother "borrowed" it and never gave it back! Ooooh...that little...

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:39 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

I like just like heaven, I'm going to get Kiss me times 3.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:43 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

classic classic classic and why should you not dance to the cure in underwear by yourself! unless you are wearing the underwear out to the goth dance club, of course.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:44 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Have you ever been to a goth dance club? Underwear as outerwear is pretty much de rigeur.

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:48 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Clarke, start with Disintegration first, and then try Seventeen Seconds and then Pornography. I've argued elsethread about this already so I won't go into the details here...just click the link, cause there's a lot of other good talk there anyhow.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:55 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

Pretend that there's a smiley at the end of my last post. I sound like a meanie otherwise.

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:57 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

ten months pass...

"And yet Robert Smith - the Chatterton of Crawley - had created if not a wall of sound then a very high hedge of sound, over which he seemed to peer at the world like a boy who couldn't be bothered to ask for his ball back."

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

― etc, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 08:54 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

"Join the Dots" (B Sides and rarities) is out on October 21st. I presume it'll have the much talked about Cassette b sides from Standing on a Beach on it, but does anyone know that actual tracklisting is?

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 09:05 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

Hopefully it'll have the stuff off "curiosity", too. And that soundtrack they did.

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.

― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:04 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

Hopefully it'll have the stuff off "curiosity", too. And that soundtrack they did.

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.

― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:42 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

Skipping 940 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

What's really kind of funny about that (in a dark way) is that Wish contains a rather large number of references to heroin use.

― Austin, Monday, 13 March 2017 21:15 (seven months ago) Permalink

I never saw PSB as part of that collection of 80's bands. Nor did they, really - if you read their book 'Literally' you'll discover that they were really surprised to be lumped in with "rad" bands like OMD and U2 when they came to States and instead considered themselves more in the lineage of club music and Madonna. Perhaps they faded out of the alternative music view over time but for the global gay community they remained urgent and they still managed to craft a great contemporary dance pop track ever few years or so.

In comparison, U2 and the Cure have basically been inert since the mid 90s, totally comfortable being touring businesses.

― yesca, Monday, 13 March 2017 23:52 (seven months ago) Permalink

The era surrounding Bilingual was probably the first time I can really remember reading anything negative about the Pet Shop Boys. Of course, it wasn't the end: they've given us Fundamental and Electric and Bilingual itself is actually a great record. At the time, though, they'd been releasing records for over 10 years, so did feel like a veteran band.

― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Tuesday, 14 March 2017 00:09 (seven months ago) Permalink

one month passes...

The Cure's new single is called Lady Gaga? Wossthatallabout?

― Mark G, Monday, 17 April 2017 20:58 (six months ago) Permalink

Haha!

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 17 April 2017 21:51 (six months ago) Permalink

http://thequietus.com/articles/22262-the-cure-kiss-me-kiss-me-kiss-me-review-anniversary

"Ned Raggett slips back 30 years in time to reassess the double album The Cure released when they were first making footholds in America."

― ArchCarrier, Monday, 24 April 2017 15:03 (five months ago) Permalink

Ah, I enjoyed reading that. Although, if I had to rank The Cure's '80s releases, I'd probably put Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me at the bottom, although I'd have to point out that their '80s run is ludicrously strong from top to bottom.

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 15:28 (five months ago) Permalink

My favorite. It has everything I love about them. The long slow burning songs, the aggressive dark ones, the quirky pop hits, and the experimental weird stuff. Best b-sides era too.

― LeRooLeRoo, Monday, 24 April 2017 15:41 (five months ago) Permalink

I love that bright orange KIss Me b-sides 12" so much, more than the album really

― erry red flag (f. hazel), Monday, 24 April 2017 15:54 (five months ago) Permalink

Well I mean I forgot the album has Just Like Heaven, which is probably one of the ten best pop songs ever written by anyone

― erry red flag (f. hazel), Monday, 24 April 2017 15:54 (five months ago) Permalink

My favorite. It has everything I love about them. The long slow burning songs, the aggressive dark ones, the quirky pop hits, and the experimental weird stuff. Best b-sides era too.

My feelings exactly.

― nate woolls, Monday, 24 April 2017 16:47 (five months ago) Permalink

I think the first half of the album is mostly strong and full of highlights, but that stretch of songs from 'One More Time' up to 'Fight' is the least essential batch of '80s Curesongs. I reckon it would have been vastly improved by including some of the B-sides and trimming it down a bit.

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 16:58 (five months ago) Permalink

One More Time, Like Cockatoos & The Perfect Girl are among my favs from this LP. We have wildly differing opinions on that stretch of songs.

― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 24 April 2017 17:01 (five months ago) Permalink

I like 'The Perfect Girl' ... that'd definitely make the LP if I was doing some trim-it-down-to-a-single-LP exercise, the other two I'd probably relegate to B-sides. The problem I have with 'One More Time' is that I think that they did the same type of song better on 'The Funeral Party' ...

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:07 (five months ago) Permalink

I'm more eager to ditch Torture, Fight, Shiver and Shake, The Kiss, and The Snakepit. I'm just not that angry and sad anymore. I used to enjoy wallowing in that misery, but I can't relate anymore.

― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 24 April 2017 17:22 (five months ago) Permalink

My essential list from KM^3 would include The Kiss, Catch, How Beautiful You Are..., The Snakepit, Just Like Heaven, All I Want, One More Time, Like Cockatoos, The Perfect Girl, and Fight. As a unit, side 3 is my favorite part of the album.

― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:27 (five months ago) Permalink

aw cmon the guitar on the Snakepit is A+++ xp

― People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:28 (five months ago) Permalink

all i can remember of Snakepit is 'writhing, writhing, writhing in the snakepit'. Maybe i'll actually listen to it again. It's been a very long time since i've actually heard it.

― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 24 April 2017 17:35 (five months ago) Permalink

and my eyes feel like they're bursting and they're splitting like plums

― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:43 (five months ago) Permalink

^^^ that line alone makes the song indispensible

― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:43 (five months ago) Permalink

'Torture' has lyrics which come across as gloomy when read cold off paper, but the music basically ensures that I'll never be able to take 'em seriously. "It's torture/and I'm almost there" with those synth horn stabs etc. Also, "hanging like this/like a vampire bat" I think is a fucking hilarious lyric in the sense that it sounds like an Automated Random Goth Lyric Generator(tm) came up with it.

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:48 (five months ago) Permalink

'The Snakepit' used to bore the shit out of me and I could never understand why, because there's many Curesongs that do what 'The Snakepit' does: a two chord groove that doesn't seem to go anywhere in a hurry. It grew on me eventually, but when I heard it for the first time it gave me the impression that the band weren't even trying.

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:50 (five months ago) Permalink

1. The Kiss
2. Torture
3. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
4. Why Can't I Be You?
5. How Beautiful You Are
6. Just Like Heaven
7. All I Want
8. Hot Hot Hot!!!
9. The Perfect Girl
10. The Snakepit

^ My 10 track Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me right there.

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 17:52 (five months ago) Permalink

10 track KMKMKM - in order they appear on the album

1. Catch
2. How Beautiful You Are
3. Just Like Heaven
4. All I Want
5. One More Time
6. Like Cockatoos
7. The Perfect Girl

Hmm, that's only 7, so toss in:

8. If Only Tonight We Can Sleep
9. Why Can't I Be You
10. Hot Hot Hot

― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 24 April 2017 18:20 (five months ago) Permalink

I'm glad we are all agreeing that side 3 is fire

― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Monday, 24 April 2017 18:25 (five months ago) Permalink

These days "Icing Sugar" is the song I'm most likely to put on from that album. So kickass

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 24 April 2017 19:57 (five months ago) Permalink

'Icing Sugar' is one of those tracks that I can remember the music for with the click of a finger, but I can never remember the top line on it. It's a great piece of rhythm section work, kinda their version of a Duran Duran middle 8 circa 1982 or something. It sounds unfinished, though, like there should be more to it.

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 20:27 (five months ago) Permalink

Thanks for the kind words! Fun to write this.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 April 2017 21:02 (five months ago) Permalink

Great article! It's probably my favorite album of theirs for nostalgic reasons, I think I was 14 when it came out and evidently needed "an album to drown in" as you say. Side 3 is great, Like Cockatoos punches all naysayers straight in the chops.

― orifex, Monday, 24 April 2017 22:19 (five months ago) Permalink

can never understand why How Beautiful.. wasn't a single. the Bob Clearmountain remix on the box set is a bloody marvel. supposedly Chris Parry wanted him to (re)mix the entire album? i'd like to have heard that.

― piscesx, Monday, 24 April 2017 22:30 (five months ago) Permalink

I love Clearmountain's work on Roxy Music's Avalon. I think his remix of Free's 'All Right Now' is great. I loathe that 'How Beautiful You Are' mix, though.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Monday, 24 April 2017 22:50 (five months ago) Permalink

'A Chain of Flowers' — quite possibly my overall favorite Cure song.

― Austin, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 00:00 (five months ago) Permalink

'Icing Sugar' is one of those tracks that I can remember the music for with the click of a finger, but I can never remember the top line on it. It's a great piece of rhythm section work, kinda their version of a Duran Duran middle 8 circa 1982 or something. It sounds unfinished, though, like there should be more to it.

I get what you're saying but I feel the opposite. I love the long instrumental and the short vocals in that song. I think it fits perfectly with the theme of the lyrics. It's an unusual melody that Robert sings incredibly, and he tells the whole story with just a few lines. Even the drum-less version from the orange vinyl was very cool.

― LeRooLeRoo, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 00:08 (five months ago) Permalink

a marvelous read, Ned. You had fun writing it.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 00:14 (five months ago) Permalink

Darn right!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 00:34 (five months ago) Permalink

If I could switch any album tracks with B-sides, I would replace "One More Time" with "Breathe" and "Shiver and Shake" with "A Japanese Dream". I'd also try to squeeze "To The Sky" somewhere on the album.

― LeRooLeRoo, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 01:20 (five months ago) Permalink

That Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is leagues ahead of Wild Mood Swings shouldn't even need to be said, but Wild Mood Swings is definitely another Cure album that would have benefited from having some of the lesser tracks swapped out and replaced with B-sides and trimmed down.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 01:32 (five months ago) Permalink

I latched onto the Cure with Standing On a Beach (note the indefinite article!) and played it along with the B-sides to death, then dove into the albums in pretty much reverse order. My first new release as a fan was KMKMKM and I remember feeling I had missed the peak and they would be diluted from here on, which I still feel really. Disintegration is excellent but feels a little calculated, and Wish snapped the thread of my fandom - I never bought it and have never regretted that; I did enjoy the Trilogy DVD though. The Cure are basically three modes for me - feral pop (3IB, THOtD, The Top etc.), focused angst (the early trilogy and Disintegration) and fan service (Wish onwards). I know, get off my lawn etc.

― attention vampire (MatthewK), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 01:46 (five months ago) Permalink

guys i found the best site ever http://cureforall.eklablog.com/audio-c24555404

― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 03:28 (five months ago) Permalink

That'll keep ya busy.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 04:38 (five months ago) Permalink

Neat.

― Austin, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 04:43 (five months ago) Permalink

still super-duper looking fwd to my contributor copy of that live compilation put together here!

― (±\ PLO;;;;;;; Style (sic), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 11:12 (five months ago) Permalink

Wait you NEVER got that?

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 14:11 (five months ago) Permalink

Slicing Up Eyeballs is doing a Cure poll at the moment: http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/04/24/vote-for-your-favorite-cure-songs/

It will be interesting to see how the results compare to the one done on this board a couple years ago.

― LeRooLeRoo, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 14:43 (five months ago) Permalink

The very first time I listened to "The Kiss," I shut it off after the first few seconds thinking the tape was warped. I went back to the record store, told them I had a defective cassette, and they exchanged it for another copy. I popped in my new copy of the album and realized it was supposed to sound that way.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is my go-to suggestion whenever anybody asks what they should listen to as an introduction to the Cure. I feel like out of all their albums, it's the only one which really tried to show off the full range of what they were capable of doing. Well, Wild Mood Swings tried it too (and I actually like WMS), but Kiss Me did it better.

― Ex Slacker, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 14:51 (five months ago) Permalink

Hmm. I'm not convinced it does show off the full range of what The Cure do, but then I'm not sure any Cure album does.

Just like Disintegration is Faith for stadiums, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me just builds on the template set by The Top and particularly The Head on the Door, but twice as long and with filler.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 15:03 (five months ago) Permalink

I designed the cover for that ILM live comp and also never got one!

― orifex, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 18:00 (five months ago) Permalink

me neither!

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 20:03 (five months ago) Permalink

Huh. Okay you three (counting (sic)), contact me -- ned at kuci dot org -- and I'll arrange something.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 21:02 (five months ago) Permalink

one month passes...

Hi folks,

An Amazon mix up means I now have two copies of the Pornography and The Top deluxe editions.

I'm happy to send them to the first EU Ilxor who PMs me. This site allows private messages, right?

Sorry non-Europeans, but shipping elsewhere becomes difficult.

― Duke, Sunday, 18 June 2017 21:13 (four months ago) Permalink

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