― Dan Perry, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― , Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tom, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Omar, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ally C, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Anything to add, Ned?
― Tim, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Luptune Pitman, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alex in NYC, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― keith, Monday, 26 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Simon, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim Baier, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
_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 (twenty-one years ago) link
― the pinefox, Saturday, 28 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
― DeRayMi, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty years ago) link
― Paul, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
― Dare, Monday, 29 July 2002 00:00 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
DUD
― Hayward, Thursday, 3 October 2002 02:11 (twenty years ago) link
― Clarke B., Thursday, 3 October 2002 04:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 3 October 2002 11:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 3 October 2002 23:38 (twenty years ago) link
― donna (donna), Friday, 4 October 2002 01:02 (twenty years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 01:39 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 4 October 2002 07:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 October 2002 11:04 (twenty years ago) link
― TMFTML (TMFTML), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 4 October 2002 17:51 (twenty years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Friday, 4 October 2002 18:32 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 October 2002 18:34 (twenty years ago) link
― g (graysonlane), Friday, 4 October 2002 18:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:39 (twenty years ago) link
― jel -- (jel), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:43 (twenty years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:44 (twenty years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:48 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Friday, 4 October 2002 20:57 (twenty years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
― flowersdie (flowersdie), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 09:05 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (nineteen years ago) link
Suddenly I stopAnd I know it's too late69ing in a forestAll alone
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:48 (three months ago) link
I have questions
― castanuts (DJP), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:49 (three months ago) link
Also:
Fall fall fall fallInto the wallJump, jump out of timeFall fall fall fallOut of the skyCover my faceWhile the animals 69
― castanuts (DJP), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:50 (three months ago) link
The album title's a METAPHOR, god
― imago, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:54 (three months ago) link
Xp
Sometimes we would spend the nightJust 69ing on the floorAnd even though it felt soft at the timeI always used to wake up sore
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 18:07 (three months ago) link
Show me show me show meShow me how you 69 that trick
(If you will.)
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 18:08 (three months ago) link
You remember that day in ParisWhen we wandered through the rainAnd promised to each otherThat we'd always sixty-nineAnd dreamed that dreamTo be two souls as one
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 18:21 (three months ago) link
I would say I’m sorryIf I thought that you would 69
― castanuts (DJP), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 18:51 (three months ago) link
This is stranger than I thoughtSix different ways inside my heartAnd every one I’ll keep tonightSix different ways to 69
― castanuts (DJP), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 18:55 (three months ago) link
Wait, just occurred to me that we haven't done the joke in the opposite (Magnetic Fields) direction.
The book of lovecats is long and boring
― the floor is guava (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 20:13 (three months ago) link
I really want a cover of Lost that undoes all the ugly production/screaming and really knows what to do with that bassline - the latter swoops in and out a la Swastika Eyes in the version in my head
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 17 October 2022 13:05 (three months ago) link
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 17 October 2022 15:05 (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
Such a pity this wasn't seventeen seconds ago.
― giraffe, Monday, 17 October 2022 13:24 (three months ago) link
<ding>
Another new song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD_Eumowa5Q
Musically sounds like they calculated the exact median between Homesick and Untitled, then went from there. Lyrically it is (unusually) openly about the death of his brother, there was a bit of a preamble about it too. Followed up with the most committed version of Disintegration I've seen in years and years.
Really hope this new album is well-recorded. The new songs sound Disintegration-y but with (even) less variation - reminds me a bit of that last Pink Floyd album The Endless River, where every song sounds a bit like another song and the resulting effect creates a kind of ambient rock feel.
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Friday, 21 October 2022 00:47 (three months ago) link
Stunning, I want this album NOW.
― Bee OK, Friday, 21 October 2022 01:10 (three months ago) link
Another new song, Fargile Thing;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmxUSFj8p1o
― Bee OK, Saturday, 5 November 2022 22:00 (three months ago) link
Sorry, song is actually called "A Fragile Thing.'
― Bee OK, Saturday, 5 November 2022 22:08 (three months ago) link
i preferred the original title
― dogdick solanke (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 5 November 2022 22:42 (three months ago) link
Yeah, "Fargile Thing" would be a great title.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 5 November 2022 22:47 (three months ago) link
probably my least favourite of the new songs? the closest musically to that Bloodflowersy MOR plod - underwhelming drum patterns have killed a lot of latter-day Cure songs for me and this feels like another casualty
musing on what an Actually Good Cure LP might sound like in 2022, I thought that it could be great if they took Laughing Stock as a jumping-off point - really leaning into sparseness and silence, taking that lovely facility for constructing interlocking melody parts and deconstructing it- minimal goth pastoral, if you will
(admittedly it is a weird pastime daydreaming about how beloved legacy band might make interesting creative choices, but I suppose ILM is a relatively safe space for this kind of thing)
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Saturday, 5 November 2022 23:18 (three months ago) link
Step 1: Sack JasonStep 2: *literally anything*Step 3: Brilliant album
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 5 November 2022 23:34 (three months ago) link
I just want the new album to drop already, obviously it's done. I only listen to these previews once or twice so they will be still sort of unknown when that finally happens.
― Bee OK, Sunday, 6 November 2022 00:10 (three months ago) link
xp tbh i am still pretty skeptical of Reeves Gabrels as a Cure member - recently someone on twitter posted video of his solo from From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea - and it sounds dumb but it struck me in a way it hadn’t before that a member of Tin Machine was in The Cure - and at that point I had to have a little lie down
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Sunday, 6 November 2022 00:14 (three months ago) link
Bee OK there was some talk on twitter that something would be released digitally before the end of the year (but vinyl wouldn’t be til 2023)
multiple pinches of salt required obviously
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Sunday, 6 November 2022 00:16 (three months ago) link
I don't see it happening this year because of Wish but it should happen in the first of 2023.
― Bee OK, Sunday, 6 November 2022 00:19 (three months ago) link
*First half
― Bee OK, Sunday, 6 November 2022 00:20 (three months ago) link
gabrels is a good guitar player but he is wanky in ways that the cure don't need; but generally speaking he kind of tones it down in the cure. which also means, I'm not sure why he needs to be there, or why it needs to be him.
― akm, Sunday, 6 November 2022 22:09 (three months ago) link
He and Jason certainly don't make the band *better*, at least not to my ears, so clearly Robert must just like having them around.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 6 November 2022 22:41 (three months ago) link
If Perry coming back means that Reeves gets to Wrong Number all over the new album, I can put up with Jason
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Sunday, 6 November 2022 23:10 (three months ago) link
I guess to Robert the lure of a Bowie guitarist was irresistible. I do like his work on Earthling altho it’s not remotely Cure-appropriate.
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 7 November 2022 00:01 (two months ago) link
I am an actual big Tin Machine fan and have a lot of time for Reeves as creative foil for Bowie - but yeah not at all sure that his aesthetic really sits well with the Cure, to AKM's point, he seems to be fairly diligently playing away from his own style and thus starts to feel a bit like a session muso
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Monday, 7 November 2022 01:01 (two months ago) link
He's pulled off less weird solos than I would have expected and that honestly is a plus. I was pretty impressed with the solo he did on "A Night Like This" when I last saw the band in 2016; I was expecting him to wave his dildo around but instead he did a really nice replacement of the sax solo part without replicating it.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 November 2022 01:03 (two months ago) link
Reeves’ wife spent a good amount of time chatting with me about him and the band on Twitter, it was very sweet
― castanuts (DJP), Monday, 7 November 2022 04:09 (two months ago) link
I think it’s obv that Robert and him get along well. They’ve been doing random collabs since the mid 90s. More puzzling to me is why he brought back Perry who doesn’t seem to be anything on stage and looks pretty miserable doing so.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, 7 November 2022 08:17 (two months ago) link
My theory is he has major dirt on Robert
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 7 November 2022 08:41 (two months ago) link
"he wears makeup, you know"
― StanM, Monday, 7 November 2022 09:00 (two months ago) link
BRING BACK LOL
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 7 November 2022 11:01 (two months ago) link
wowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXxiLwwmx4M
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 27 November 2022 01:13 (two months ago) link
wow indeed. I hope the music is healing, it's amazing to see him so engaged and present in his work after such a long time.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 27 November 2022 06:20 (two months ago) link
I'm not sure I approve of this kind of bleakness being unleashed on fans of The Cure - I mean, if I was in a bad enough place, I'm not sure this couldn't be the push. And I'm not even gloomy or depressed, usually.
― StanM, Sunday, 27 November 2022 08:07 (two months ago) link
I had avoided all of the new songs until now and oh my god, this is legit the best thing I’ve heard from them since 1992
― castanuts (DJP), Sunday, 27 November 2022 13:59 (two months ago) link
This new song has an extremely strong "Bloodflowers" vibe. Not saying that's a bad thing.
― ilxor, Wednesday, 30 November 2022 05:34 (two months ago) link
this guy knows what's up
― more crankable (sic), Wednesday, 30 November 2022 07:09 (two months ago) link
Good band imo
― even the birds in the trees seemed to whisper "get fucked" (bovarism), Tuesday, 13 December 2022 01:14 (one month ago) link
It's been rumored.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 December 2022 01:15 (one month ago) link
got my Wish deluxe edition in the mail today!
― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Tuesday, 13 December 2022 01:21 (one month ago) link
quite Disintegration heavy tonight. apart from Burn nothing later than Wish except for 4 new songs all of which I liked. amazing gig, super glad I went
― even the birds in the trees seemed to whisper "get fucked" (bovarism), Tuesday, 13 December 2022 02:10 (one month ago) link
I've had the Wish deluxe CDs on repeat in the car for a couple of weeks now. Lots of interesting bonus tracks and alternate arrangements.
― I can't tell if he's trolling or not (ilxor), Tuesday, 13 December 2022 05:14 (one month ago) link
Last night’s THIRTY TWO song setlist from @thecure at Wembley last night (2 hours and 37 minutes of utter bliss) pic.twitter.com/fiAmiq2G7G— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) December 14, 2022
― groovypanda, Thursday, 15 December 2022 11:35 (one month ago) link
Loving this Wish reissue a lot, really worthwhile demo material imho.
Made a Lost Wishes Plus playlist that adds the other instrumental demos that never ended up as album tracks or B-sides, just to ride the vibe.
1. "Uyea Sound"2. "Cloudberry"3. "Off To Sleep..."4. "The Three Sisters"5. "A Wendy Band"6. "T6"7. "T7"8. "T8"9. "Now is the Time"10. "Miss Van Gogh"11. "Abetabw"12. "Heart Attack"13. "Swing Change"14. "Frogfish"
might play around with the order, but was having fun with their naming convention for a few of the demos in that placement
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 21 December 2022 22:43 (one month ago) link
So there's a big ol' photo book out and I had things to say
https://thequietus.com/articles/32523-pictures-of-you-the-cure-tom-sheehan-review
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 January 2023 16:25 (two weeks ago) link