The Cure: Classic or Dud?

Anything to add, Ned?

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.)

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.

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*

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.

_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.

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.

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

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?

DUD

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.

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?

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.

A @TheCure fan brought this relic to @RoughTrade last night to show to @AndyVellaDesign and me.

If it's genuine - and sources close to the horse's mouth believe it is - then it's an absolute Holy Grail of @RobertSmith memorabilia.

"Where it all began, really" as the owner said. pic.twitter.com/sChp9drSLZ

— Simon Price﮷ (@simon_price01) January 19, 2024

wow!

1. Did Robert return it?

2. Did no one else ever check it out?

Form: 69
Book Condition: Yes

I check books out from the university library and a lot of them were last borrowed in like 1977 or 1985!

Love it. "RJPC Smith"?

fwiw Rik Mayall went to my school and kids used to write "Richard Mayall" in their text books all the time

lol at all recent posts

That's even better than Trent Reznor's Volvo of Despair.

That's really an amazing and awesome find.

I reckon it’s genuine, that handwriting is very distinctive and a match for later scrawled autographs etc. https://pin.it/6mqYBuyfG

sorry https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d8/fa/b8/d8fab8130e18f32fb56e44a27eea9c67.jpg

George Costanza : Hey... you don't think... sure, that's Jon Voight's pencil!

Jerry Seinfeld : With Jon Voight's teeth marks.

pulls out the owners manual from the glove box

Jerry Seinfeld : Owner's manual... you know what? This car was owned by Jon Voight.

George Costanza : Ah! See? I told ya.

Jerry Seinfeld : Except Jon is spelled with an H. J-O-H-N.

George Costanza : So?

Jerry Seinfeld : Doesn't Jon Voight spell his name J-O-N?

George Costanza : So, what are you saying?

Jerry Seinfeld : Nothing. I'm sure "Jon" probably mispelled his own name. I know sometimes I spell Jerry with a G... and an I!

George Costanza : Get out of the car!

Jerry Seinfeld : What?

George Costanza : That's right, you heard me. Get out. You are ruining this whole experience for me.

Jerry Seinfeld : Oh, look! There's Gregory Peck's bicycle!

George Costanza : Get out!

Jerry Seinfeld : And Barbara Mandrell's skateboard!

George Costanza : Get out!

Enjoyed watching Lol on drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI_yHkV7XTE

The reissue series continues as such -- slightly expanded version of Paris up next:

https://store.rhino.com/en/rhino-store/artists/the-cure/paris-cd/603497825103.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiWJfCSsduc

Sounds great at that pace - really thick and druggy

It’s such a shame they play everything to a click now

Is Paris the last release with Boris? Excepting that odd unplugged thing from the hits compilation.

Lost Wishes and the Elise B-sides were recorded before Paris but released after it was performed/recorded; Purple Haze I think would be the last recorded-and-released Boris.

I always thought Burn was the last Boris thing - but I am open to being educated here

d'oh!

Is Boris even (doing the programming) on Purple Haze? I want to say yes but I can't remember. Obv he's right there on the Virgin Radio version.

Burn is indeed the last recording. Just him and RS at that point if memory serves.

Really great piece by Jude Rogers on Charlotte Sometimes, book and song but primarily the book, I think rightly.

https://steadyhq.com/thequietus/posts/21b14186-0eb3-436a-bb5c-3f7e27c29a0c

Tonight I was out to dinner with an old friend of the opposite sex. She brought up the song "The Last Day of Summer" and I so casually said that song is on Bloodflowers. Now thinking back, how in the hell do I know that? But it's the Cure and they're my all-time favourite band and its not even close, so I did know that piece of trivia.

Ironically, she also talked about the Smiths "Asleep" and I had no clue where that song came from other than I didn't think it was an album track.

do you dislike bloodflowers? I wasn't hot on it for many years but I've come around, maybe in part because the albums after were fairly disappointing by comparison. The Last Day of Summer is probably my favorite song on that album.

It's a beaut, and it was nice to see it back in the mix on last year's tour.

Yeah that album’s saving grace

I’m also very fond of The Loudest Sound

I think Bloodflowers is great, especially "The Last Day Of Summer".
I just wish "Watching Me Fall" was a bit faster, like "Disintegration" or "One Hundred Years" to give the album more dynamic. It's a good song, but it really weighs the album down.

Could also just be shorter! For me it doesn’t have enough going on musically or lyrically to justify the epic length - was an absolute slog when they played it second in the set on the tour. Those shows were pretty great though.

(Re Watching Me Fall specifically - although the overlong/under-interesting criticism does somewhat apply to the album overall)

My point was it being an obscure song and not exactly "Just Like Heaven." She could have said "Throw Your Foot" or "A Chain of Flowers" for example and I would have known it was a B-side and from which album.

Bloodflowers is good but hardly ever play it. I think I like 4:13 Dream more, is this a poll idea?

The last time I played "Bloodflowers," maybe last year, I liked it. I hadn't heard it for years, but had remembered it pretty well (maybe because I had gotten to see them play a small club here behind it). Iirc I only listened to "4:13 Dream" a couple of times, when it was released, and I don't recognize any song titles now, so at the very least I'm sure it would be surprising if I ever put it on again.

Will nobody dare mention the poor unloved self-titled LP

I have to say I find The End of the World and Alt End pretty charming Cure singles - their late(r) attempts at giddy pop have often felt forced to me but those two are better than they have a right to be.

(I also felt like The Promise had… promise but kind of needed to go full Mogwai or something - it just stays on the one intensity setting for 7 minutes or whatever)

Lost > The Promise because of the escalating intensity

I really love the s/t, particularly the Japanese import that adds “Truth, Goodness, and Beauty”, “Fake”, and “Going Nowhere” to the tracklist, but I don’t think I will ever be able to get past “The doleful cant of a bigot/Blinded by fear and hate”

aka Donald Trump's Cure covers EP

ILM is one of the only places where you'll find ardent admirers of the s/t album (and WMS). s/t has some good songs utterly ruined by shitty production and roger being mixed out. 4:13 Dream has a good opening track and no other memorable songs.

The Real Snow White, The Scream, and It’s Over are all fantastic

I do like the flow of 4:13 Dream and like the songs on the album. "Underneath the Stars" is amazing, might be the best late period song by the Cure. Bloodflowers could be better, I suppose, but it has been awhile since I heard it. The s/t I just can't listen to as it hurts my ears. Tho probably a decent album if you play with the alternate tracks and B-sides.

The biggest problem with the last 2 albums is how loud and up front in the mix Robert’s voice is. Makes them barely listenable unfortunately. I’m surprised he doesn’t hear it.

I went and watched a live version of The Promise and it probably delivered more on the assaultative guitar burnout front - without quite getting there - could even faintly hear Roger's keys

Would be a pretty interested to read a candid oral history of those Ross Robinson sessions - sounds like the goth Some Kind of Monster - band identity crisis, tantrums, walkouts, Robert berating the band for not being worthy of being the Cure, people throwing music stands across the room (audible on Lost IIRC) etc

If Wiki can be trusted it looks like Ross has produced over 30 albums since that one, most of which I've never heard or even heard of, so I'd like to think it tanked his career.

Wish they'd finish up Songs of a Lost World and release it

Me too

I have been BURNed before but I still hold out hope that they have a mature-age masterpiece in em

They really should, all the things that RS sang about at 25 are actually happening now

https://youtube.com/XmoFgi2EB9c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmoFgi2EB9c
sorry

sky arts showed both Nocturne and the Cure's 2018 gig from hyde park on friday night. the years have not really been kind to R Smith but his voice has held up remarkably well, i thought.

(there are like a million people in hyde park by the looks. played for two hours. things like A Forest and Just Like Heaven sounded note-perfect. it's all very impressive)

Yeah their live show at this point is full-on stunning