POLLography: The Cure poll results, ILM artist poll #23

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t7ANnlIHYk0/TWGRU22uC_I/AAAAAAAAD0c/AQ2saaX5pVM/s1600/The-Cure-Seventeen.jpg

#2 - Seventeen Seconds, 663 points, 15 votes, 2 #1 votes

Crikey, that's all three duds in the top five. You lot see a different band from what I see.

Very curious to see which of the three(?) contenders wins.

My #1 didn't either...

Disintergration is a lock.

A bit late now, but I remember when the "Never Enough" video came out. On Musique Plus (the québécois Much Music), they had made a big deal about airing it for the first time. I programmed the VCR to record it while I was in school. I couldn't wait to come home and watch it! And it didn't disapoint :-)

I think Three Imaginary Boys vs Boy's Don't Cry might've split some votes but with the points combined either one wouldn't have made the top 5.

xps Is it? Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is obviously their best imo.

That was my #1, nothing else came close.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Gyfj3yWgXw/T-Lrg8B-NcI/AAAAAAAAA10/VXrdsqquOUo/s1600/cure+disintegration.jpg

#1 - Disintegration, 818 points, 18 votes, 9 #1 votes

I agree, it was my #1. But the conscensus on every 80's list is ALWAYS Disintegration. (x-post)

As far as I recall, there's been a few Best Cure Album polls and they've always ended up pretty much like these results.

Here's one from 2007:

Disintegration 38
Pornography 17
Faith 12
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me 12
Seventeen Seconds 8
Three Imaginary Boys / Boys Don't Cry 7
The Head on the Door 7
The Top 4
Japanese Whispers 1
Wish 1
The Cure 1
Wild Mood Swings 0
Bloodflowers 0

Didn't think "Seventeen Seconds" would finish that high, or that KMKMKM wouldn't be in the top five (it was my #1).

"A Forest" now looks like an early favourite to be #1 in the songs polls.

lol I voted 4 out of 5 videos and 3 out of 5 albums

Same here.

KMKMKM isn't even an option on the Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1987 poll. Tells you how underrated it is imo.

the canonizing of Disintegration was initially one of the biggest surprises in the last twenty years of rockcrit.

I get it now but not so's I'd reach for "Prayers of Rain" over "Baby Screams."

It IS excellent and was a huge commercial succes, so I'm not really surprised.

Wish >>> Disintegration

but whatevs *white flag*

My ballots for the results posted so far:
Videos:
1. Close to Me
2. Pictures of You
3. Never Enough
4. High
5. The Lovecats

Albums:
1. Seventeen Seconds
2. Faith
3. Bloodflowers
4. The Head on the Door
5. Wish

I did have a hearty chuckle at the one joker that put 'Charlotte Sometimes' in their top videos.

Leaving Disintegration out of my top albums was intentional because I figured it was going to be an instant lock at #1 (it still would only have been #5 on my list otherwise).

Three of these are duds? Not sure why anyone who sees no value in these records would be interested in anything else the Cure has to offer.

Faith > rest of discog.

It's possible to be a The Top-The Head on the Door-Kiss Me-Wish fan.

I'm of the opinion that while there are higher pop highs on the albums following the glum trio, those 3 are more consistent. Basically I get dismissing them and I get rating them above everything else. I do the latter.

Top 5 Albums:

1) Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
2) Seventeen Seconds
3) Disintegration
4) The Top
5) Pornography

Top 5 Videos:

1) Lullaby
2) Close To Me
3) Never Enough
4) Let's Go To Bed
5) Just Like Heaven

basically if you don't dig 17S/Faith/Pornography you don't even deserve to slit your wrists and fedex your life's blood to Robert's doorstep

my album/video votes:

ALBUMS:

Pornography
Disintegration
Faith
The Top
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

VIDEOS:

Lullaby
Close To Me
Never Enough
The Lovecats
The Hanging Garden

Same Top 3 videos!

The existence of "Sinking" allows me to dismiss the lugubrious stuff on the Doom Trilogy.

Ok, it's getting late here so I'm going to run through nos 50-41 in the next 45 minutes or so, then 40-21 tomorrow and 20-1 on Friday

The tracks!

#50 - A Man Inside My Mouth, 253 points, 9 votes

ALBUMS

KMKMKM
Disintegration
Pornography
Wish
The Cure

VIDEOS

Close to Me
Pictures of You
In Between Days
Friday I'm In Love
Primary

On a given day I might prefer "Pornography" or "Disintegration", but KMKMKM is the album that got me into The Cure. It's definitely their best in terms of showing all the different sides of the band.

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

"A Man Inside My Mouth" is what I'd put on a mixtape for a Cure tyro.

So cool to be getting this live for once. I'm always working when the results of these polls are coming out and miss all the discussion.

#=48 - Other Voices, 255 points, 13 votes

Faith, 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFRL4GsILFU

#=48 - In Your House, 255 points, 14 votes

Seventeen Seconds, 1980

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JccTTo7NJxU

other voices sneaking in makes me think all of the staring... tracks made it

Oh for fuck's sake I got sick and confused and never mailed in my ballot even though it's been finished for a week. :(

yeah I spaced too, but I'm going to follow along now that all the hard work's been done :D

Oh I'm so mad at myself! Bah.

That sucks. But YAY at "In Your House" making it!

It goes dark
It goes darker still
Please stay!

xpost i was going to say that other voices is waaaaay too low! of course, i am a huge staring at the sea stan (started a poll on it once). i didn't vote because i pretty much only listen to everything up to head on the door (i don't dislike the stuff afterward, i just like taking my sweet time with the cure and going through their catalog over the course of several years instead of gorging on everything at once in typical 2012 eargasm methodology)

i heard that disintegration is good, what do you guys think?!?!!?

I ended up with 36 ballots which I'm happy with. Don't know how that compares with other polls but it was more than enough for a good set of results.

#47 - Open, 257 points, 11 votes

Wish, 1992

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blusgorx1JA

AMIMM has never been a favorite because of the keyboard sound, but I like the lyrics!

"Open" -- their best opener after "Shake Dog Shake" and "Inbetween Days"!

Excited to see where the Seattle show will be. Either doing that one or Vancouver. Saw Bjork at Deer Lake Park and had a good time but May is a real shady time to have an outdoor concert in the PNW.

i posted this but didn't realize "yet unreleased tracks." are we about to get a new Cure album?

I sure hope so.

PUT OUT A NEW RECORD, YOU DICKS!

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/05/22/best-cure-songs-ranked/

With more than 100,000 votes cast — 101,336 to be exact — it’s time to reveal Slicing Up Eyeballs readers’ rankings of all 225 original songs officially released by The Cure over the past four decades...

Fun fact: The No. 1 and No. 2 songs, after earning nearly 3,000 votes apiece, were separated by a single vote. The song that finished second was leading the way for much of the balloting, then the two switched positions near the end, and flipped back and forth a few more times before the poll closed.

1. “A Forest”
Single; appears on Seventeen Seconds (1980) | 2,984 votes

2. “Just Like Heaven”
Single; appears on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) | 2,983 votes

3. “Inbetween Days”
Single; appears on The Head on the Door (1985) | 2,837 votes

4. “Pictures of You”
Single; appears on Disintegration (1989) | 2,743 votes

5. “Boys Don’t Cry”
Non-album single (1979) | 2,420 votes

6. “Charlotte Sometimes”
Non-album single (1981) | 2,410 votes

7. “Fascination Street”
Single; appears on Disintegration (1989) | 2,398 votes

8. “Disintegration”
Appears on Disintegration (1989) | 2,251 votes

9. “Close to Me”
Single; appears on The Head on the Door (1985) | 2,068 votes

10. “A Night Like This”
Appears on The Head on the Door (1985) | 2,061 votes

11. “Lovesong”
Single; appears on Disintegration (1989) | 1,921 votes

12. “The Love Cats”
Non-album single (1983) | 1,866 votes

13. “Plainsong”
Appears on Disintegration (1989) | 1,751 votes

14. “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”
Non-album single (1979) | 1,645 votes

15. “Why Can’t I Be You?”
Single; appears on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) | 1,611 votes

16. “Let’s Go to Bed”
Non-album single (1982) | 1,589 votes

17. “Killing an Arab”
Non-album single (1978) | 1,562 votes

18. “10.15 Saturday Night”
Appears on Three Imaginary Boys (1979) | 1,546 votes

19. “Lullaby”
Single; appears on Disintegration (1989) | 1,523 votes

20. “A Letter to Elise”
Single; appears on Wish (1992) | 1,477 votes

21. “One Hundred Years”
Appears on Pornography (1982) | 1,437 votes

22. “The Caterpillar”
Single; appears on The Top (1984) | 1,362 votes

23. “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
Appears on Wish (1992) | 1,359 votes

24. “The Hanging Garden”
Single; appears on Pornography (1982) | 1,355 votes

25. “A Strange Day”
Appears on Pornography (1982) | 1,338 votes

26. “Friday I’m in Love”
Single; appears on Wish (1992) | 1245 votes

27. “Primary”
Single; appears on Faith (1981) | 1,215 votes

28. “Push”
Appears on The Head on the Door (1985) | 1,191 votes

29. “Play for Today”
Appears on Seventeen Seconds (1980) | 1,171 votes

30. “Prayers for Rain”
Appears on Disintegration (1989) | 1,103 votes

a few thoughts: 100,000 votes, wow. with most of these polls the songs outside the Top 30 are a bit better as they are deeper cuts, i think our poll come out better, ranking songs seems to provide better results and wasn't so single heavy at the top. i did submit two ballots myself and what i did was take my ballot from this poll for PO25 and then used the last 15 to round out my ballot from there added 10 other songs with no repeats on either ballot. i should have just started over as i'm sure things have changed but used my ILM ballot anyways.

100 000 votes is incredibly impressive. It's nice to see "Charlotte Sometimes" so high. “Plainsong”, “One Hundred Years”, “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”, “A Strange Day” and “Push” are all great selections as non-singles in the Top 30.

“From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” to this day is still my favorite Cure song.

It's also definitely up there for me as one of the finest things this band ever did.

just one vote difference between "a forest" and "just like heaven", that's nothing. i am surprised votes were that dispersed and that "a forest" didn't get more votes.

this is the funniest start to an interview i have ever seen i love robert smith man pic.twitter.com/7H4okzPX0L

— al (@_hidingwithboys) March 30, 2019

American bubble gum enthusiasm meets British understatement?

https://youtu.be/VFINzd26anI

Full interview^^

Where she claims to a clearly bemused RS to have been "a Cure fan since birth".

Showed my wife the clip and she asked if they’d been indoctrinated into the rock and roll hall of fame, which made me laugh as much as the original clip.

Holy shit, how does she sustain that onslaught for so long? They should induct her!