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

I may have posted elsewhen on ILX my mainest reason for putting it there but shall refrain now.

You're teasing us!

"The Walk" is the only one of my top 10 to show up so far, but out of today's I also had Like Cockatoos, The Kiss, Caterpillar and Love Cats. Hanging Garden was the last thing I cut, I think...

Recap of the poll so far:

#50 - A Man Inside My Mouth, 253 points, 9 votes
#49 - Other Voices, 255 points, 13 votes
#48 - In Your House, 255 points, 14 votes
#47 - Open, 257 points, 11 votes
#46 - Grinding Halt, 258 points, 11 votes
#45 - Six Different Ways, 259 points, 11 votes
#44 - If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, 272 points, 14 votes
#43 - Three Imaginary Boys, 275 points, 13 votes
#42 - Why Can't I Be You?, 277 points, 9 votes
#41 - High, 286 points, 10 votes
#40 - The Walk, 295 points, 15 votes
#39 - The Figurehead, 307 points, 12 votes, 2 #1 votes
#38 - Lament, 311 points, 12 votes
#37 - The Caterpillar, 323 points, 16 votes
#36 - M, 325 points, 14 votes
#35 - Shake Dog Shake, 330 points, 17 votes
#34 - Untitled, 344 points, 12 votes
#33 - The Upstairs Room, 350 points, 13 votes, 1 #1 vote
#32 - The Hanging Garden, 352 points, 18 votes
#31 - Siamese Twins, 360 points, 11 votes
#30 - The Drowning Man, 361 points, 12 votes
#29 - The Kiss, 364 points, 13 votes, 1 #1 vote
#28 - A Strange Day, 366 points, 15 votes, 1 #1 vote
#27 - Like Cockatoos, 368 points, 12 votes, 2 #1 votes
#26 - The Lovecats, 378 points, 19 votes

I just noticed that "The Upstairs Room" placed higher than its A-Side "The Walk".
I wonder if "The Exploding Boy" will place higher than "In Between Days" or if one of the "High" B-Sides will be it too?

We have representation of every album through Wish except Mixed Up

Mixed Up was ineligible

I was the guy who voted for "The Upstairs Room" as my #1... Sweet rollout as I barely know half of the songs thus far.

Mixed Up was ineligible

"Never Enough" was eligible.

Oops, I meant if one of the "High" B-Sides will BEAT it...

"Never Enough" was eligible.

non-album single! 12" remix was later compiled on remix compilation album

the High b-sides were all cut late from my ballot

The Exploding Boy was not

Jeez, I'm just thinking: if 'Let's Go to Bed' places higher than 'Lament' I will not be pleased.

so the top votes so far are:

26 - The Lovecats, 378 points, 19 votes
32 - The Hanging Garden, 352 points, 18 votes
35 - Shake Dog Shake, 330 points, 17 votes
37 - The Caterpillar, 323 points, 16 votes
(t)28 - A Strange Day, 366 points, 15 votes, 1 #1 vote
(t)40 - The Walk, 295 points, 15 votes

There are still about 15 singles that I'd say are a lock, so that leaves room for approximately 10 more album tracks and b-sides.

I could see "10:15" placing higher than "Killing an Arab".

Jeez, I'm just thinking: if 'Let's Go to Bed' places higher than 'Lament' I will not be pleased.

I can't think of a Cure poll where this wouldn't happen tbh

Still not a lot from my ballot so far:

15. The Kiss
24. Shake Dog Shake
25. The Figurehead
35. In Your House

But there were a lot of songs that I cut from my list that I might have voted for on a different day, like "Siamese Twins", "Like Cockatoos", "M", "Six Different Ways", "High" ...

Still only four from my ballot, but I expect the top 25 to have a lot more in common with my list than 26-50.

1) The Figurehead
2) Siamese Twins
5) The Drowning Man
27)A Strange Day
28) M
29) Shake Dog Shake
31) The Upstairs Room

That's really kind of weird, that clustering.

Is there anyone here who submited a ballot but didn't get an acknowledgement from me? Too late to do anything about it now but I'm curious.

Alfred were you the other #1 for Like Cockatoos?

no, that was me! there are relevant stories, but

Going for a pint after work so I'm starting early today

#25 - Push, 387 points, 15 votes

The Head on the Door, 1985

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3gr2k-B5E

you bastards

but at least it didn't hit the top 10, which is what I was afraid of

Woohoo!!! Though I thought it was Top 20 for sure.

Seriously I can't see how you'd deny that guitar riff.

^ this, for real

while I still dig "Mint Car" DJP can definitely take pride in ruining "Push" for me.

#24 - Faith, 403 points, 16 votes

Faith, 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kHNS7sW5Ss

With "Push" it's like they came up with a decent 2-minute instrumental demo, then recorded Robert trying out some vocal ideas over it. Then decided to play both back-to-back and call it a song, rather than just selling the instrumental to an advertising agency like they should have.

But it's so much fun to sing along to!

"Push" = one of the two HOTD tracks I didn't vote for.

I have to assume they're coming, but if any of the HOTD "Greatest hits" cuts didn't make the top 25 after some of these album tracks I'd go full Mugatu.

They're coming for sure.

#23 - Killing An Arab, 409 points, 17 votes

Killing An Arab (single), 1978

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh01Pil7vj4

LESS "PUSH" MORE "FAITH"

One of my brother's friends in college had a bunch of Cure bootlegs and taped live versions of "Three Imaginary Boys" and "Faith" onto a cassette for me in the summer of 1988; that bass line has been a total earworm for me ever since and led to me being obsessed with the idea of becoming a bass player all through high school

20+ years later, I'm finally learning how to play guitar; the seeds of that were planted by this song

xp: oh this is bad-ass too

My 10th grade English teacher was really confused as to why I wanted to read The Stranger for extra credit until I played her this song; the way the lyrics are directly lifted from That Scene makes for a chilling moment, both in the book and the song.

Okay, how come that's so low? The perfect first record imo.

TS: The Cure's "Faith" vs George Michael's "Faith."

I would like to hear them cover each other's song

TS: who would use the worst faux coffee house beats

cure covering George Michael's "Faith" would make a lot of sense. I always thought GM's "Faith" sounded a lot like "Close to Me"

I still remember playing the Standing On A Beach cassette and hearing the first notes of "Killing An Arab" and thinking "woah, this is super lo-fi" (I was familiar with KMKMKM and JW at this point) and then just being enthralled by the music/story

oh man: GM in "Freedom '90" mode could have covered "Close to Me."

Coming up to the really REALLY good stuff now.

#22 - Fire In Cairo, 414 points, 20 votes

Three Imaginary Boys, 1979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIqf67ovjAE

bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce

this is a great song (not on my ballot tho, which when I look back at it makes me wonder if I didn't need serious amounts of Paxil as I was compiling it)

I like Fire In Cairo, but I never got why people like it THAT much.
I mean, over "Killing An Arab"??

didn't vote in this (too much and I'm not THAT huge a fan to expend the effort) but pleased to see the results

I would have liked to see what Robert Smith's record collection looked like in the late 70s through the 80s - his range of influences has always seemed a bit inscrutable to me (Barrett, Bowie, probably some krautrock - altho the Cure doesn't really sound like any of those things in and of themselves)

he was a big pop fan too

I guess Bowie's pop too (in England)

A Nick Drake fan too.