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

"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.

i hope this is one of those polls where there's tons of non hits in the Top 20 but i guess they've had far too many great singles for that.

I can see Smith loving Drake's mopey englishness but I don't hear it much in his songwriting or guitar-playing really

I think I can guess what the highest album track will be. Is it too early for predictions?

I got Boys Don't Cry for Christmas in 1992, and sometime in the next month I had it on the family stereo while my mom was taking down Christmas decorations. "F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O" finally made her demand it be turned off.

I got over it pretty fast myself.

he was a big pop fan too

do you mean just whatever top 40 stuff was current at the time in the UK...? This is one of the most curious things to me about Smith's ouevre, that he has very clear pop smarts for hooks, arrangements, song structures, etc. but they're filtered through this bizarre (or at least highly unusual) stylistic tics - his voice, odd instrumentation, broad swathes of digital reverb, strange effects, harsh synth and guitar tones etc. The pop angle was mostly dormant for a lot of their overly goth period (Faith, Pornography etc.) but it really came to the fore later obviously.

xp

Love love love this one

#21 - The Funeral Party, 433 points, 16 votes

Faith, 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLV1YwfIkGA

now that's an album track i'm glad to see everyone's behind

wow almost 20 more points than "Fire In Cairo" with 4 fewer votes

haha love this song, but not nearly as much as my dad does (it's his favorite Cure song, he used to make me play it on repeat)

the harmony on it really makes it IMO, which is probably why live performances of it tend to fall flat for me (ps Robert, in case you are reading this my falsetto is good enough to do your harmony parts, yr ppl should call my ppl, where "my ppl" is me speaking in a funny voice)

Didn't think this one would beat "Faith" and "The Drowning Man". I guess it's prettier.

Never really been a fan of this myself

#20 - Lullaby, 443 points, 17 votes

Disintegration, 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqxYy8OOTOE

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

?? Can see no argument for "Killing an Arab" over the much better "Fire in Cairo." "Cairo," like "Grinding Halt," has feeling and mystery; "Killing an Arab" has feeling but opens up to say "hey look I'm name-checking stuff from a book" -- plus "I'M ALIVE. I'M DEAD" is too on-the-nose as far as I'm concerned. Not saying it's a bad song, just that it's below the median for early Cure.

(To be fair, "Boys Don't Cry" is pretty lyrically on-the-nose too, but dude, those triplets!)

well... "Killing An Arab" is going to be pretty on-the-nose considering the lyrics are taken pretty much verbatim from the book, so that doesn't bother me

"Lullaby" is fantastic and, looking back at my ballot, I am astounded that I didn't vote for it

It's existentialist, man! (x-post)

"Lullaby" didn't make my ballot either, but it's a great great pop single.

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

― LeRooLeRoo, Friday, August 17, 2012 12:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Why does it have to be one or the other? I love and voted for both.

xp: I mean, it's super creepy, the video is wonderful, and it's in my vocal range; this shit should have been in my top 5

clearly I'm on a happy/poppy kick ATM, if I did my ballot now it would be all "The Walk", "Friday I'm In Love', "Boys Don't Cry", "The Perfect Girl", "Hey You!", "Hot Hot Hot!!!", "Six Different Ways", "The Caterpillar" etc

#19 - Lovesong, 461 points, 17 votes

Disintegration, 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU6wkCxDHCk

totally dreamy song, not on my ballot, I can sing this one too

probably the 2nd-weakest song on Disintegration (after "Closedown")

Never cared for this

I'm still thinking about what Cure song my dad might like. Maybe "Plainsong" or something with Santana-esque shred guitar ("Cut"?).

IIRC my dad really liked all of their albums up through Disintegration except for Pornography which he just thought was tuneless whining with no real songcraft; the closest he got to liking that album was "Siamese Twins" and even there the meandering vocal melody drove him insane.

Starting to suspect we're past the point where "Burn" might have shown up. Thanks a lot, DJP!

;_;

s'ok

I was just listening to "Burn" yesterday, what a great great great song

not quite as great as "To The Sky" or "A Chain of Flowers" or "A Japanese Dream" tho

"Closedown" is gorgeous. "Lovesong" is alright. It was nice to hear it on the radio in 89.

I had "Lovesong" low on my list, but couldn't leave it off. Apart from being a fine pop tune, I remember how weird it seemed that the Cure had a top 10 hit. A significant moment in that late '80s wave of "college rock" taking over.