A The KissB The SnakepitC Just Like HeavenD Shiver and Shake
Side B is the weakest, and the choice there was easy, but otherwise this is really tough!
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:42 (fifteen years ago) link
A If Only Tonight We Could SleepB How Beautiful You AreC Like CockatoosD A Thousand Hours
― nate woolls, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:42 (fifteen years ago) link
:D @ this album so far, especially Torture into If Only Tonight, awesome stuff
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:43 (fifteen years ago) link
The drumming on this album is brilliant. They never really recovered after Boris left.
― nate woolls, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh shit, my copy doesn't have "Hey You!" on it :(
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link
"You're just three sick holes that run like sores" is a lyric calculated to make one recoil. It stings.
― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link
A If Only Tonight We Could SleepB The SnakepitC Like CockatoosD Shiver and Shake
― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
A If only tonight we could SleepB How Beautiful are youC Just Like HeavenD Shiver and Shake
― Josh L, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:03 (fifteen years ago) link
not ranking, but icing sugar is grebt.
― remy bean, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:17 (fifteen years ago) link
A The KissB The SnakepitC what the hell this is impossible D Fight
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Haha, so you're a fan of the boiling, building agony-mounters! :D
(The Snakepit is awesome, but I'm not yet sure it's awesomer than, say, The Wailing Wall)
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:28 (fifteen years ago) link
I've reached The Perfect Girl and this is a super album.
A1 The Kiss 6:14B3 The Snakepit 6:59C1 Just Like Heaven 3:30D3 A Thousand Hours 3:23
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:34 (fifteen years ago) link
On side A, I vacillate between "The Kiss" and "Catch".On side B, it's "How Beautiful You Are..." and "The Snakepit".On side C, it is literally all of them. fucking hellOn side D, it's "The Perfect Girl", "Shiver and Shake" and "Fight".
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Like Dan this was my Cure gateway, but I gotta admit that the protracted introductions bore me now (Christgau: "Samey samey samey is the strategy--repeat repeat repeat repeat the same four-bar theme for sixteen, twenty-four, forty-eight, sixty-four bars"). I suppose I can defend them as proto-trance or something, but I won't bother, with the exception of "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep," whose Around the World in a Day version of Far Eastern music depends on samey samey samey.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I think the builds of "The Kiss" and "The Snakepit" are flat-out genius, rivalled in their catalog only by "Faith" and "All Cats Are Grey".
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:44 (fifteen years ago) link
I still find absolutely charming their dilettantish approach to "world" music and different styles (fake French accordeons, fake sitars, sloppy funk work-outs etc).
― Marco Damiani, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:47 (fifteen years ago) link
I still think the video to "Why Can't I Be U?" is one of the funniest things ever filmed.
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:48 (fifteen years ago) link
This album is the sound of a band having fun in the studio.
― Marco Damiani, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:49 (fifteen years ago) link
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/the-cure-why-cant-i-be-you/1016802999/?icid=VIDLRV01
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:50 (fifteen years ago) link
lol also why did I go all Prince for a second
with the help of red wine and heaps of drugs.
(xxpost)
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:50 (fifteen years ago) link
ooooh boy we're gonna have words (when I've worked out just how many awesome Cure build you've snubbed)
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:59 (fifteen years ago) link
*builds
I'm more fond of "Open" as a, well, opener.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Some of The Cure's great builds aren't at the start of the song, see for instance the build to the second chorus of "The Promise"
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:04 (fifteen years ago) link
looking forward to watching LJ school Dan on the cure
― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:21 (fifteen years ago) link
So much wisdom will be revealed.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Even something like "The Caterpillar" (which just came on) has a genuinely brilliant, in fact near-perfect build-up, introducing so many musical and emotional themes with busy percussion, playful piano leads and some dramatic off-kilter strings. It's not quite as spectacular as, say, "The Kiss" or "Pornography" or "Homesick" or whatever, but it further adds to the fact that Smith really knew how to write a motherfukken song, and REALLY knew how to make a song's sound work with its title and lyrical themes.
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
that should read "MERELY with busy percussion..."
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:27 (fifteen years ago) link
The sounds and themes of a caterpillar.
― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, but also themes of doubt, of excitement, of confusion, hesitancy, which all tie in with the song's allegorical romantic purpose. All of these themes are musically conveyed by that 30-second intro.
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:33 (fifteen years ago) link
My brother does an amazing fucking impression of how Robert Smith acts in videos.
― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:36 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah dude for practical intents and purposes 30 seconds is not long enough for something to qualify as a build in a Cure song
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:41 (fifteen years ago) link
and both "Faith" and "All Cats Are Grey" are better than "Homesick"
You can have "All Cats Are Grey" any day of the week, amazing song. Not so sure about "Faith" yet. *amends iTunes selection*
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:43 (fifteen years ago) link
When that water-drop sound-effect comes in with the keyboards, it's like the saddest moment in music or something
...and even then, it isn't my favourite track on the album (that would be "The Drowning Man")
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:46 (fifteen years ago) link
No, "All Cats Are Grey" owns that album IMO (altho the segues on the second half are among the greatest achievements in Western music)
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:47 (fifteen years ago) link
whoa
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:49 (fifteen years ago) link
It's definitely up there ALMOST alongside "The Drowning Man" for me, somewhere near "The Funeral Party" in a sort-of tie for second. The organ/piano call and response in the outro as well...oh man.
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:50 (fifteen years ago) link
ENOUGH FAITH TALK, THIS THREAD IS ABOUT KMx3
I think the most underrated song on this album is "The Perfect Girl".
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I REALLY liked "The Perfect Girl" on my Big Listen-Through just now
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:52 (fifteen years ago) link
(fwiw, on listening just now, for the first time in a while, it's clear that ACAG is MILES ahead of TFP)
― Mequophidiophobia: fear of the beer snake (country matters), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
"A Letter to Elise" is an inferior version of "The Perfect Girl."
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:56 (fifteen years ago) link
("The Funeral Party" is my dad's favorite Cure song!)
Also Alfred OTM.
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 18:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I always felt that "A Letter to Elise" was an inferior version of "Catch"!
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 20:30 (fifteen years ago) link
It's kind of a cross between the two, isn't it.
― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 20:34 (fifteen years ago) link
"But I used to try to catch EliseShe was the closest thing to perfect to me."
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 20:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Like Cockatoos, no hesitation― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten)
― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten)
Ditto.
FYI - this is my favorite snow-shoveling album of all time, I habitually pull it out every time we get a snowstorm worthy of sidewalk clearing.
― zaxxon25, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 20:48 (fifteen years ago) link
I listened to this album during dental work once. The dentist said I could put a CD on and I was like, "Hey I have one on me!" and it really wasn't the best selection for a soundtrack to teeth drilling.
― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 20:56 (fifteen years ago) link
saving Hey You because the album title is in the lyricsthe album title is literally the first line of the first track, "The Kiss"
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 14:50 (three years ago) link
Bonus, then I’m happy to ditch Hey You too! Are there other albums where the title appears in the lyrics to different songs?
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 15:03 (three years ago) link
All this debate underscores my point -- thanks to Alfred for singling it out -- that the band essentially provided a full array of choices and left you to decide what works best.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 15:08 (three years ago) link
xp: Yes, Wish is another album that has two potential title tracks.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 15:11 (three years ago) link
"The Snakepit" and "Torture" are among the best songs on the album, IMO.
At one point I'd turned this album into a very angry/disjointed playlist:
The KissTortureHow Beautiful You Are...The SnakepitAll I WantLike CockatoosShiver and ShakeFight
^^^ 100% baller IMO
Also, I played "Fight" in high school English class after we discussed "Do not go gentle into that good night" and got a bunch of the honors metalheads into the album.
― DJP, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 16:23 (three years ago) link
Yeah I dunno. I find Fight pretty cringey these days. And Torture is mostly ruined by that dated horn preset.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 16:29 (three years ago) link
Snakepit, If Only Tonight and Cuckatoos are all-time though.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 16:30 (three years ago) link
"Torture" has a cracker of a bass line.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 16:32 (three years ago) link
Boris/Simon/Pearl are so good on this album
― DJP, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 16:34 (three years ago) link
Listening to this straight through for the first time in ages and I severely underrate this album
― DJP, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 17:25 (three years ago) link
every song on this is flawless even the bad ones
― orifex, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 18:15 (three years ago) link
I listened to that bright orange 12" of b-sides more than the actual album. Also I really loved the cover art during this era of the Cure, aside from the music. My favorite of all their logos!
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link
Amazed I still have my vinyl copy of this after regrettably purging so many good quality records and CDs during my teen years.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 22 April 2020 18:33 (three years ago) link
It's my favorite Cure album. I think "A Japanese Dream" and "Breathe" should've been on it instead of "Shiver and Shake" and "A Thousand Hours", but it was an embarrassment of riches really.
― LeRooLeRoo, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 23:48 (three years ago) link
hi!
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 April 2020 03:28 (three years ago) link
speaking of b-sides that should've replaced lesser album cuts, "a chain of flowers" is actually one of their best songs, full stop.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Sunday, 10 May 2020 20:45 (three years ago) link