WILD MOOD SWINGS (aka the worst Cure album by a country mile)

Ha I wonder how many people are in the same boat--made an edit, and never went back to the actual album? Hopefully Smith et al wouldn't be offended too badly. . .

I did the same thing with the self-titled 2004 album, as the b-sides from those sessions were a lot stronger than the proper album as well.

'Jupiter Crash' is one of the songs I would cut, tbh.

'Want', 'The 13th' and 'Mint Car' would all be easy inclusions!

I like 'The 13th,' just didn't fit the sound that started coalescing. I'm keeping it as a bonus track "non-album single" hehe.

Want probably fits, but I just wanted to get it down to a shorter run time, had to be harsh. Mint car is fun--another good non-album single for me ; )

Yeah, shorter run time is always good... pretty much every Cure album from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me onwards is far too long, IMO. I've always preferred the vinyl config of Disintegration, for example!

'Jupiter Crash' is one of the songs I would cut, tbh.

You are not in the majority here.

I may very well not be, but that doesn't stop me from disliking the track.

Well, I wrote about four long paragraphs and I accidentally reloaded the page and lost all that I had written.

Basically, I said The Cure and their American label misread the American audience, who they were heavily invested in at the time. They recorded an album that wasn't consistent stylistically, instead dabbling in many very different styles, which is what Smith wanted but not something that is usually well-received. It was an answer to a lot of critics who said the band had grown stale. Apparently, they always had fun playing in private as a band, but had to put on an image they felt obligated to stick to because that is what people expected of them. They finally seemed to be really enjoying themselves in front of an audience around the time Wild Mood Swings was released, though.

The album definitely suffered from an identity crisis. I remember they played Round & Round & Round on an American late-night TV show instead of the singles around that time. I think early on, management had no idea how to advertise the album.

It took me a year to buy the CD (around 1997) and the singles. I hated the album but thought "Treasure" and "Bare" were some of the best songs they had ever written. "Waiting" was good, too.

In retrospect, "Jupiter Crash" is probably one of their most inventive songs, starting with the very non-Cure drum pattern down to the lyrical content. A lot of the album was about going into uncharted territory for the band, which they successfully did. There are references to all of Smith's influences. I always thought the acoustic guitar and strings sections was his attempt at Nick Drake-style songs.

My Wild Mood Swings-era track list would be:

1. Adonais
2. Waiting
3. Numb
4. A Pink Dream
5. Jupiter Crash
6. Treasure
7. Ocean
8. Bare

^^^ that's a great tracklist

Thank you!

That tracklist or "album" should really be called something like "Ocean," because most of the songs' lyrics and sounds have some type of ebbing and flowing imagery, as if the songs are seeping in and out life, like slowly opening and closing your eyes resisting death.

It's the death of a part of oneself and a relationship, in my opinion.

:-)

The actual tour was very good indeed. (As I mentioned, I didn't actually hear the album until some years later, but I had no problem at all seeing them again live.) Loved the broken-down funhouse set. The show I caught

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/1996/irvine-meadows-irvine-ca-7bd7eac0.html

I remember Tommy Vance on VH-1 introducing the video to "Mint Car" upon its release as a single back in '96, and him branding the band as "sad" ...

I'm with Turrican and would totally cut "Jupiter Crash." I am surprised to see it in everyone's revised WMS tracklists. The only good thing I can say about it is it isn't as terrible as "Strange Attraction" - which is just offensively bad. I'd keep:

Want
This Is A Lie
The 13th
Mint Car
Return
Bare

"Mint Car" and "Return" rank among the worst songs The Cure have ever recorded. Also, people are sleeping very hard on "Trap".

'Return' hasn't aged well for me at all, but 'Mint Car' remains giddy fun and 'Trap' rules.

not a Cure fan by any stretch but the top two songs in this poll are among my favourites by them

i mean, why would you hate on Mint Car?

"Mint Car" is an attempt to do wide-eyed, sweet and charming that winds up sounding plodding, trite and overwrought.

works for me

'Want' was on a free cassette with Select magazine back in 1996 and I remember really liking it.

"Want" was a poor man's poor man's "Open" (yes, you read that correctly), and the same goes for "Mint Car" as a concept explored in "Doing the Unstuck." I believe these were discussed at the time of their release. I suppose new Cure fans or those unfamiliar with their work would be more likely to like them.

"The 13th" as a single seems to be the weirdest part of that album.

"Want" is 100% a poor man's "Open" but it's decent enough as a song in its own right even though I'd always rather listen to "Open".

It is. They're great live, too.

"Want" was a poor man's poor man's "Open" (yes, you read that correctly), and the same goes for "Mint Car" as a concept explored in "Doing the Unstuck." I believe these were discussed at the time of their release. I suppose new Cure fans or those unfamiliar with their work would be more likely to like them.

Mmmyeah, I disagree with this since I couldn't be any more familiar with their work and I like both 'Want' and 'Mint Car' plenty. I probably prefer 'Want' to 'Open', if I'm to be really honest.

Surely we can all agree that "Club America" is a terrible, terrible song?

As a song it's not particularly great, but it has some neat ideas - I like the guitar riff for example. It's one of those tracks where there's something in it, but it still needs a lot of work.

club america is bad clunky britpop, i really have no idea how it happened

I would argue that the "something" it has is a unique combination of "nonsense" and "horseshit"

No, the "nonsense" and the "bullshit" is what prevents the "something" that it has from reaching its full potential.

club america is bad clunky britpop, i really have no idea how it happened

― adam, Monday, July 17, 2017 6:10 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hmm, I don't know about britpop, but it was the mid '90s...

'Want' is a revisiting of 'Never Enough' and RS has gone on to admit as much.

I personally have a very soft spot for 'Gone!' which is one of the band's oddest singles. Obviously an attempt at rehashing the "quote en quote jazz" feeling of 'The Lovecats' but with a bit of mixing in the uplifting spirit of 'Doing the Unstuck' in place of 'The Lovecats' overt silliness.

I'd still agree that this is their worst album, though - even taking into consideration the tracks that I like on it. The Cure and 4:13 Dream have some great tracks on 'em that sadly get overlooked because they're in "past their prime" territory.

I fell in love with "Gone!" after a while; it's one of the few experiments on the album that cohered into something I enjoyed. Also, the Ultraliving remix is fantastic.

i listened to the whole damn thing today, i think the keepers are "want," "mint car," "jupiter crash," "numb," "treasure," and "bare." plus the b-sides discussed above. that's pretty respectable for a consensus worst album! still it'll likely be at least another decade+ before i listen to this record again

the video for 'mint car' was one of the only videos I ever paid to rent via some on-demand pay for video jukebox I had through cable at the time.

The "Buskers Mix" of 'Mint Car' that was on the single has long been my favorite version. Too bad it was not on Join the Dots.

I'm so glad so many are defending 'Mint Car', that song has had so much unnecessary shit thrown at it over the years...

So I actually like Wild Mood Swings. It's certainly not my favorite Cure album, but it's not the worst either (I'd give that distinction to the self-titled). It has a few really good songs on it and a number of other songs which I simply find enjoyable. (They've been getting some hate in this thread, but I enjoy "Club America" and "Strange Attraction.") My biggest criticism of the album would be that it's too long. I know it was released during the peak of the CD era, when 60+ minute run times were expected, but for me anyway, once I hit that stretch of single word titled songs on the back end of the album, it's easy to become aware of just how long I've been listening to the album. I've never bothered to come up with an alternate track listing myself, but I think it might have been for the best if they'd cut out a song or two to drop it down to the 45 minute range.

Basically, I said The Cure and their American label misread the American audience, who they were heavily invested in at the time. They recorded an album that wasn't consistent stylistically, instead dabbling in many very different styles, which is what Smith wanted but not something that is usually well-received. It was an answer to a lot of critics who said the band had grown stale. Apparently, they always had fun playing in private as a band, but had to put on an image they felt obligated to stick to because that is what people expected of them. They finally seemed to be really enjoying themselves in front of an audience around the time Wild Mood Swings was released, though.

My theory is that the reception to this album wrecked the band's self-confidence. Everyone focuses on the band's dark side, but they could also be very quirky and strange. After Wild Mood Swings, however, it seems like the Cure started to focus on sounding like what other people thought the Cure should sound like and were less interested in taking chances. It's hard to imagine them coming up with something as unexpected as "The 13th" ever again.

My theory is that the reception to this album wrecked the band's self-confidence. Everyone focuses on the band's dark side, but they could also be very quirky and strange. After Wild Mood Swings, however, it seems like the Cure started to focus on sounding like what other people thought the Cure should sound like and were less interested in taking chances. It's hard to imagine them coming up with something as unexpected as "The 13th" ever again.

(I like Club America too.)

Yeah, that makes sense when you look at the albums that came after - the band suddenly become backwards-looking.

Like, Bloodflowers was talked up as being part of a "trilogy" with Pornography and Disintegration ... Ross Robinson tried to make The Cure an intense experience like Pornography and 4:13 Dream was essentially Wish part two.

i think a lot of the songs on the s/t are extremely weird in a way they hadn't been before. ofc the record also includes "taking off"

There's one or two things that have felt like, or hinted at, new ground for them... 'Lost', for example, but they never seemed to explore these avenues further.

So, going through my CD singles for the Wild Mood Swings songs and playing some of the non-album single edits and as yet uncompiled remixes and really rather enjoying them.

As I said above, the "Buskers Mix" of 'Mint Car' is totally great. Much more sparse, very nice.

Still hate the proper version of 'Strange Attraction.' It's just. . . too hokey. However, the "Strange Mix" removes the chorus completely and really strips back the arrangement drastically to make for, I think, an actually enjoyable version of the song.

The "Critter Mix" of 'Gone!' is so weird and unlike the proper version, I can't help but like it, simply based on how out of left field it is.

The two different mixes of 'The 13th' ("Two Chord Cool Mix" and "Killer Bee Mix") just seem to be different mixdowns of the album version, so not much difference to mention. It does remind me of just how totally blindsided I was upon hearing the song for the first time. Still one of their weirdest moves, I'd reckon.

I'd argue Bloodflowers, the self titled album from 2004 or 4:13 dream are worse Cure albums than this one.

I'd argue that all three are better!

Self-titled album, yes.

The other two, absolutely not.

Particularly Bloodflowers and 4:13 Dream.

i have been listening to the Slicing Up Eyeballs Top The Cure songs on Spotify. when i have been hearing Wild Mood Swings songs at random it has been a pleasant surprise especially "Mint Car." but i have not gotten to the last half of that playlist yet.

4:13 Dream is the best from 1996 onward with Bloodflowers just behind or Turrican OTM. not a fan of the self titled album but it's probably still better than Wild Mood Swings.

I think WMS is (mostly) great, the good bits of the self-titled album are very good indeed, 4:13 Dream is interesting in parts but the whole thing feels quite flat and Bloodflowers is mostly a dreary unrewarding slog.

All the b-sides and non-album songs associated with the self-titled album are all excellent, without exception.