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

"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.

For reference, the songs are:

'Fake'
'Truth Goodness and Beauty'
'Why Can't I Be Me?'
'This Morning'
'Going Nowhere'
'Your God is Fear'

Asides from Hongro shitposting that this is one of the best cure albums ever I agree with most of his comments in this thread and I'm finding that worrisome.

But yeah twee cure ain't bad at all. Even if it was tongue in cheek I'd loved more songs like mint car in their discography.

Bloodflowers is mostly a dreary unrewarding slog

^THIS x ∞

the b-sides to this record are amazing!

i mean i knew that but i always wanna yell about it

"Home" is so, so, so good.

This has stayed in my rotation all month. And after spending more time with 'Connect the Dots,' probably contains most of my favorite Cure b-sides. . .

The Cure - 'This Is A Lie'
'Wild Mood Swings' Reconsidered

01 - Adonais
02 - Jupiter Crash*
03 - A Pink Dream
04 - Treasure*
05 - Home
06 - Waiting
07 - Dredd Song
08 - It Used to Be Me
09 - Numb*
10 - Ocean
11 - Bare*
12 - This Is A Lie (Ambient Mix)

Total Time: 53:43

* From 'Wild Mood Swings'

Is 'Wrong Number' a b-side to this album? I love that one. It got released in Galore a year later but I've no idea if it was part of the Wild Mood Swings sessions or recorded after.

Then they also released 'More Than This' for the X-files OST in 1998. If those two songs were in WMS + Dredd song it would make this album at least 20% better.

'Wrong Number' was after. It was its own standalone single.

I'd edit those two down a couple of minutes tho... there's no reason why those two songs need to be 5min+ long.

And yeah, 'More Than This' is one of their better 90s tunes. Shame it's pretty much forgotten by this point.

Yeah those 3 are amongst my favorite 90's Cure songs and none of them are really that well known which is a shame. I mean the video for Wrong Number is one of their best ones just because how psychedelic and crazy it is and it only has like 50,000 views on youtube! Why?

Was Wild Mood Swings anyone else's first Cure album? Talk about Doing Cure Wrong.
Sound advice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mblx_jYFZmQ

Wild Mood Swings was one of my first Cure albums in the late 90s when I bought a handful of their CDs used (the others were Wish and Staring at the Sea).

the only song on this album that's bad is "club america"

i know it's wrong to love "strange attraction" as much as i do but i don't want to be right. low key my favorite robert smith lyric too

lmao i love "jupiter crash" soooo much too