The Cure: Classic or Dud?

I was focused on the string arrangement common thread, when I culled the selections for 'This Is A Lie'. If the synth strings in "Want" were real strings, I'd probably slot it in in lieu of "Dredd Song".

I really think the band could have been thinking of an album like this collection--so many of the tracks even have segue sections that help the tracks flow pretty seamlessly. An odd thing to bother with, for a b-side...

ahh man moka, you got 'lovecats'!!! sounds like a great night. would love to see them do 'gridning halt' as well. that song is so enduring and catchy!

if i ever see them i demand an hour-long 'watching me fall' followed by 'give me it' and then the curtain falls to booing

if i ever see them i demand an hour-long 'watching me fall' followed by 'give me it' and then the curtain falls to booing

would attend this.

Aw, they didn't play Lovecats when I saw them :(

It was its tour debut last night iirc.

Here’s the full setlist they played for almost 3 hours:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/2019/foro-sol-mexico-city-mexico-339c4c8d.html

wow, that's a really varied setlist. must have been a total blast.

if i ever see them i demand an hour-long 'watching me fall' followed by 'give me it' and then the curtain falls to booing

RS would never concede to a set this short, they'll only compromise to cut down to two hours for festivals

that is an insane setlist. you must have had a blast Moka!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3i4ttvHocN/?igshid=12oxiuwbhn496

guys if fucking simon gallup dies, it will seriously be terrible.

i hope i'm reading too deeply into this and he's just fine.

V good new interview tied in with the release of the Anniversary/Cureation sets; it's the second part of a longer interview Kory Grow did with him a few months back:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/cure-band-robert-smith-interview-40-live-893005/amp/

Also should you be so inclined one of my projects on my Patreon is an album by album series Robert and company -- won't be monthly, maybe every other month or so. First one went live earlier in the week:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cure-reflections-30754630

You’ve never been very political. Roger Waters, who played the day before you in Hyde Park, had a lot of anti-Trump messaging. Do you feel artists should be more political nowadays?
I don’t think there’s a rule. Some artists are very good at it. It requires a number of different things. One is the music that you make has to reinforce where you’re going with what you’re saying. And from a young age, I’ve always held what could be considered a socialist viewpoint on the world. That’s why I wail against inequality. What’s wrong with the world is essentially inequality. But it isn’t reflected in what I want the Cure to be. I wanted the Cure to be something that I could escape into. For me, it was an escape from the world. Like when I was doing the “Love Cats” video, and I’m there caressing kittens, I can’t turn around and say, “By the way, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with the world.” It’s beyond absurd. Although now cuddling kittens would probably be a political statement in the state we’re in.

But you are political.
Behind the scenes, the Cure has always been politically active but usually pretty anonymously. It suits the way the band works, and everyone is much more comfortable with that rather than me being overt. They despair sometimes when I’ve had a few beers and I’ve done shows and I start spouting off. They’re like, “Please, don’t start.” Because once I start, it’s very hard to stop. I think it’s a great thing to be able to get up in front of people and convince people of what’s right and what’s wrong, although that depends on who you think is right and who is wrong.

I legit cheered when I read this. (Also this bolsters my argument for why "Us or Them" is so terrible; Robert is not good at putting explicit political expression into songs, not in the way he is at doing relationship imagery and emotional states.)

Definitely the most clear I think I've read on him on these points. Sign of a good interviewer at work too (though for years I've always felt people could be clearer in questions about the difference between being political and being politicized, but that's another subject).

"Director's Cut" videos from the final Disintegration night at the Sydney Opera House back in May now on youtube in 4K, with a vaporwave tease from Robert:

“Our five shows at the Sydney Opera House in May 2019 - celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1989 album Disintegration - are among the most memorable we have ever played - indeed, our entire Sydney trip was like a wonderful dream... I am so happy the final night of the run was captured in such expressive style by our longtime friend and director Nick Wickham - the release of the whole concert can’t be too far away… ”

Pictures Of You

Plainsong

Disintegration

Rank it next to the new album release

Thx sic

best album ever obv

Strictly Kev of DJ Food interviewing Andy Vella, mainly about his work for Fiction's dance sub-label Desire

Lol is doing a tweet-along thing dedicated to Seventeen Seconds this evening, apparently.

Just watched Rick Beato's "what makes this song great?" analysis of Just Like Heaven on YouTube. He highlighted Robert Smith's vocal harmonies. I've been listening to this song for over 30 years and I'm ashamed to say I've never noticed them. Listening to it now, I know I'll never un-hear them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPNHwwXh3Ks

Man thanks for the reminder that we've got the Royal Albert Hall thing this weekend.

What's that? Happy to be unintentionally of service!

Thread with details:

Show me! Show me! Show me Halloween!

It is only 3 days until the exclusive one-off live stream of The Cure’s 2014 Royal Albert Hall performance for Teenage Cancer Trust. pic.twitter.com/RIKTYhmdgZ

— The Cure (@thecure) October 28, 2020

$7.15 total and that's for three chances to watch, so why not?

Yeah this is pretty great and then some. Two more chances to watch it later today!

they were the best in the 80s as they lost me after mixed up and they were good before the 80s too!

Much thanks to Ned Ragget for helping me get sorted on this awesome broadcast tonight!

Do what I can!

Is there a thread for Rick Beato? His videos have been on rotation during quarantine, love how he discusses more advanced music theory than similar channels yet makes it simple enough and explains in detail for non-musicians to understand.

I love his videos of him and his young lad, Dylan, who has perfect pitch and can sing and name the individual notes of crazy, atonal 9-note clusters, it's super entertaining.

I like Beato's videos when he's talking about specific songs and how they work.

But when he strays from that into what is/isn't good music, he can be a real dud rockist. He favors blues-based music and chops-based music, which is not surprising from someone of his age and temperament. But the range is somewhat narrow. Even when he praises something outside the narrow canon, he does so using a framework that is based on that canon.

Ah yes, he’s definitely an insufferable rockist, but at least he has the real talk to explain why “rock is real music” to him. I don’t expect someone with his age and background to think otherwise. So instead of rolling my eyes at some of his other content I mostly limit myself to his song analysis which are very interesting for a non-musician (or a very amateur one) like myself.

Well the song analysis + some of the music theory videos. It’s mostly the ranking and opinion videos which I don’t care about.

Dylan, who has perfect pitch

Pet peeve/trivia based on something I learned: there is no such thing as perfect pitch. For example, pianos in the US and Europe are often tuned to slightly different pitches, but if there was such a thing as "perfect" pitch they would be tuned the same. The truth (as I understand it) is a lot cooler, in that you can actually train your ear to pick out notes and the like, which is no doubt what Beato did with his kid. I asked my guitar teacher about it once, and he told me at school everyone had to learn it essentially by rote, just the equivalent of working with flash cards until you've got it down and it becomes second nature. That's how he, say, can listen to a Steely Dan song and pick out the weird chords being played. Still awesome to watch the kid do it!

Anyway, I like Beato because his enthusiasm for banalities reveals some really cool stuff. For example, there was one video where he dissected "More Than a Feeling," and it was without a doubt the most I'd ever thought about that song in my life. And I learned a lot! Another one he tries to determine which are better, thicker or thinner guitar strings. Sometimes he surprises me with deeper cuts, as it were. There was one video he did of the best bass tones/sounds, and he put Curve on the list. How did he hear about Curve?

For example, pianos in the US and Europe are often tuned to slightly different pitches, but if there was such a thing as "perfect" pitch they would be tuned the same.

... Huh?

This doesn't follow logically at all. You can still innately hear different notes and give them distinct names AND have regional differences in what frequency those notes are tuned to (A440 vs A442, or baroque pitch which is A415 in modern times but didn't actually have a tonal center during the baroque period and depended on the physical characteristics of the organ you were playing with and could fluctuate anywhere from A400 to A450)

DJP otm

It's like saying "there's no such thing as signed languages because if there were, they'd be the same in the US and the UK"

Yeah. Not to pile on, but I think there probably is a part of the brain that has perfect pitch for everybody but relative pitch is more useful so that’s what most of us have access to.

there's no such thing as signed languages because if there were, they'd be the same in the US and the UK

Now *this* isn't logical, because signed languages are distinct, just as spoken languages are. But perfect pitch (again, as I understand it; DJP, you're a choir guy so of course you would know) implies there is one "right/correct" pitch. Yet if your ear were attuned to A450, *that* would be your perfect reference pitch, and if your ear were attuned to A400, *that* would be your perfect reference pitch. I suppose it's just a matter of perspective, whether you read perfect pitch as being able to pick out notes perfectly, or meaning that there is some "perfect" pitch that some people are just attuned to. I've always read it as the latter, but I guess I'm wrong. Maybe there should be a better term for it than "perfect pitch."

Though actually I guess that makes sense, not that there is one natural perfect pitch but perfect in the sense that one may speak perfect Spanish.

Perfect pitch is the ability to pick out notes perfectly. There is no one unified tuning that everyone across the world uses.

They just need to reissue Wish on vinyl and then do an album by album 12" reissue campaign so I can complete my collection.

there's also no such thing as "perfect Spanish" or "perfect" any language?

I think the equivalent would be literacy.

like, the ability to read and comprehend without any struggle.

anyway, I get what you all mean now.

Perfect is the enemy of GBDFA.