A thread for the Cure reissues

I'm still amused that Bestival is 1) the only Cure album on Bandcamp and 2) the only album thus far with Reeves Gabrels on it, even though he's now been in the band for over a decade.

(Although I guess the Anniversary box set counts too but that feels more like its own separate monument than an album.)

yeah, the band is firmly in "legacy act" mode by now — which just makes the tardiness of the reissues even more frustrating.

I gave myself a Twitter project today:

I’m going to listen to Wild Mood Swings front to back today. I don’t like this album but I love some of the songs on it; I’m mostly wondering if I still hate the songs I hated previously

— DJP (@djperry1973) August 4, 2022

(SPOILER ALERT: I do still hate the songs on this I hated before)

"Return" is my favourite of the forced pop songs but I think that's entirely down to the rinkydinky keyboards in the chorus. Without those there is no song (or rather there is "Round & Round & Round")

I think the entirety of Return is an affront to the concept of music

I take Return over RoundX3 and Strange Attraction any day. The nice little guitar riff under all the fake horns redeems it somewhat

djp otm "return" is astonishing bullshit by any measuring stick

i like every song on wms except “club america” which is maybe the closest thing to an objective misfire i’ve ever heard and it’s track two

ste says it's perfect pop

― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Tuesday, August 2, 2022 8:26 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

probably wrote it years ago

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 2, 2022 8:27 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Pretty sure that's his original review from '96, as I believe it appears verbatim in the '97 AMG book.

Mystified why AMG has never bumped Wish from a 2.5 to something even slightly higher. The next three are all 3s.

just quietly, it's because it sucks

Wish deluxe pushed to November 25th

lol

It's a Christmas wish, you see.

Thanksgiving's gonna be dark this year

Perhaps by Bloodflowers RS was just influenced by all the new recently-dropped former major label bands' albums who'd lost access to skilled design companies

It looks as though they'd intended the album to be - in true 2000 style - an online-only release.

yeah, that's otm

https://open.spotify.com/album/4W7kDAiCJ3euyQPo0RU64g?si=uax8zk-VS9GvVYKt4fy8KQ

^^"cut" and "uyea sound" demos on spotify

really? nobody has anything to say?

an official release of "uyea sound" guys! IT'S HAPPENING!

Well yeah but we all have it already

Wish is getting the picture-disc treatment for the Record Store Day Thanksgiving-Interruption.

https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/15634

30th anniversary limited edition of The Cure’s hit best-selling, Grammy-nominated album Wish, pressed on double picture disc for the first time, exclusively for RSD Black Friday. Featuring the hit singles “High”, “Friday I’m In Love” and “A Letter To Elise”. This double picture disc edition features newly remastered audio by Robert Smith and Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.

Picture disc is the best format for the quality of RS’ recent remasters.

'A Letter To Elise' is the latest Cure video to be remastered, watch the full HD version now at https://t.co/J48FyjKS5p and pre-order your 30th anniversary copy of 'Wish' at https://t.co/AfZQwQKZBW #wish30 pic.twitter.com/TjYRR0gyMy

— The Cure (@thecure) September 16, 2022

"wendy time" demo >>>>>>>>>>

"t6" was not expected

"abetabw" O_O

shame how they kept the slinky subfunk grooves alive post-kiss me but always ended up shelving them. "frogfish" reminds of some of the equally hilarious wahwah'd outtakes from the disintegration extras. they practically had an unreleased ep of "wendy time"s and "hot hot hot"s by the time rs fully embraced it; and there was had "the 13th" and the world was finally a better place.🌞

but seriously, this has fully exceeded expectations. the best of the unheard stuff is on par with the best of the series. extended mixes are old mixtape fodder and play like "classic rock" to me, but ymmv. otherwise, if you like this album and want to get lost in it a little bit, this paints a much finer picture of the band at the time and i understand feeling compelled to make it a double album. yay.

I just bought this, I don't buy CDs anymore but keeping my Cure collection up to date.

i didn’t get much out of the demos/out-takes - could definitely see why the latter didn’t progress

however! for ages I’ve bought into the fan semi-othodoxy that there was a better Wish to be had, if some of the b-sides had been elevated to the LP

listening to the scraps i can sort of understand that an LP with play/big hand/twilight garden/halo would have been much more firmly in the Disintegration mode - ie the record i wanted at the time - and that Smith’s decision to go for a kaleidoscopic guitar album was probably his last good bit of instinctual pop relevance decision-making?

ie i think it was a very good judgement at the time

ie i think it was a very good judgement at the time

So, I am a bigger Cure fan than most, though maybe not as much of some of you. Is it controversial to think this album ("Wish") is not just great and a perfect follow-up to "Disintegration," but one of the best guitar albums of the '90s as well?

No. It's also their best classic lineup album.

To Wish Impossible Things really is incredible. Possibly the saddest Cure song.

On the same album as "Apart"!

I don't understand people who dislike this album but they exist.

akm OTM

I don't understand people who dislike this album but they exist.

― akm, Saturday, November 26, 2022

Listened to the whole thing last night, I really enjoy the outtakes and demos on this one and can see myself listening to them more than once, which hasn't really been the case with previous deluxe sets they've put out. it helps that the demos are really studio demos and really fleshed out.

as for the remaster itself: it was via apple music/iphone/earbuds so hard to tell definitively but IMO I didn't actually notice much of a difference in the mastering here vs the original release. I'm sure someone will complain about it.

haha, steve hoffman forums delivers:

"Yep! I just DL'ed the Amazon Music HD streaming file for the new remaster (why is it only 16/44.1kHz?!) and A/B'ed it versus the original U.S. Elektra/Fiction CD and you're right, they definitely bumped up the high-mids & lowered some mid-bass, for clarity's sake. So it's good in one regard, that it overall sounds a bit clearer, BUT that high-mid bump gets a little grating on the ears at times, compared to the old CD. I could imagine the '22 as being a bit more fatiguing in the long haul, as a result. I also miss some of the mid-bass of the original, as even though that area can tend to muddy up a master a bit, it also carries the "weight" of the vocals (not to mention other instruments,) so the remaster lacks some thickness and realism in vocals that the original has. ALSO the remaster has extra limiting applied compared to the original, by up to 4 dB in a certain spot or two (but usually only 1 or 2 dB for the most part.) Not offensively so, since it's only catching some transients here & there, and limiter's set with such fast attack/release it's not audible, so the master isn't brickwalled by any means or even sounding "louder" dynamically as a result, just perceived a little "louder" at times cuz of that high-mid boost.
Another thing of note: the vocals on the original has some sibilance here & there, but the remaster seems to have quashed that a good amount, so they must've used a de-esser on the master, maybe even to also try & combat the overall more-strident high-mid presence on the new one.

So anywho, you're right it's certainly no revelation in EQ, although some people may prefer it to the original, depending on their playback system. And even though it's not much audible, it's technically/measurably less dynamic, so that's a strike against it. BUT again, the only very hearable difference worth noting is that the new one sounds a bit clearer/brighter than the original, so you're listening system will likely dictate which one you prefer...

I'm assuming the new vinyl was cut from that same new digital master? I have an original '92 Greek pressing of this album, but it sounds very alike the original CD, just a touch "darker" so it's more crankable, to me."

TLDR: it sounds fine

more crankable, got it

My regret is not having remastered versions of those b-sides, but I guess the 2004 box set took care of'em.

you want catalogue continuity??!! with thisl band?!

i do kind of hate that all the bsides are on that box set and not with the albums but what can you do. digital stuff has made this somewhat irrelevant now

yeah