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

I'm kind of a sucker for Jupiter Crash, especially the lyrics.

I listened to Bare the other day. It was actually quite good, in a VERY understated, low-key, not-anywhere-near-as-sublime-as-early-Cure-low-key-closers-but-still-affecting way. I only listened to it because it surely had to justify its length somehow. Have rarely if ever gotten as far as Trap or Treasure. May rectify this.

"This Is a Lie" sounds good in my memory at least.

I like the 3-against-2 polyrhythms in it but they don't really do anything with it; it just kind of sits there not bothering to become really awesome.

Half the songs on this album do this really irritating thing where they build up to a point where they're about to become really awesome... and then stop. One of the reasons I like "Trap" so much is because it doesn't sound abbreviated.

("This Is A Lie" would have been better with a different vocal arrangement IMO.)

At the end of the day, this album is sunk by the 1-2 punch at the start. After that it can wibble all it likes but it's already broken every heart in the room.

The "Trap"/"Treasure"/"Bare" ending would have been a very good EP.

And, WTF with all of the great b-sides???? "Adonais", "Ocean", "It Used To Be Me", "Home", "A Pink Dream", "Waiting"... all better than practically every song on this album!

(also I would have been much more impressed had they put the Ultra Living remix of "Gone!" on the album than the original)

This is a great album. Voted "Mint Car", of course, but "This Is a Lie", "Strange Attraction" and "Gone!" are also fantastic songs. One of the best Cure albums ever, and by far their most underrated!

This is the one album where the ppl who are all "The Cure ceased to exist after 1989" are actually correct.

pooollll blooooodflooooweerrrrssss

I'd do a "worst song on Bloodflowers" poll just so I could campaign for "Where The Birds Always Sing".

I think I've only ever listened to this album once, and it was when it came out (so... 14 years ago?). I don't feel comfortable participating in this poll, but I remember it sucking pretty uniformly.

:D and I'd vote for that pesky opening track just because. Out of SPITE. xp

I remember having a bad hunch about this album so I don't think I actually listened to it until...like 1999 or so. Probably for the best.

I love how Club America sounds like it might be another accomplished guitar-heavy rave-up for about 45 seconds, then a not-terrible song for 2 and a half minutes, and then there's that middle-eight to crush all hope...the tone's all wrong. Mood swings don't SUIT The Cure. They can do single moods fantastically, but only if they commit to them. Club America is a tonal mess and the rest of the album follows suit.

Debating btw "13th" and "Trap"

The only good reason to own this album is The 13th, the last hurrah of Robert Smith as exquisite weird pop purveyor.
I sort of like even Want, but the rest of the lp basically is a wreck.

PRobably gonna get pelted for this, but I love Mint Car and it will be first dance at my wedding.

Want is good too, but I haven't heard the rest of the album.

I love Mint Car and it will be first dance at my wedding.

Grounds for divorce. (Then again I'm not marrying you so never mind.)

Used to own this, and I can recall the first six songs (to varying degrees of enjoyment) and NONE of the last eight.

I reviewed this for my college paper! (don't remember what I gave it; not a good review)

Don't really get the "Mint Car" hate. it's a shameless rewrite of the last album's "hooray for love!" stuff, but there are worse things they could rewrite. stuck between "want" and "the 13th" though honestly all of them seem so inessential. If "the 13th" wins its for inspiring the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N9piZjt_k8

wish they did more with sophie muller

"The sun is up, I'm so happy I could scream"

I could never get enough of that kind of songs. "Mint Car" is one of the best ever Cure songs, only beaten by "Let's Go To Bed" and "Friday I'm In Love". I LOVE HAPPY TWEE SONGS!

And "Wild Mood Swings" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "The Cure"

Btw. this should have been called "This is a Poll" :)

No it shouldn't have.

'want' by a very significant margin. though to be honest, i think i haven't heard a number of these songs more than once.

I love this record. It's general mood is not what you expect from the Cure, but that's part of why I like it so much. Just got the 2xLP not too long ago for cheap. Not sure why there is any distaste for this record.

Because it's terrible?

only clicked on this thread for reliable Geir lols

(xp)

I mean, if you want a list of the problems by song:

"Want" is good but gets chopped off right when the song becomes interesting.
"Club America" is a shambling mess of bad ideas executed poorly.
"This Is A Lie" is a nice-enough instrumental arrangement ruined by some truly atrocious vocals and lyrics.
"The 13th" is an unambiguously good song, but it's kind of a problem when you have to go past the first three songs to find something that isn't truncated, completely ill-conceived or just mangled by poor editing/execution.
"Strange Attraction" is a self-indulgent piece of poisonous horseshit.
"Mint Car" is an attempt to do wide-eyed, sweet and charming that winds up sounding plodding, trite and overwrought.
"Jupiter Crash" has some nice musical ideas in it but isn't allowed to develop into anything.
"Round & Round & Round" works well as a live jam but sound completely enervating on the album.
"Gone!" does actually work but has such a bonkers vocal on it that it's almost guaranteed to turn most people off.
"Numb" is a good song that may lie a little too far on the static side to really grab people's attention; that's probably intentional given the subject matter but it would have been more effective with cleverer lyrics.
"Return" is a frightmarish attempt to do mania that basically trips all over itself and doesn't succeed in being anything but hyper-annoying.
"Trap" is a good song that actually develops within the framework of its running time and doesn't have a wholly embarrassing vocal on it.
"Treasure" is a nice, quiet song that does capture the wistful mood of the lyrics very well.
"Bare" is one of the only songs on the album that feels like it has space to breathe due to its longer running time; it's also one of the few tracks allowed to grow organically as opposed to being smashed from one part to another or cut off right when things sound like they're going to become interesting. Unfortunately, the placid, mellow timbre of the song makes it kind of boring.

Those are all terrible reasons to dislike those tracks.

I like Mint Car but I also don't. I voted for it and wish I hadn't.

(LJ, I'm betting that if you listen to the last 3 songs in isolation from the rest of the album, you will like them a hell of a lot more.)

Apologies to Robert, but it's all downhill from "Want" (an admittedly stunning opener) on this album.

I remember having a bad hunch about this album so I don't think I actually listened to it until...like 1999 or so. Probably for the best.

― Ned Raggett,

I avoided it until at least 2003.

I've never even heard this. I quit the Cure after Wish.

FTR this is the only post-Wish album worth avoiding, although it's better to get the Japanese edition of The Cure than the US/UK one.

true, but that's still a frustrating experience (as was the last record)

haha I am on record as someone who strenuously disagrees with that so I'm not going to get into all of that again

I'm with akm more or less, though I understand your reasons for disagreeing and also will not get into it.

I was torn because I felt compelled to vote for the WORST song on the album to fit with the general tenor of the question.

agreed that this is the worst Cure album.

i was going to try and listen before voting but that didn't happen. "Treasure"

god this was awful. this was the off-the-bus point for all the huge cure fans i knew.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

What the hell is wrong with people

^

One of the best Cure songs ever is of course the best song on this album :)

"This Is a Lie" was a bit robbed tho.

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

after i realized the smashing pumpkins adore was a perfect record as a kid i gravitated toward albums that were mostly hated by their fanbase, and i ended up listening to wild mood swings a lot as a result... the other cure records i had were kiss me and disintegration so it's not like i was unfamiliar with prime cure. but there's a playfulness to this album that always charms me (especially "gone!" i feel like i'm the only person who has any strong feelings about this song whatsoever, but jazzy r&b the cure is so fun to me), and whenever it pulls me in i get shattered all over again by how good the ballads are. "numb"! "treasure"! "bare"! jeez

like wish but to a much greater extent, it could've been one of the great cure mood pieces had they worked the ballads and the b-sides into one sequence. but i love it for what it is still

hard to overstate however how a song as good as "waiting" should never be a b-side

I always liked "Trap."

brad i rep hard for "gone!" it's usually a toss up between that, "more than this", and "jupiter crash" for my favorite thing of this era. here's the critter mix for "gone!" i mentioned upthread:

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

i know it's cool to discredit jason, but any live recordings you can find from the swing tour are worth your time. "disintegration" on that tour was rarely better.

am also a big fan of "proper mess" albums like this. it's not the best anything, but it's damned entertaining to me.

re jason - i remember reading somewhere that the swing tour was the last time they played without a click track - what I’ve heard definitely sounds a bit more lively

never found a way into WMS but i saw them play Jupiter Crash once and found it charming- and Want was a worthy LP opener

"Want" is quite good indeed.

Yeah "Gone!" is groovy as hell, and the album in general is underrated. "Mint Car" is transcendent tho--maybe the most euphoric pop song ever, and the fact that it's by this band makes it even better

“Mint Car” was the first Cure song I ever heard when I was like 9.

I immediatly loved the tone in the vocalist’s voice, but didn’t excite me enough to listen to more of their music until many years later when I heard “lullaby”.

Mint Car is glorious; The 13th is even better!

I thought The 13th was a completely genius comeback single when it came out and couldn't understand why the entire universe seemed underwhelmed and a bit embarrassed by it.

I think I got the vibe about this when I heard the single, with the line "Yeah, I Feel That Good" and decided that was the least good line in a song, ever. Not even "terrible", just useless.

(unless I'm thinking of some other song on some other album)

Here is the best defense of this album that I have ever read. She almost makes me want to listen to it again, this article was just released and a bit long.

https://www.popmatters.com/cure-wild-mood-swings-genre-jumping

Just finished reading thread and never gave my experience. When WMS came out I was not in the mood for new Cure. I think I bought and played it once and then filed it away. I never really gave it a chance. I know I played it when I got back into the Cure but it's not a good album. It is way too long and doesn't flow well. I do think there are some good songs on it but really hard to reach for this album when you have 12 others you can play instead.

That defense is an amusing read but it's not a good album. The B-sides on the other hand are amazing as been told on this thread.

Which is why I will be curious as to the reissue, whenever it comes along.

Kiss Me‘s best songs, like “Why Can’t I Be You” chase away dizzy pop and bounce into a snarky funk that dissolves into ethereal serenades. “One More Time” slides into jazzy ditties and “Hot Hot Hot!!!” scats toward Beatnik Rap that then bursts into the sludgy psychedelia of “Shiver and Shake”.

uh, what

I love how you can see a wall of bills advertising the “Mint Car” single in Mike Leigh’s 1997 film Calendar Girls, which then segues into a brief conversation among the two protagonists who talk about no longer following the band

I still like this, still listen on occasion. It's in my "headcanon" as the Cure's last album--not near the heights of about everything through 'Disintegration,' but to my ears, better than 'Wish' and certainly far, far better than the 'Wild Mood Swings' that was actually issued:

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'

― Soundslike, Tuesday, August 15, 2017 12:34 AM (five years ago)