The Cure: Classic or Dud?

xp!

Huh, so they've been playing At Night a lot more than Fascination Street?

Boy that's strange. Convinced I saw "High" at the Shoreline this year. (I did definitely see it in 2016 at the same venue, thus the possible confusion.)

Either way, I've only ever seen the band with Jason, but for whatever reason last night was the first time he really clicked for me. Felt like the MVP, in fact, Bob aside.

Yeah Jason has now really figured out his place in the band’s sound and is fantastic

Agreed.

yeah no High at the shoreline show I attended. I would have loved that.

Roger O'Donnell talks at length about his keyboards

I love the idea that Roger O'Donnell has a warehouse full of synths that he only ever plays with two or three fingers.

(that was a joke, mostly)

It's that technique that allows him to play three, four or five synths at the same moment

Any chance we get an album this year?

Kind of wild to realize it's been 16 years since the last album, nearly the same time gap encompassing Three Imaginary Boys to Wild Mood Swings.

A @TheCure fan brought this relic to @RoughTrade last night to show to @AndyVellaDesign and me.

If it's genuine - and sources close to the horse's mouth believe it is - then it's an absolute Holy Grail of @RobertSmith memorabilia.

"Where it all began, really" as the owner said. pic.twitter.com/sChp9drSLZ

— Simon Price﮷ (@simon_price01) January 19, 2024

wow!

1. Did Robert return it?

2. Did no one else ever check it out?

Form: 69
Book Condition: Yes

I check books out from the university library and a lot of them were last borrowed in like 1977 or 1985!

Love it. "RJPC Smith"?

fwiw Rik Mayall went to my school and kids used to write "Richard Mayall" in their text books all the time

lol at all recent posts

That's even better than Trent Reznor's Volvo of Despair.

That's really an amazing and awesome find.

I reckon it’s genuine, that handwriting is very distinctive and a match for later scrawled autographs etc. https://pin.it/6mqYBuyfG

sorry https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d8/fa/b8/d8fab8130e18f32fb56e44a27eea9c67.jpg

George Costanza : Hey... you don't think... sure, that's Jon Voight's pencil!

Jerry Seinfeld : With Jon Voight's teeth marks.

pulls out the owners manual from the glove box

Jerry Seinfeld : Owner's manual... you know what? This car was owned by Jon Voight.

George Costanza : Ah! See? I told ya.

Jerry Seinfeld : Except Jon is spelled with an H. J-O-H-N.

George Costanza : So?

Jerry Seinfeld : Doesn't Jon Voight spell his name J-O-N?

George Costanza : So, what are you saying?

Jerry Seinfeld : Nothing. I'm sure "Jon" probably mispelled his own name. I know sometimes I spell Jerry with a G... and an I!

George Costanza : Get out of the car!

Jerry Seinfeld : What?

George Costanza : That's right, you heard me. Get out. You are ruining this whole experience for me.

Jerry Seinfeld : Oh, look! There's Gregory Peck's bicycle!

George Costanza : Get out!

Jerry Seinfeld : And Barbara Mandrell's skateboard!

George Costanza : Get out!

Enjoyed watching Lol on drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI_yHkV7XTE

The reissue series continues as such -- slightly expanded version of Paris up next:

https://store.rhino.com/en/rhino-store/artists/the-cure/paris-cd/603497825103.html

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

Sounds great at that pace - really thick and druggy

It’s such a shame they play everything to a click now

Is Paris the last release with Boris? Excepting that odd unplugged thing from the hits compilation.

Lost Wishes and the Elise B-sides were recorded before Paris but released after it was performed/recorded; Purple Haze I think would be the last recorded-and-released Boris.

I always thought Burn was the last Boris thing - but I am open to being educated here

d'oh!

Is Boris even (doing the programming) on Purple Haze? I want to say yes but I can't remember. Obv he's right there on the Virgin Radio version.

Burn is indeed the last recording. Just him and RS at that point if memory serves.

Really great piece by Jude Rogers on Charlotte Sometimes, book and song but primarily the book, I think rightly.

https://steadyhq.com/thequietus/posts/21b14186-0eb3-436a-bb5c-3f7e27c29a0c

Tonight I was out to dinner with an old friend of the opposite sex. She brought up the song "The Last Day of Summer" and I so casually said that song is on Bloodflowers. Now thinking back, how in the hell do I know that? But it's the Cure and they're my all-time favourite band and its not even close, so I did know that piece of trivia.

Ironically, she also talked about the Smiths "Asleep" and I had no clue where that song came from other than I didn't think it was an album track.

do you dislike bloodflowers? I wasn't hot on it for many years but I've come around, maybe in part because the albums after were fairly disappointing by comparison. The Last Day of Summer is probably my favorite song on that album.

It's a beaut, and it was nice to see it back in the mix on last year's tour.

Yeah that album’s saving grace

I’m also very fond of The Loudest Sound

I think Bloodflowers is great, especially "The Last Day Of Summer".
I just wish "Watching Me Fall" was a bit faster, like "Disintegration" or "One Hundred Years" to give the album more dynamic. It's a good song, but it really weighs the album down.

Could also just be shorter! For me it doesn’t have enough going on musically or lyrically to justify the epic length - was an absolute slog when they played it second in the set on the tour. Those shows were pretty great though.

(Re Watching Me Fall specifically - although the overlong/under-interesting criticism does somewhat apply to the album overall)

My point was it being an obscure song and not exactly "Just Like Heaven." She could have said "Throw Your Foot" or "A Chain of Flowers" for example and I would have known it was a B-side and from which album.

Bloodflowers is good but hardly ever play it. I think I like 4:13 Dream more, is this a poll idea?

The last time I played "Bloodflowers," maybe last year, I liked it. I hadn't heard it for years, but had remembered it pretty well (maybe because I had gotten to see them play a small club here behind it). Iirc I only listened to "4:13 Dream" a couple of times, when it was released, and I don't recognize any song titles now, so at the very least I'm sure it would be surprising if I ever put it on again.

Will nobody dare mention the poor unloved self-titled LP

I have to say I find The End of the World and Alt End pretty charming Cure singles - their late(r) attempts at giddy pop have often felt forced to me but those two are better than they have a right to be.

(I also felt like The Promise had… promise but kind of needed to go full Mogwai or something - it just stays on the one intensity setting for 7 minutes or whatever)

Lost > The Promise because of the escalating intensity

I really love the s/t, particularly the Japanese import that adds “Truth, Goodness, and Beauty”, “Fake”, and “Going Nowhere” to the tracklist, but I don’t think I will ever be able to get past “The doleful cant of a bigot/Blinded by fear and hate”

aka Donald Trump's Cure covers EP

ILM is one of the only places where you'll find ardent admirers of the s/t album (and WMS). s/t has some good songs utterly ruined by shitty production and roger being mixed out. 4:13 Dream has a good opening track and no other memorable songs.