Unintelligible Whispering
If you're looking for something:
Simple and rocking - Three Imaginary Boys
Moody and gloomy - Seventeen Seconds
Morose, almost oppressively sad - Faith
Angry, bitter, miserable and nihilistic - Pornography
New wavey - Japanese Whispers
Addled, psychedelic and kooky - The Top
Masterfully poppy - The Head On The Door
Wildly varied - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Guitar-based and stunning - Wish
I'd only investigate their later albums once you're well acquainted with the band.
Throbbing Member
Looks like a guide guideline, thanks!Originally Posted by Shadaloo
Active Member
lot of good stuff compilations, deluxe b-sides on itunes, galore is pretty well-rounded.
-Louie
Unintelligible Whispering
It's a documentary, for starters:
"So, 2018 will see me collaborating with Robert on a feature-length, chronological documentary of The Cure’s history from the 1970s via present day to the future. Robert himself will tell the story and this will work alongside other events for the band’s 40-year celebration."
The film to which I will bring my own style of jiggery-pokery will use as well as 'old favourites' a cornucopia of material from Robert’s collection which has never been seen before: Super-8; interviews; bootlegs; rare performances; behind-the-scenes, blah. Updates ’as and when’.
Sounds brilliant. Now, about those other events...
Active Member
hopefully they will have subtitles for when robert talks!
Stubby Member
Is there any hope for a new album? I have been trying to keep up, but never see bits on that. I have really really wanted them to do an album with Reeves in the band.
.net (24.24.2.1447)
I'd say KMKMKM was the logical thing to listen to after Disintegration with Wish a close second.
Throbbing Member
Just finished Wish on the way to work this morning. Wow. I loved every second of it
Matador de Froot Loops
Always a great choice!
With all this "Wish talk" i also grabbed my copy ...man i love this album!
"A letter to Elise" has to be one of their most underrated songs...
Cubby NIИtastic
Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography are the real trilogy to me. It's just such an amazing progression of a band going from bleak to grim to the darkest pit of despair. Those albums are all pretty minimalistic though, compared to the lush soundscapes of Disintegration and Wish. The Head on the Door and Kiss Mex3 are essential albums.
The Top is amazing to me, if not for the fact that it exists at all given Robert's drug usage/exhaustion at the time. It's very much a psychedelic pop record (with some absolute bangers thrown in like Shake Dog Shake and Give Me It) and kind of an underrated gem in their catalog for me. I'm not sure I would recommend seeking that one out for a first time listener but it's in my top 5 Cure albums for sure.
Throbbing Member
Listened to Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me today as well after work. I didn't like it AS much as Disintegration and Wish, but saying that it had a lot of songs on it I really liked plus I appreciate the variety on the album! I'll pick another one to listen to tomorrow but so far I'm very much enjoying my journey into The Cures discography
.net (24.24.2.1447)
The thing about 17S, F and P though, and I do love them despite what I'm about to say, is they owe such an enormous debt to joy division. For me, the head on the door was the turning point for the cure developing their mid-to-late period identity, with KMKMKM, disintegration then wish being three solid gold consecutive albums of their own groove.
(The walk is a straight up JD/NO rip off though)
Unintelligible Whispering
The Walk vs. New Order's an old one. IIRC it was proven that it was recorded before Blue Monday but released afterwards, in one of those weird scenarios which actually does turn out do be coincidence.
Joy Division (along with Siouxsie) is pretty much the forerunner of everything remotely gloomy-sounding (Or Goth-associated if you will). I think RS did profess an immense love for JD around the time, and really, who hasn't JD influenced? That said, I'd argue that with Pornography especially, Robert and co. transcended anything JD were capable of in terms of darkness or bleakness. That album was written in a booze-and-drug fueled angry haze as 'the ultimate fuck-off record'. It's basically a monument to nihilism in audio form.
she/her/hers
i listened to The Top a week or two ago on vinyl and it reaffirmed itself as one of my fav cure albums. it's also, essentially, a robert smith solo album, because everyone in the band was so fucked up the whole time they were in the studio, and robert was the only one who could really focus (besides andy on drums). there's a great essay about it in the 30th anniversary 2-CD version of the album.
Active Member
Active Member
I just scored a deluxe version of "Blue Sunshine" by the Glove in used record bin. The bonus disc with Robert doing the vocals sounds like a really trippy Cure record. Someone said that it is the soundtrack for taking acid & watching slasher movies all weekend. Fair assessment.
Cubby NIИtastic
I really wish Robert would've been able to do the vocals on the whole original album. Nothing against Jeanette. That being said, the "demos" on that album are a little jarring to me because it totally sounds like ~2005 Robert singing over recordings from 1983. Severin was claiming otherwise at the time, but I remember there was some controversy on that. Acid and slasher movies is spot on haha.
Active Member
I was playing "Fragile" today whilst running around doing errands & it really struck me that "The Great Below" is really heavily influenced by the Cure. Both lyrically & musically. Love that song. Brilliant end to the first disc.
desperately chilled
nah, i love the female vocals. if robert sang the whole record it wouldn't have been as special, unique, and weird. sorry to say but he can't pull off the sensuality of 'mouth to mouth' or 'sex eye makeup' in the same way...
our band covered ' ' speaking of which. one of my favorite songs across smith AND severin's catalog...
she/her/hers
i finally got around to listening to Blue Sunshine yesterday (don't know how i slept on it for so long...i think everyone calling it psychedelic made me worry it would be like shitty 60s psych-rock throwback or something) and it was great. i think jeanette's vocals were fantastic, and every time robert popped up, it felt like a special treat. overall, it felt like a companion album to The Top, so i loved it.
.net (24.24.2.1447)
I think it's deeper than simply JD influencing everyone, broadly. The Cure and JD played on some of the same bills in the early days, between 3IB and 17S (Hooky complains that Smith snubbed them all in the dressing rooms). Some people put the stint in the Banshees as being the influence that shifted The Cure's sound but the timing isn't right, unless it's what pulled him *out* of the mire. But the contrast between 3IB and 17S IMHO is so stark and the timing is just right, I'm convinced it was JD wot did it.
Happy to accept that Pornography is more than just JD's notes, and I love it, I just feel its still built on their foundations.
Stoked to see them again next year! That'll be 4th time for me; second place to NIN at 5 gigs. Hope to +1 that in 2018 too.
I span my 12" of Blue Sunshine (nice blue colour) for the first time a few days ago. Really underrated album. First time I've listened to it in over 10 years.
desperately chilled
JD undoubtedly played a part, but RS was also in the banshees in late 79 for a few months doing double duty on guitar. the timing def. works out for the banshees to have had more of that influence on 17 seconds, especially considering that the particular cure record has the same sort of minimalism as join hands and the scream.
.net (24.24.2.1447)
Ah thanks yes that makes perfect sense. And explains the B sides of the period too, including the banshees ones (I forgot the names but there's one where the guitar tone/technique from Lament features prominently)
FATUM NOS IUNGET
Cubby NIИtastic
Chain of Flowers is reporting that Amazon France has a couple surprise vinyl listings for "Mixed Up" and "Torn Down: Mixed Up Extras" - supposedly both of which will be Record Store Day 2018 releases.
Mixed Up 2LP
SIDE A:
Lullaby
Close to Me
Fascination Street
SIDE B:
The Walk
Lovesong
A Forest
SIDE C:
Pictures of You
Hot Hot Hot!!!
Why Can't I Be You?
SIDE D:
The Caterpillar
Inbetween Days
Never Enough
Torn Down: Mixed Up Extras 2LP
SIDE A:
Three Imaginary Boys
M
The Drowning Man
A Strange Day
SIDE B:
Just One Kiss
Shake Dog Shake
A Night Like This
Like Cockatoos
SIDE C:
Plainsong
Never Enough
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Want
SIDE D:
The Last Day of Summer
Cut Here
Lost
It's Over
Hairy Member
FUCK YES bring it on
Active Member
awesome. I remember Robert talking about a mixed up part 2 many years ago- maybe a decade ago.
Cubby NIИtastic
Yes, it's great that something Robert said in the past is finally happening.. Still waiting on the Wish remaster and In Orange/Show DVDs haha
That track listing is odd though, chronological order and not a lot of songs I'd expect remixes from. Though Just One Kiss did already have the extended mix, so I wonder if that's what will be used?
Active Member
it's an interesting tracklisting for sure. some are not exactly remixes one would expect, but we'll see. I wonder if these mixes, at least for the pre-92 tracks, were done in the Mixed Up era, or if they were redone about a decade ago when it was announced, or if these are new mixes. I also wonder, if these are new mixes, if they're done by outside artists (that's what was mentioned by Robert in interviews a decade ago) .
and yes, a Wish remaster is sorely needed. so disappointed that it hasn't come out yet, and at this point, who knows if it ever will..(last year would have been good for the 25 year anniversary) .
Cubby NIИtastic
I'm particularly upset that it's looking like those Lost Wishes tracks will never be made available in high quality. That really might be my absolute favorite era of the band, if I had to pick just one.
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