Tag: The Cure

Posted in Album Reviews

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World (2024)

Posted on by Michael

In 2023, Robert Smith and The Cure went out on an acclaimed tour of North America. This year the band released their 14th album and first in 16 years.  Songs Of A Lost World contains 10 songs, several of which contain lengthy opening instrumentals including first single, “Alone”.  It starts the album off in dramatic fashion with Jason Cooper’s prominent drums under greying skies as Smith sings, “this is the end of every song that we sing”.  That line sets the stage for the rest of the album.

Co-produced by Paul Corkett who has a lengthy list of producer and engineering credits to his name, Smith is also joined by longtime bass player Simon Gallop and Reeves Gabrels on guitar, making his first album appearance is a member of The Cure. The piano and keys of Roger O’Donnell play crucial roles in several songs including the bright synth of “And Nothing Is Forever” and “A Fragile Thing” whose passages are connected through piano lines.

A couple noisier rock songs appear before “I Can Never Say Goodbye” returns the atmosphere to the melodic fog on a track about Smith’s brother who passed away.  “All I Ever Am” updates The Cure sounds for 2024 before the album closes with “Endsong”.  The 10 minute track has a hypnotic quality as Smith sings, “I’m outside in the dark, wondering how I got so old”. A feeling that many of his fans will identify with.  After the lengthy recording hiatus, Robert Smith has returned with a moody and atmospheric album capturing both holding on to love and losing it as we drift into the darkness of winter.

8/10

Posted in Album Reviews

The Cure – Three Imaginary Boys (Deluxe Edition) (2004)

Posted on by Michael

It was exactly 45 years ago that The Cure released their UK debut album, Three Imaginary Boys.  The three school friends, led by singer Robert Smith, created an album of raw post punk that can be both gloomy and energetic.  The first three tracks are all fine examples of this. “10:15 Saturday Night” starts with a distant guitar and tapping of drums that mimics the tapping of water from a leaky faucet. The song written when Smith was just 16 creates the image of sitting in a lonely bedsit and waiting for someone to call. The lowkey riffing of “Accuracy” is still tuneful before the upbeat and bouncy “Grinding Halt”.

“Subway Song” is an eerie slice of life with a great bassline from original bassist Stephen Dempsey and a harmonica that mimics a train.  It lasts for just one verse then ends with a blood curdling scream. “So What” takes the absurd lyrics of describing a cake decorating set and sets it to a punk blast. “Fire In Cairo” is a standout with a deep groove held down by the rhythm section including drummer Lol Tulhurst and Smith’s poetic lyrics, this one seems like there was more thought taken into the recording.  The title track adds reverb and produces a haunting atmosphere while Smith sings “close my eyes and hold so tightly/scared of what the morning brings”. An almost heavy metal sounding lyric.

These songs stand in contrast to filler songs that also appear including the atrocious cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and the in joke “Meat Hook”.  It would be reported later that the band had little say in what ended up on the album.  North America and Australia were better served by the compilation Boys Don’t Cry that keeps the good tracks from the UK debut and adds the stellar single “Boys Don’t Cry”, the controversial (and misunderstood) first single “Killing An Arab” plus the energetic song about chasing fads “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”.

In 2004 the band released the deluxe version of Three Imaginary Boys that adds demos, outtakes and a few live tracks all of which appear in varying sound quality.  Crucially it adds two of the three singles released around that time including the aforementioned “Boys Don’t Cry” that is considered one of The Cure’s finest songs. “10:15 Saturday Night” appears in a home demo recording that uses a Casio keyboard and electronic beat for backing music on a version that greatly amps up the despair and isolation.  “Fire In Cairo” appears in demo form with Smith making the song sound sexy before a couple of decent outtakes appear including “Winter” and the Undertones soundalike “Play With Me”.

Three Imaginary Boys – 8.5/10

Extras – 6/10

Posted in Album Reviews

The Cure – Seventeen Seconds (1980)

Posted on by Michael

41BMR1BP9AL__AA160_On virtually every vacation I take, a trip around the local used record stores is a must. I usually come out with 10+ discs that I may or may not listen to for quite awhile; often they are filling blank spots in the collection. A trip to Portland, Or last year was no different. It took exactly a year to finally get around to listening to the second album by The Cure, Seventeen Seconds. Sharing the same sparse minimalism as the debut, Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds leaves behind some of that album’s punky roots and moves the band into its gothic phase.

“Play For Today” with the chorus, “and wait for something to happen” bears the most resemblance to what appeared on the debut. “In Your House” features an almost jangly guitar line that Johnny Marr would become famous for a few years later. The instrumental “Three” has a menacing vibe that sees the band moving in a new darker direction. Single “A Forest” adds a bass propulsion to the sound that makes it the standout track and “M” contains the most conventional alt rock sound on the album.

Through no fault of its own, Seventeen Seconds is not the record that the casual fan of The Cure would reach for, myself included. It’s good, very good in spots, but with so many other great albums by The Cure, this one will virtually always get lost in the shuffle outside of the most diehard of fans.

7.5/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJnUZ03WZVA