sextonseven said:

You can probably only be called "Fat Bob" so many times without snapping.

GangstaFam said:

Sideshow is already included in 'Show'.

GangstaFam said:

LOL, actually I meant Severin. Rumor was they didn't get along so well on the Banshees reunion tour a few years ago and that's why during last year's Creatures' tour (billed as 'An Evening With Siouxsie'), they only performed Banshees' tracks that Severin didn't write. This is just what I heard, not exactly sure if it's true.

GangstaFam said:

It IS???

sextonseven said:

Show, Paris and Sideshow.

superspaceboy said:

Like I said, Sideshow was already part of Show.

sextonseven said:

Oh.

superspaceboy said:

mhm. Last track on the Pornography 2nd disc.

14. TEMPTATION TWO (a.k.a. LGBT) (RS studio demo 7/82) *

sextonseven said:

Well then maybe a version with "A forest" on it. Truly it's the only reason I didn't get it.

superspaceboy said:

You're asking for a triple-disc edition. The original 'Show' was already two CDs.

sextonseven said:

I know I am asking for a lot. It just p'ed me off that that song was practically the only omission...but then again A forest Live is normally 12 - 15 minutes. Funny, I did come across a "boot" at the time "From the edge of the deep green sea" and it was included.

GangstaFam said:

would never have guessed.

i doubt we will get Japanese Whispers, as it wasn't technically an "album". It was a singles & B-sides compilation. All of the b-sides are already on Join the Dots, and the singles are all remastered on the Cure Greatest Hits CD.

BUT what to do w/ the bonus material? On The Top release?

I hope I'm wrong, it would be nice to have Japanese Whispers... i guess we'll find out eventually

JonSnow said:

There's not a whole lot is there?

superspaceboy said:

Well, Show and Sideshow are from the same concert, but they only have one song in common, "Just Like Heaven".

GangstaFam said:

Try from the same CD. 'Sideshow' is just the songs from the 'Show' U.K. 2CD that couldn't fit on the U.S. single disc release. I guess Elektra didn't think a double CD would sell in the states so it was split up into a one full-length disc and a 'single' (Sideshow). I bought the U.K. version instead where the Sideshow songs are properly integrated into the album.

sextonseven said:

Ahhh I didn't get that either...UK release...gotcha.

GangstaFam said:

You're probably right, I doubt there is much except demos and such. But still... it would be nice to have.

I'm only gonna get "Faith" because that's the only one that I liked from that era. It also includes "Carnage Visors" too.

Moonbeam said:

No, they're right. Faith is the best out of those 3. Seventeen Seconds is too boring. Faith is also the only one where they're the band is really heavy into the religious aspects of their music.

NWF said:

Seventeen Seconds isn't boring. It's a masterpiece.

Faith is great too, but it doesn't break nearly as much ground as Seventeen Seconds. I'd say that Faith is probably the least essential of the three, although it is quite enjoyable in its own right.

out of the 3, honestly... i would have to say Pornography is the best, followed by Faith then Seventeen Seconds. But all 3 are stellar.

sextonseven said:

That bit of info passed me by. I don't think I ever knew that.

JonSnow said:

Just for the artwork and liner notes alone.

NWF said:

Aww, give 'em another chance. Hearing 'em all shiny and new might change your mind.

JonSnow said:

I probably like them in the opposite order, the order they were released. Seventeen Seconds has a sketchier feel than the others probably because some of the songs are instrumentals or pretty close to it. The others have a more developed sound and more variety in the songs. But I think that's why I love SS so much. It's the most basic, archetypal seed of what would become The Cure's signature sound: chorus heavy guitars, fat-ass plodding basslines, echoey drums, misty atmosphere, minor keys, sorrow and beauty. It's definitely the Dirty Mind of their career where everything started to come together and they fully realized what they were capable of. I love how unified that album is and the mood it creates. It's always perfect for the first snowstorm of the year. It's perfect that it's coming out now as we just had some of the most freakish weather here in the Detroit area with nearly a foot of snow and sleet. As far as the albums, it's the one I'm looking forward to hearing remastered the most. As far as the bonus material, Faith looks the most promising.

GangstaFam said:

Good description of Seventeen Seconds.

i've always thought of the trilogy like this: SS is ice. Pornography is fire. Faith is a cool soft fog. Heh

JonSnow said:

The cover art for each does a good job of portraying this.

SS with the barren trees, Faith with the out of focus church and Pornography with the shadowey figures in hellfire.

Here's my take on Seventeen Seconds:

Having thoroughly impressed with 1979's Boys Don't Cry, Robert Smith admits that the Cure had still not cultivated the sound they wanted. With Seventeen Seconds, however, Robert and crew had found their nitch. This landmark 1980 release holds its weight very well among the Cure's meaty catalog, ranking among the very best of their work.

In many ways, Seventeen Seconds was a step up from Boys Don't Cry. Although Boys Don't Cry is a lot of fun, most of the songs sound a bit unpolished and incomplete, despite throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. Seventeen Seconds is the opposite: it is a work of stark minimalism but exudes a professional, more mature sound. Indeed, there are 2 instrumentals of the 10 tracks, each of which acts as a perfect preface to the album's 2 singles. Robert's voice is greatly muted on 2 of the vocal tracks: "Secrets" and "Three." Sometimes less is more, and this case it is much, much more. Robert and company craft their work with great precision and care- it is as if there were a limited number of notes and sounds available and they needed to bring out their utmost potential.

Also diminished from Seventeen Seconds is the young and playful energy of earlier work, replaced by a more somber, sad tone that would become their trademark. Indeed, Seventeen Seconds set the blueprint for what was to come aesthetically. Renowned for their beautiful instrumentation and long intros, the Cure crafted their form on this album quite well. "A Forest," for instance, opens with a good few minutes of growing atmospheric instrumentation before the vocals appear. This effect on most of the tracks amplifies the mood of the song before the vocals convey their desolate messages. The band turns into a group of minstrels and this is their wintry message. Their priority has clearly shifted as the typically scant lyrics simply compliment the musical tones which are the harbingers of the icy messages.

The songs themselves are brilliant. Unified sonically more than any other Cure effort, the album plays very well as a whole. The aforementioned "A Forest" stands as one of the crowning achievements of their entire career. The lyrics are painstakingly empty as Robert evokes imagery of being lost in a forest all alone. The music is nothing short of haunting, as the sparse bass and guitar lines, a barren beat as well as a few synths are Robert's only accompaniment as he is engulfed by loneliness. The angst and despair builds with Robert's frustration: "I'm running towards nothing, again and again and again and again..." Robert then really opens up with a visceral guitar performance which eventually fades out as Simon Gallup leaves the listener alone with a stark bass line. This was the Cure's first UK hit, and deservingly so. The song has also become one of the Cure's more versatile, as it works equally well in its remixed, augmented version on 1990's Mixed Up, its somber acoustic reenactment on the acoustic disc of 2001's Greatest Hits, its radical reinvention on 2004's Join the Dots, or in any of its epic live reincarnations. "A Forest," perhaps more than any other song, captures the true spirit of the Cure.

The second single, "Play for Today" is another classic. More upbeat, it is the logical bridge from Boys Don't Cry. A memorable guitar riff is blanketed by an infectious bass groove and topped off by subdued synth lines. This album also showcases the use of the bass guitar to lead melodies as opposed to simply underscoring them. This is evident on the moody "In Your House" and the somber "M." Coupled with a plodding, incredibly catchy guitar line, the bass in "In Your House" offers up a new kind of groove: slow and slinky, subdued and sexy. The mysteriously titled "M" (perhaps for his future wife Mary?) opens with the appropriate line "Hello image, sing me a line from your favorite song," as Seventeen Seconds seems inspired by the bleak, wintry images that it conjures. The warped synths of "At Night" play well on the vivid imagination present when it is dark, while the thesis statement "Seventeen Seconds" offers a bleak ending: "Time slips away, and the light begins to fade, everything is quiet now, feeling is gone."

A triumph of the power of music, Seventeen Seconds is a perfect choice for a quiet, desolate winter day. Rarely have notes been used so sparingly yet so effectively, as the skeletal musical structure mimics the emptiness it conveys. An essential recording in the Cure's canon, Seventeen Seconds is the archetype Cure record and their first classic.

GangstaFam said:

It's a deranged cat. Robert's first indication of his great obsession with all things cat.
[Edited 4/25/05 23:25pm]