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Reply #60 posted 10/25/08 10:46am

Anxiety

TRON said:

Anxiety said:

i've been using it as the soundtrack for my newfound iPod scrabble addiction. giggle redface

wait. what's that?


just scrabble for iPod. you can listen to music while you play, and the cure has been good scrabbling tuneage.
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Reply #61 posted 10/25/08 11:01am

TRON

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Anxiety said:

just scrabble for iPod. you can listen to music while you play, and the cure has been good scrabbling tuneage.

who do you play against, a computer opponent?
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Reply #62 posted 10/25/08 11:27am

Anxiety

TRON said:

Anxiety said:

just scrabble for iPod. you can listen to music while you play, and the cure has been good scrabbling tuneage.

who do you play against, a computer opponent?


yup. you can get it at iTunes. it helps me make transit to and from work less dreadful. smile
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Reply #63 posted 10/25/08 11:33am

DiminutiveRock
er

avatar

Anxiety said:

TRON said:


who do you play against, a computer opponent?


yup. you can get it at iTunes. it helps me make transit to and from work less dreadful. smile


I want the Scrabble! And the Cure!
VOTE....EARLY
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Reply #64 posted 10/25/08 3:12pm

DiminutiveRock
er

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I am REALLY REALLY liking this CD! woot!


(now, I just need to get the Scrabble lurking)
VOTE....EARLY
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Reply #65 posted 10/25/08 4:28pm

TRON

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mushy I love orger Cure fans. mushy
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Reply #66 posted 10/25/08 4:33pm

Imago

TRON said:

mushy I love orger Cure fans. mushy

purse
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Reply #67 posted 10/26/08 12:11am

laproducer2

I like this CD, the thing that ALWAYS gets me about the cure is they have these great songs, but the engineering and mixing is always awful! They've been like that pretty much forever. I remember being a kid thinking the same thing with all their records and CD's before i was even a mixer or engineer
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Reply #68 posted 10/26/08 12:15am

errant

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laproducer2 said:

I like this CD, the thing that ALWAYS gets me about the cure is they have these great songs, but the engineering and mixing is always awful! They've been like that pretty much forever. I remember being a kid thinking the same thing with all their records and CD's before i was even a mixer or engineer



at this point, wouldn't you have to just chalk that up to being their "sound"?
"does my cock look fat in these jeans?"
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Reply #69 posted 10/26/08 2:38am

Moonbeam

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I like it! woot! I kinda knew that it would, it being The Cure and all. I'm going to have to spin it a few more times before I can really make a clear-cut opinion, but it's going to be very fun to get into it!

Favorites so far are "Underneath the Stars" (of course), "Sirensong", "The Real Snow White", "Hungry Ghost", "Sleep When I'm Dead" and "The Scream"!
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #70 posted 10/26/08 6:24pm

Imago

The first song, Underneath the Stars seems like it was born from a marriage of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and Disintegration . Frankly I love Cure Songs that start out with long, lush, dreamy instrumental momments before Robert Smith starts to sing, and this song excels at that. The length of the song is also interesting as it sets a tone for the rest of the album.
The second track, songs like something from Wish . Interesting ‘filler’ but not something I think I’ll fall in love with. It sounds like a song that’s been done so many times before by the band that I can neither love it, nor really hate it. It’s a good fit in the album.
Reasons Why is a great little song, and proves they can produce a great Pop Tune when they want to, which doesn’t sound desperate about producing a hit single. Robert’s voice hasn’t sounded this ‘engaged’ in ages.
Freakshow is going to end up on some trendy British show like, Skinz, I’m sure of it. lol It’s a great little tune. Again, not over-the-top desperate about being catchy, but still catchy none the less.
I love love love Hungry Ghost, though I’m no sure it’ll be considered one of their iconic songs. I know I just like it lol
I like the upbeat Sleep when I’m dead too--this seems like one of those songs that stand out in their catalogue, but maybe I’m wrong shrug. Overall , all the songs are interesting, well done, and great efforts. The album as a whole, I’m not so sure about and will need to listen to more.

Overall, this feels like one of their older pre-Disintegration albums to me, at least in spirit. I’m not sure how much I’m going to like album upon repeat listening, but I like it better than their recent efforts already.
I do wish there was a duet between Robert and Morrissey on this thing though.
[Edited 10/26/08 18:25pm]
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Reply #71 posted 10/27/08 12:28am

Moonbeam

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"Underneath the Stars"- Now this is a Cure song! It's got the trademark 2-minute+ instrumental intro with lush atmospherics and grandeur, along with hushed lyrics in the vein of "Sinking" or something. A perfect, grand statement that works well as an opener, but may have even worked better as a final track! 10/10

"The Only One"- Requisite leadoff pop single. It'll do. 7/10

"The Reasons Why"- I've heard this 5 times now. Twice I kinda liked it. Twice I really didn't. The other time I hardly remember. That sounds like a filler track if you ask me. 4/10

"Freakshow"- Fun, funky, dirty little ditty. Kinda reminds me of "Hot Hot Hot" in places. 8/10

"Sirensong"- I was hoping this would be a twin to "Lovesong" given the title. It does have the sweetness down pat! Tender, but oh so short! 8/10

"The Real Snow White"- This has a great song in it somewhere, but its transitions sound a little awkward. 7/10 with potential to grow.

"The Hungry Ghost"- There's something about the chords that just tugs my heartstrings for some reason. Nice distortion with great verses and a great chorus. Sublime and a contender for my favorite! 10/10

"Switch"- Simon! The bass here is nice, and it kinda reminds me of "Disintegration". The most upbeat track and one of the best. 9/10

"The Perfect Boy"- Another requisite pop song. This and "The Only One" had me thinking this album would be like Wish. It brings back nice memories, but it isn't as classic as it should be. 7/10

"This. Here and Now. With You"- Nice elements to the song like the bass are somewhat lost. The song is a bit silly, but I like that! 7/10

"Sleep When I'm Dead"- The songwriting is the first thing to jump out at me. It's easy to tell that this is an older track, and I'm glad they revived it! My favorite of the singles. 9.5/10

"The Scream"- eek The most challenging, warped track on the album, and one of the few that doesn't sound at least a little like Cure by numbers. Intense and wonderful! 10/10

"It's Over"- Another freaky song, but not as successful. I'm not quite sure why it's the closer other than the title. 7/10

Overall, I enjoy the album. There aren't a ton of absolute knockouts for me, but I'm grateful for the ones that are here! It's pretty consistent, and about as much as I can come to expect from a band that's been going for 30 years. It's a good little album by its own merit, but isn't really up to scratch by Cure standards. I'll happily keep getting into this!
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #72 posted 10/27/08 5:38am

Imago

Moonbeam said:

"Underneath the Stars"- Now this is a Cure song! It's got the trademark 2-minute+ instrumental intro with lush atmospherics and grandeur, along with hushed lyrics in the vein of "Sinking" or something. A perfect, grand statement that works well as an opener, but may have even worked better as a final track! 10/10

"The Only One"- Requisite leadoff pop single. It'll do. 7/10

"The Reasons Why"- I've heard this 5 times now. Twice I kinda liked it. Twice I really didn't. The other time I hardly remember. That sounds like a filler track if you ask me. 4/10

"Freakshow"- Fun, funky, dirty little ditty. Kinda reminds me of "Hot Hot Hot" in places. 8/10

"Sirensong"- I was hoping this would be a twin to "Lovesong" given the title. It does have the sweetness down pat! Tender, but oh so short! 8/10

"The Real Snow White"- This has a great song in it somewhere, but its transitions sound a little awkward. 7/10 with potential to grow.

"The Hungry Ghost"- There's something about the chords that just tugs my heartstrings for some reason. Nice distortion with great verses and a great chorus. Sublime and a contender for my favorite! 10/10

"Switch"- Simon! The bass here is nice, and it kinda reminds me of "Disintegration". The most upbeat track and one of the best. 9/10

"The Perfect Boy"- Another requisite pop song. This and "The Only One" had me thinking this album would be like Wish. It brings back nice memories, but it isn't as classic as it should be. 7/10

"This. Here and Now. With You"- Nice elements to the song like the bass are somewhat lost. The song is a bit silly, but I like that! 7/10

"Sleep When I'm Dead"- The songwriting is the first thing to jump out at me. It's easy to tell that this is an older track, and I'm glad they revived it! My favorite of the singles. 9.5/10

"The Scream"- eek The most challenging, warped track on the album, and one of the few that doesn't sound at least a little like Cure by numbers. Intense and wonderful! 10/10

"It's Over"- Another freaky song, but not as successful. I'm not quite sure why it's the closer other than the title. 7/10

Overall, I enjoy the album. There aren't a ton of absolute knockouts for me, but I'm grateful for the ones that are here! It's pretty consistent, and about as much as I can come to expect from a band that's been going for 30 years. It's a good little album by its own merit, but isn't really up to scratch by Cure standards. I'll happily keep getting into this!

purse
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Reply #73 posted 10/27/08 3:18pm

Moonbeam

avatar

Imago said:

Moonbeam said:

"Underneath the Stars"- Now this is a Cure song! It's got the trademark 2-minute+ instrumental intro with lush atmospherics and grandeur, along with hushed lyrics in the vein of "Sinking" or something. A perfect, grand statement that works well as an opener, but may have even worked better as a final track! 10/10

"The Only One"- Requisite leadoff pop single. It'll do. 7/10

"The Reasons Why"- I've heard this 5 times now. Twice I kinda liked it. Twice I really didn't. The other time I hardly remember. That sounds like a filler track if you ask me. 4/10

"Freakshow"- Fun, funky, dirty little ditty. Kinda reminds me of "Hot Hot Hot" in places. 8/10

"Sirensong"- I was hoping this would be a twin to "Lovesong" given the title. It does have the sweetness down pat! Tender, but oh so short! 8/10

"The Real Snow White"- This has a great song in it somewhere, but its transitions sound a little awkward. 7/10 with potential to grow.

"The Hungry Ghost"- There's something about the chords that just tugs my heartstrings for some reason. Nice distortion with great verses and a great chorus. Sublime and a contender for my favorite! 10/10

"Switch"- Simon! The bass here is nice, and it kinda reminds me of "Disintegration". The most upbeat track and one of the best. 9/10

"The Perfect Boy"- Another requisite pop song. This and "The Only One" had me thinking this album would be like Wish. It brings back nice memories, but it isn't as classic as it should be. 7/10

"This. Here and Now. With You"- Nice elements to the song like the bass are somewhat lost. The song is a bit silly, but I like that! 7/10

"Sleep When I'm Dead"- The songwriting is the first thing to jump out at me. It's easy to tell that this is an older track, and I'm glad they revived it! My favorite of the singles. 9.5/10

"The Scream"- eek The most challenging, warped track on the album, and one of the few that doesn't sound at least a little like Cure by numbers. Intense and wonderful! 10/10

"It's Over"- Another freaky song, but not as successful. I'm not quite sure why it's the closer other than the title. 7/10

Overall, I enjoy the album. There aren't a ton of absolute knockouts for me, but I'm grateful for the ones that are here! It's pretty consistent, and about as much as I can come to expect from a band that's been going for 30 years. It's a good little album by its own merit, but isn't really up to scratch by Cure standards. I'll happily keep getting into this!

purse


Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #74 posted 10/27/08 3:44pm

Imago

Moonbeam said:

Imago said:


purse



oh

my

god

falloff
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Reply #75 posted 10/27/08 10:33pm

Moonbeam

avatar

Imago said:

Moonbeam said:




oh

my

god

falloff


Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #76 posted 10/28/08 1:57am

smokeverbs

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edit: I wrote this before I read what anyone else said in the thread. It's amazing how much my thoughts overlap with most of you.

1. "Underneath the Stars" – 6:17
An instant cure classic. It's no plainsong, but I'll take it just the same. Possibly Robert's best vocal in over a decade. Love the lyrics too, which I thought was what ultimately brought 2004's "Self Titled" down.

2. "The Only One" – 3:57
As far as pop singles go, this one is a winner. It's not anything haven't really heard before, but it works for me. Hey, it kicks the shit out of "Mint Car" don't it?

3. "The Reasons Why" – 4:35
This one doesn't do anything for me. It has it's moments, but the final minute and a half or so, where it gets all bombastic "YOU'RE BEAUTIFULLLLL!" etc... they lose the plot for me. I think it'll grow on me, I don't instantly reach for the Skip button like the next song...

4. "Freakshow" – 2:30
What the fuck? This Ranks among the worst songs they've ever released! Hate the vocal, hate the vocal melody, hate the words. Look, I like "The 13th", ok? But fuck this song. The shame about it is, there's a great song buried in here, but the first minute ruins it for me. Tron, Splintered in Her Head? These weren't even born in the same galaxy.

5. "Sirensong" – 2:22
Yes, yes. Dream 13 (sorry, force of habit) quickly redeems itself with this one. Why's it so short tho? This could have fit on the orange 10" bonus disc with KMKMKM. Love this one. Great atmosphere, an undefinable cure-ness about this one. Doesn't sound forced like most of "self Titled". Wish it weren't quite so short tho.

6. "The Real Snow White" – 4:43
I'm on the fence about this one, it's nothing spectacular, but I
like the chorus, so fair enough. I don't see myself rotating this song heavily tho. It overstays it's welcome compared to the 2 minute songs that precede it tho, as absurd as calling a cure song that's "only" 4:43 lengthy. Ha. She's apparently got what he wants tho. It's only for the night... I swear.

7. "The Hungry Ghost" – 4:29
Great tone on the intro. I really don't like the reverb on Jason's drums immediately. This one is very, not to milk a cliche, it's 21st century cure by numbers. There's no payoff, and Robert is struggling to hit those notes in the chorus. But that's ok tho - because I'd stop buying the cure if They ever broke out the Autotune!!! Wow, even Porl is bored during what passes for a guitar solo. Welcome back Porl, anyway. You were sorely missed. Now get Boris back on drums and the cure will be unbeatable again.

8. "Switch" – 3:44
Holy shit it's the spawn of "cut"! This isn't quite as exciting as a return of "cut" might be, but it'll work. What's with that "sort of 100 years" drum machine in the intro and outro tho?

9. "The Perfect Boy" – 3:21
Track 8 is ok.. but This is where the album picks back up for me. This is great! I'll admit I'm a sucker for Robert's "blah blah blah she said, blah blah blah he said" songs, but this one doesn't disappoint.

10. "This. Here and Now. With You" – 4:06
Yes, yes, yes. What a bass intro! This is so on point, I can't believe it. That sort of natural cure keyboard line hasn't been seen since 1987 has it? Welcome back. I love the lyrics, every element of this song is in place. The chorus floored me. He's been trying to write a song like this since at least 1995, and it finally works. This should have been a single instead of "Freakshow".

11. "Sleep When I'm Dead" – 3:51
Mmmm. More HOTD outakes, please. Love it. 1:32 to 1:35 completely gives this away as an '85 era song, Robert didn't even need to tell us. Can you imagine this as a b-side in '85? I LOVE THIS SONG.

12. "The Scream" – 4:13
Is this an outake from The Top? I didn't think they had this sort of song in them anymore. It's very close to the classic "Hi, We're The Cure and We Love Acid Especially Robert" songs of yore. Love it Love It Love it. Should be 6+ minutes tho. They sound more like a band on this one than they have in years, and even Jason is owning his part. Porl is SO welcome back! But that long note "Screeeeeam"? I got "Prayers for Rain from ENTREAT" shivers off that. Know what I mean? Score: 1million out of 10.

13. "It's Over" – 4:16
BABY FUCKING RAG DOG BOOK! YES! They haven't swung this much since Wish. The only possible song that could follow "The Scream" and not be a letdown. This song completely redeems anything bad I could say about this album! "GET UP GET UP GET UP!!!" And when Robert says Fucking in a song, he Fucking means it. 1million out of 10 also. Another song that needs to be 6+ minutes, cuz I don't want it to end when it does. LOVE IT.

Overall, the high points on this album are so high, that the few low points don't even matter. This is a much, much, much better album than I expected out of the cure in 2008. I DETESTED "Self Titled", but ALL IS FORGIVEN, Boys.

Special thanks to Tron for alerting me to the release. I knew it was coming, but who could keep the ever shifting release dates straight? Final Score a very happy 4 and a Half out of 5 stars.
[Edited 10/28/08 2:08am]
[Edited 10/28/08 2:08am]
Keep your headphones on.
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Reply #77 posted 10/28/08 3:55pm

TRON

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I love reading y'all's reviews. Off to pick up my real copy now. biggrin
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Reply #78 posted 10/28/08 4:07pm

Imago

TRON said:

I love reading y'all's reviews. Off to pick up my real copy now. biggrin

purse
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Reply #79 posted 10/28/08 4:20pm

TRON

avatar

Imago said:

purse


[Edited 10/28/08 16:39pm]
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Reply #80 posted 10/28/08 4:57pm

TRON

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New interview in NME and the Godlike Genius award:

The hair is bird's-nest perfect. The lipstick scrawled on with impeccable inaccuracy. The outfit a bleak cornucopia of black jogging top, jet granddad shirt, pitch baggy trousers and chunky boots of deepest ebony. He shuffles around the misty, Tim Burton-style cardboard forest NME has erected in his studio's live room with practised awkwardness, wringing his hands and pretending to shiver like an overgrown 10-year-old playing the lead in a school production of Edward Scissorhands.

It's definitely a Robert Smith alright. But is it the Robert Smith?

As our evening at Parkgate Studio in the wilds of East Sussex draws on, we find more and more reasons to believe The Cure have mischievously sent along one of Smith's many adoring clones to conduct their first interview in years.

The Robert Smith, legend claims, is painfully timid, deeply morose and prone to explosive, egocentric, band-sacking tantrums. This Robert Smith, however, couldn't be more accommodating.

He's keen to make sure we've all the beer and nibbles we desire, apologises when Interpol come on the studio iPod because, "I know you don't like them; is this painful for you?", and happily poses for over two hours of spooky snapshots with the modest proviso, "Is it OK if I wear black?"

The day before the interview he'd emailed to ask what sort of tipple we'd like and our reply of "red wine, preferably Spanish" has led to the entire night having a Hispanic theme; all wines are Rioja, all beers San Miguel and dinner is paella.

What's more, when we sit Smith down in the studio's front lounge for his only interview of 2008 we find him effusive, boisterous and constantly on the verge of a choking fit of giggles. He seems, well, really rather happy.

Anyone would think doom-rock's erstwhile Pope Of Mope was excited at the impending release of '4:13 Dream', The Cure's 13th studio album and easily their best since 1992's 'Wish'. But we know better.

Congratulations, Robert Smith! The Cure are set to be crowned next year's NME Godlike Geniuses!

"It's very nice of NME to offer it to us," says the man affectionately known as Uncle Bob, in a Crawley twang strangely reminiscent of an even chirpier Noel Fielding.

"It came a bit out of the blue. Some of the people who have won it. I've got a list of the people and some of them are well deserving of that honour and some, perhaps, in my opinion, not so. Does it devalue the award? Not necessarily. Do I think we're deserving of it? Yes, probably, if anyone else is. Over the course of 30 years I've probably done enough to warrant getting an award."

Not arf, Bobster. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine a band more worthy of the accolade. Not only were The Cure (alongside Joy Division, Sonic Youth and The Smiths) the original architects of everything we now know as 'indie', from its jittering heartbeat to its chiming maelstrom guitars to its slapdash way with a mascara stick, but they did it all while being the UK's best pop band disguised as glowery freakazoid zombie clowns with permanently priapic hairdos.

They're the enduring '80s icons who provided emotional succour for the desolate and dislocated with majestically moody masterpieces such as 'Pornography' and 'Disintegration' and jumped around whooping whopping great pop tunes such as 'The Lovecats', 'Close To Me', and 'Friday I'm In Love' dressed as bears for everybody else.

They were cool enough to invent goth and then disown it in time to invent every emotional rock band from Cocteau Twins to Arcade Fire instead. And if The Cure hadn't wrestled the big, blustery synths from the new romantics and beaten them bloody with deviant razorwire guitars back in the early-'80s, rock music today would be nothing but weedy, reedy janglebottoms ripping off The La's and The Killers would sound like Starsailor. FACT.

"Do I ever feel Godlike?" Smith ponders. "Rarely. I used to, occasionally. I think the job that I do and attaining a certain level of success, it often brings you feelings of omnipotence, hand-in-hand with taking vast amounts of drugs, but it's not a bad thing as long as you don't wake up in the morning still believing you are that person.

"We've been talking about what we're going to do at the awards, about trying to segue every hit. If we can put them all in the same key and just run through, it would be really cool to do a six-minute piece that took in everything. It would be a big arse though, because if anyone forgets just one of them, you're fucked."

Ambition, drunkenness, drama, opulence, jubilation, drug mania, suicide and despair. And playing acid tennis with himself, snorting five-foot lines of speed with Lemmy and being the only member of Siouxie And The Banshees in pyjamas. Why are The Cure next year's Godlike Geniuses? Show me, show me, show me.

Check out part two of the interview where Robert Smith discusses The legacy, the pop in their pomp, growing old gracefully and what it’s like still being relevant after all these years.

THE LEGACY

The sumptuous soundscapes of Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The acrobatic vocal yelps of The Rapture or !!!. The synth seductions of 'Mr Brightside' and 'All These Things That I've Done'.

The lush scree at the heart of Editors, Interpol, Bloc Party, Muse, A Place To Bury Strangers, Friendly Fires and any other band with agony in their souls and hearts as black as their trousers. The Cure's influence is as widespread and prevalent in alternative music as cyanide pills at the Halifax Christmas party; their sound has become a key link in indie rock's DNA.

"The tipping point was a few years ago," says Robert, "when suddenly bands were coming up who weren't afraid to namecheck The Cure. We were unfashionable pretty much everywhere post-'Bloodflowers', but suddenly there were lots of young bands who'd grown up listening to 'Disintegration', 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me', or 'Wish' and didn't know that you weren't supposed to like us. So we kind of knew it was happening, at some point there's going to be a generation of people who are going to go and form bands who are going to have seen The Cure.

I feel slightly paternal towards some of them, the Curiosa thing [a 2004 Cure-headlined US tour featuring Smith's selection of young bands including Interpol, Mogwai, The Rapture and Muse in support slots] was almost like me saying, 'Come here, my loves.' I felt fucking competitive on that tour, but in a really good way, like, 'Now I'll show you what I can do.'" Smith is rather less paternal, however, towards the stinking, snot-haired, still- a-virgin-at-32, you're-not-a-fucking-vampire-so-grow-up-you-twat bastard child of 'Pornography' that is goth.

"I'm not sure that it did [spring from The Cure's music]," he argues. "When I joined Siouxsie And The Banshees I was aware that I was stepping into a goth band, in that Siouxie was a goth icon. I became a de facto goth icon around that time.

"When I was with the Banshees I made the point of wearing pyjamas - I wore a blue stripey pyjama top. I wanted to make a point I was not part of this world. I used to go drinking with [Banshees songwriter Steve] Severin in the [legendary Soho venue] Batcave around that time and there's nothing more gothic than drinking in the Batcave in 1983 with Steve Severin. But I would be wearing pyjamas.

"When we did the 'Faith' album in 1981, goth hadn't been invented then, we were actually a raincoat band. We were inventing goth with that album and 'Pornography'. but we weren't, we were just playing emotional music. I was feeling a bit desperate at the time, the band as a whole was a bit despairing, we thought it was going to end with 'Pornography'.

The record label had given up on us and the crowds were pretty much non-existent. We went around the world and played to the same 500 people everywhere we went and we couldn't see how we were going to play to more. And we were taking vast amounts of very strong drugs and actually didn't really give a shit. And that, somehow, gave rise to goth."


THE POP IN THEIR POMP
For every 10 'The Drowning Man's, there's a 'Why Can't I Be You?'. For every album of dour 'Disintegration's there's a soothing 'Lovesong'. The Cure have carved their unique niche in modern rock by lacing their lengthy mood pieces with mighty throwaway pop smashes - as they proved by releasing proto-goth masterpiece 'Pornography' one year and 'The Lovecats' the next.

"The pop hits have allowed us to be successful," Smith agrees. "That was always our intention, I suppose, to draw people in and then smother them. There is a small part of what we do that is quite dark in contemporary music terms; it is quite desolate, there is no hope and I love that side of what we do, but I also realise that if that's all we did then we'd be fucking awful. I've always been aware enough to know you've got to sugar the pill a little bit, but not in a banal way.

"I mean, 'Friday, I'm In Love' is not a work of genius, it was almost a calculated song. It's a really good chord progression, I couldn't believe no-one else had used it and I asked so many people at the time - I was getting drug paranoia anyway - 'I must have stolen this from somewhere, I can't possibly have come up with this.' I asked everyone I knew, everyone.

I'd phone people up and sing it and go, 'Have you heard this before? What's it called?' They'd go, 'No, no, I've never heard it.' On the same album there were songs which I'd slaved over and I thought at the time were infinitely better, but 'Friday.' is probably the song off the 'Wish' album that's the song."


GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY
Ask anyone who's hung out with Robert Smith and they'll tell you the most amazing thing about him is that he goes to the pub like that. The hair might be laced with streaks of grey and the cheeks somewhat chubbier than in his 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' prime, but Smith's iconic image - recreated everywhere from Camden's Devonshire Arms to South Park - has weathered the changing of many a fashion season.

"I hide behind what I look like with the make-up and the hair," Smith admits. "I know I do, I'm self-aware enough to know why I'm still doing it. It's uncomfortable on the very few forays into real life that I have, getting petrol and shopping, but I've had it my entire life. I'm with a girl who likes the way I look and when I don't look like I look she doesn't like me as much, it's that simple. When we started to get well-known I was saying that if I looked like Ronald McDonald that would be the goth look. I imagine an alternate reality where Ronald McDonald was the goth icon."


THE SECRET EXCESSES
While never being classed as a 'drug band', The Cure have managed to keep their inner Primal Scream reasonably well hidden over the past few decades. While ex-drummer/keyboard player Lol Tolhurst was famously pissed for most of the '80s (until they sacked him), Smith himself famously wrote 'Disintegration' on a pretty huge amount of LSD.

"I used to play tennis with myself," he guffaws. " I used to take off my clothes and play tennis with myself at night in the dark. I'd hit the ball and then run to the other side of the court and play it back. Of course, there wasn't a ball; there was a racket though, it was very important that I was holding a tennis racket. Someone would always wander over when the sun was coming up and say, 'You all right?' 'Yeah, I'm fine, I'm two sets down and it's a love serve!'

"We've been fantastically excessive at certain times. There's a mentality when you go, 'Oh fuck, free beer?' It's your first Reading festival in 1978 and Lemmy's coming out of Motˆrhead's caravan going, 'Howwaarryeeerr?' We went, 'I think he's saying, "Come into our caravan"' and we went in and there was a line of amphetamine sulphate that went the entire length of the caravan. He went, 'Haaaavebitofthaaa.' We were like, 'What's he saying?' He was offering us this straw. 'I think this is like a five-foot line of speed and this straw means we're supposed to snort it.'"


STILL RELEVANT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Premiered in its entirety at a gig in Rome a few weeks ago, The Cure's new album '4:13 Dream' is a staggering return to form. Following on from 2000's dolorous 'Bloodflowers' (the climax to The Cure's emotionally bleak 'trilogy' that began with 'Pornography' and 'Disintegration') and the eclectic but patchy 'The Cure' from 2004, it's hawked as the 'light' half of a double album, with the 'dark' half to come in 2009 ("Universal didn't want a double album," Smith fumes) and is the most surprising, rejuvenated and tuneful Cure record since their early-'90s commercial peak. It takes in traditional Cure doomscapes ('Underneath The Stars'), brutal industrial eviscerations ('The Scream', which finds Smith howling like a Saw V victim), classic Cure-pop ('The Only One') and a jaunty shimmer of a song with lyrics taken from a real-life suicide note that Smith was sent in 1987 ('The Reasons Why' - "I knew the person who sent me the letter. It was a genuine suicide. They would be my age").

"I love the way this album goes through the first five songs," Robert enthuses, twitching excitedly in his seat, "because it goes from you thinking, 'Oh right, here we go, it's six minutes and it's really downbeat' and then it jumps into a classic Cure pop song and then suicide is in the first line of the next one and then it goes into 'Freakshow' which, for me, is the weirdest song on the album, and then into 'Sirensong', which is an acoustic waltz with slide guitar. Those five songs set you up so you don't actually know what's going to come next." As new album, so band. If the twists, squirms and wriggles in The Cure's career have proved anything besides their undoubted Godlike Genius it's that - pyjama-clad goth, upbeat Samaritan or nude Tim Henman - you never quite know which Robert Smith you're going to get next.
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Reply #81 posted 10/28/08 9:09pm

MoonSongs

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So good ~ and I'm only half way through. I love this cd ~ and that number 9 on the second disc is drool. Title please?
Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. --Kahlil Gibran
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Reply #82 posted 10/28/08 9:15pm

MoonSongs

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Moonbeam said:

I like it! woot! I kinda knew that it would, it being The Cure and all. I'm going to have to spin it a few more times before I can really make a clear-cut opinion, but it's going to be very fun to get into it!

Favorites so far are "Underneath the Stars" (of course), "Sirensong", "The Real Snow White", "Hungry Ghost", "Sleep When I'm Dead" and "The Scream"!

Agree ~ Sleep When I'm Dead ~ I used to say that to my mom all the time. When Nathan and I would be out till three in the morning and I'd have to be at work the next day and she would always ask when I was going to sleep. I'd tell her I'd sleep when I was dead ~ for a very long time. It upsets her now so I don't say that to her anymore.
Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. --Kahlil Gibran
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Reply #83 posted 10/30/08 12:30am

smokeverbs

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TRON said:

New interview in NME and the Godlike Genius award:



Great article! It is their greatest album since Wish, they're right.
Keep your headphones on.
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Reply #84 posted 10/30/08 1:04am

Moonbeam

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smokeverbs said:

TRON said:

New interview in NME and the Godlike Genius award:



Great article! It is their greatest album since Wish, they're right.


Every album since Wild Mood Swings has been labeled the greatest since Wish. lol

If we're playing that game, I'd rank their post-Disintegration albums in this way:

1. BloodFlowers- far and away my favorite. Classic, timeless, wondrous Cure.

2. Wish- Kind of arena-Cure, but I love so many of the songs.

3. 4:13 Dream- I'm quite enjoying it! It will never crack my top half of Cure albums, but I didn't expect it to.

4. The Cure- I like this one. I don't love it, but there are some gems on there for me.

5. Wild Mood Swings- My least favorite of theirs. It still has some great songs, though.
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #85 posted 10/30/08 8:29am

TRON

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smokeverbs said:

Great article! It is their greatest album since Wish, they're right.

And here's the part 2, published yesterday:



How do you feel about being declared Godlike Genius?

"I've probably gone through a curve where at one point I would have given a much more po-faced answer about the nature of genius, it's discovering something that no one has ever discovered before and having the mental capacity to see things in an entirely different light. I still deep down believe that but I think in music if you can create something that's very simple that sticks with someone else and it emotionally moves them it's genius in its own way. Few people manage to do it. Lots and lots and lots of people try but very few people manage to do it.”


Have there been any moment when you’ve thought you’ve written something of true genius?

"Anyone who thinks they're creating art for consumption has no idea of its worth. I've had this argument most notably with David Bowie actually. When I very first met him to do an interview with XFM the conversation turned around to art and its meaning culturally, and he believed that art was solely determined by the consumer and in fact anything could be art. It was a very modern art approach to art. This was way back in '94 or something like that. I was drinking and I was enraged by this idea. I still think it's totally wrong. As an artist you invest the meaning into your work. Whether anyone else gets it is fucking immaterial. For me, what I do, I don't care about what happens to it after that, I still don't, I never have. But I've always realised that it's validated by the experience of other people in as much as it becomes bigger than itself by the fact that other people want it, but it still retains its quality for me in what's gone into it and how I feel about it. There are songs that we've done that I think are great songs that probably other people don't, but it doesn't upset me. Probably when I was younger I'd have been like 'Why doesn't anyone get what I get? Why are they listening to 'Friday…' and not listening to 'End'?'."

How will the Big Gig compare to your usual shows?

“When The Cure play now we often play up to three hours and we play pretty much everything. We're throwing in songs and you don't know whether they’re gonna like it or not, but it doesn't really matter because there's another 27 songs to follow so it's not crucial to the way the show is going to go. We'll do the same kind of thing, we’ll reflect what we've done over the years. On the 4 tour I think we’ve played 83 or 84 songs so far and it hasn't ended yet. I was trying to get it up to a hundred. Our repertoire is 100 songs, we know 100 songs, we probably know more actually now that Porl's back, because he knows a lot of stuff that we haven't played for a while. But as a band I always want a cool song list to be around about 100, which is taxing. I remember reading something about James Brown when I was young and how he was such a bastard to his band and I was thinking that’s fucking great, of course the band should know 100 songs. If you’ve got 100 songs why shouldn't you know them? That's what you do.”

How do you feel when younger bands namecheck you as an influence?

“There are some bands I suppose that namecheck The Cure and I think ‘Please don't’. Who am I proud of? Mogwai have been my favourite band for a long time, and when I first spoke to Stuart (Braithwaite) and he's gone ‘I love what you do as well’, that the acknowledgement from someone who you yourself admire that has nothing to do with how much I've done or how old I am or anything. If you just said ‘Thanks, but your band’s shit’ it would have been one of the few times that criticism would have hurt me. If someone who you admire says that what you're doing is rubbish it does hurt. It's nice when you hear something and you think ‘Wow, they like what we do’. When we did the MTV Icons show a few years back I was really surprised, they put a film together and we didn't know anything about it and the breadth of people on that clip who were up on the screen, people like Kirk (Hammett) from Metallica saying that they love The Cure, we were sitting there thinking 'Is this somehow ironic, are we missing the point?' Loads of people I had no idea liked us suddenly stepped forward. But why should I be surprised? I like lots and lots of different things, and I'd be quite happy to step forward for a lot of people and say what they do is great, it doesn't have to sound anything like us. So I suppose it's a conditioning, you think 'How can a rap artist possibly step forward and say they like The Cure?', but a lot of them do.”

You've steadfastly refused to change your look over the years.

“When I was younger I didn't mind as much shaving of the hair, which I did a couple of times. I remember the first time I did it publicly was when we did the film 'The Cure In Orange' in 1986, which at the time was a huge story because I’d just taken away the one thing we had. I was just becoming known for the way I looked and Tim Pope, who had done a lot of our videos up to that point, was making the film, it was his first big shoot with 10 cameras and I turned up and I had shaved my head the day before, and I turn up in a wig. We met in a bar and he kind of knew but went with it. He looked at me and said ‘What we going to do?’ So we came up with the beginning of the film which is me about to walk on stage and I pull the wig off and throw it to one side. We were the band with no image and then suddenly we were the band with the best image you’d ever seen and then ‘My God he's just thrown it away’. I don't want to be known for the way I look. When we started out I refused to have a picture anywhere. We didn't have our pictures taken in the early days, it was a reaction against even the punk thing, which was supposedly against anything else, they were still generating iconic figures. I thought 'It's fucked, the whole thing’. I don't want to be anyone. We were just kids from Crawley. It was a slight paradox because I don't like anyone, I don’t want anything to do with anyone, but we're doing this so I need to connect with other people who also don't want anything to do with anyone. It's one of those young things where you don't think too much about the paradox but you kind of know what you're getting at. The alienation of it, you're trying to reach out to other people who feel alienated.”

Do you still get many Robert Smith clones hanging about?

“Less often nowadays. But at the most recent thing in Rome there an extraordinary amount of Robert Smith-alikes, much more than there have been in the last few years. This might be a worrying resurgence of them. Every summer they come round to where I live and there's a regular stream of people. I live on the beach just outside of Brighton - I don't live on the beach, my house backs onto the beach, of all the places I could fucking live and be private! 'What are you doing on my beach?' And they all turn up and they all make sure they look like the archetype, but there’s less and less of them. There was resurgence this year in America - I noticed that some of the shows of younger boys and girls starting to dress up a bit. It's nice, I like it, I've never thought of it as them wanting to look like me, it's always that representation.”

You've recently allowed your music to be used in advertising in America after years of refusal – why?

“Anyone who knows The Cure knows that the only reason I had to agree to those adverts was because we were about to be out of contract with Polydor and I had to. If I was going to retain control over our back catalogue my trade-off was giving the one song to use for an advert with no vocals, that was it, so we gave them 'In Between Days' for Punto and Fiat and 'Pictures Of You' for HP in America. There was no singing and no-one knew it was us, and that was fine. There was no campaign around it, nothing came off of it, we didn't re-release ‘In Between Days’. I'm so against music in adverts, it fucking killed me even agreeing to that, but it was the only way. The money generated from those adverts went into buying me control on our back catalogue, otherwise it would have been like mortgaging the band. It sounds cynical, and it was at the time, but I suppose if I'm being really honest my ear was bent a little bit by a younger generation saying no one cares, no one cares, everyone does it, it doesn't matter any more, you're living in the past. Now I read that if you advertise this or use your music for that or you’re advertising the iPhone that's fine because everybody does it, but it's not, I still don't think it is, I think it is wrong.”

The Cure are almost unique in being a deeply emotional band with a shameless pop edge – how did that combination come about?

“I knew every word to every Beatles song and every Rolling Stones song through the '60s, and Captain Beefheart and Cream. This was what was blasting out when I was pretending to be going to sleep. So when I started with a group and thought ‘We’re gonna start writing our own songs’ I didn’t want to be a punk band, I wanted to be a band that encompassed all the stuff that I thought was good. If I had a song and thought 'I want to sound like Nick Drake on this song' I didn’t think ‘Well, is that right?’ because Nick Drake was what made me feel a certain way so if I could get that into a song… When we started my favourite punk bands were the bands that made the more accessible, melodic music. I wanted the band to always have a dimension to it that was not to do with the modern world. So the emotional stuff and the pop stuff always went hand in hand, I never saw any problem with it. The Beatles are a good example. They progressed into it, but once they did they didn’t have an either/or. They had both. They had the best tunes, but also the most outrageously experimental psychedelic stuff that you could imagine. They were it. Captain Beefheart’s ‘Safe As Milk’, I used to love the way it used stereo and the way it went across in headphones, the phase stuff, I’d listen to it over and over again. And Hendrix, the same thing – ‘Axis: Bold As Love’ has got some great pop songs on it, but essentially it’s a psychedelic guitar album that you listen to from beginning to end and think you’d love to be in that world, I’d love to be Jimi Hendrix. All these things combined, for me there was never a problem between ‘Do you want to be a dark band or do you want to be a pop band?’ We kind of went on our own way depending on how I felt.”

Didn’t you have a run-in with Morrissey back in the '80s?

“Unfortunately he was asked a question about people called Smith. It was me, Patti Smith and someone else called Smith who was famous at that time, who he would shoot. One would have expected at the time, him being a non-meat eating vegetarian pacifistic sort of guy, to say ‘I choose to shoot myself’ or ‘I choose to shoot no-one’ but he said ‘I’d line them all up and I’d shoot them all’. When I was told that at the time I kind of took umbrage, ‘That’s fucking nice, cunt’. I felt it was a bit unnecessary. I’d never said or done anything. So that engendered one of those tedious feuds. I’ve never met him, I’m not even sure we’ve been in the same room. I’m sure it’s the same for him, he got really aggravated at my response. I was very over the top but I felt justifiably so, having just been shot in print. It was one of those things, a mini Blur/Oasis thing. I don’t think I played along with it enough for it to become anything more. It kind of got resurrected from time to time, I think on his fansite it got reinvigorated and there have been various attempts to reignite it, but I think he’s actually said something really nice about us recently, about the fact that I’m a little bit wayward. Honestly I’ve never really had a problem. I felt it was unfair that he would shoot me. If you asked him again he might choose to shoot himself rather than me and Auntie Patti and whoever else it was.”

Did you ever have any bad trips while taking all that LSD to write 'Disintegration'?

“No, actually, I have never had a bad trip, never. It does set you off though, you take other drugs at the wrong time at the wrong moment and it does set me off again. Some of my younger nephews and nieces say ‘Come on uncle Robert, have a bit of this’. And I'm like ‘Oh yeah, alright’ and then I’m like ‘Fuck!’ I'm sitting there an hour later and they’re going ‘Are you alright?’ ‘What?’”
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Reply #86 posted 10/30/08 8:28pm

Moonbeam

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It's got a pretty respectable aggregate score of 70 at metacritic. I'd say that's about right.
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #87 posted 10/30/08 10:32pm

TRON

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Moonbeam said:

It's got a pretty respectable aggregate score of 70 at metacritic. I'd say that's about right.

You'd give it 3.5 stars?
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Reply #88 posted 10/30/08 10:38pm

Moonbeam

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TRON said:

Moonbeam said:

It's got a pretty respectable aggregate score of 70 at metacritic. I'd say that's about right.

You'd give it 3.5 stars?


Probably, if I'm fair. My level of enjoyment of it is definitely above 3.5 stars, though.
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #89 posted 10/30/08 10:53pm

Imago

ok, perhaps it's because I'm REALLY enjoying the new Grace Jones album, my enthusiasm for this new Cure album is at a low ebb.


Perhaps, I should listen to it again tomorrow. I found myself skipping tracks today.
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