How wonderful were The Cure?

The Cure ARE still amazing.
I see them live whenever they tour my country and they always play epic 3-4 hour sets.
Their Trilogy album shows are spectacular.
I think Bloodflowers was their last "great" album, but Disintegration is the best album.. of all time... by anyone.

Agreed about Disintegration. It's my favorite album and The Cure is my second favorite musical act after Madonna. The Head on The Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration album run is just mindblowing. For me, The Cure's creativity and sonic variety is unmatched in rock music.
 
Agreed about Disintegration. It's my favorite album and The Cure is my second favorite musical act after Madonna. The Head on The Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration album run is just mindblowing. For me, The Cure's creativity and sonic variety is unmatched in rock music.
I’d add Wish to that as well - they are the mainstay albums I always return to. I obviously love the Pornography album but it’s a bleak listen!
 
I’d add Wish to that as well - they are the mainstay albums I always return to. I obviously love the Pornography album but it’s a bleak listen!

Wish is super underrated. High, To Wish For Impossible Things, Friday, I'm In Love, A Letter To Elise, etc. Lots of great songs on it. I also really like Wild Mood Swings, especially Mint Car and The 13th. Bloodflowers is the one that lost me. The songs just sound too samey despite "Out Of This World" being one of my favorite Cure songs. The self-titled and 4:13 Dream are pretty good for what they are.

I get how important Pornography is as far as their artistic development and I adore One Hundred Years and The Hanging Garden, but I actually prefer Faith. If Pornography is shades of black and red, Faith is very grey and brings to mind churches and cemeteries. I love that. The debut and Seventeen Seconds are good for a band developing their sound and of course "A Forest" remains a surprise masterpiece.

The album that I think is really underrated though is The Top. I cannot understand for the life of me the issue people have with it. It is so inventive and Shake Dog Shake is one of their best openers.
 
Wish is super underrated. High, To Wish For Impossible Things, Friday, I'm In Love, A Letter To Elise, etc. Lots of great songs on it. I also really like Wild Mood Swings, especially Mint Car and The 13th. Bloodflowers is the one that lost me. The songs just sound too samey despite "Out Of This World" being one of my favorite Cure songs. The self-titled and 4:13 Dream are pretty good for what they are.

I get how important Pornography is as far as their artistic development and I adore One Hundred Years and The Hanging Garden, but I actually prefer Faith. If Pornography is shades of black and red, Faith is very grey and brings to mind churches and cemeteries. I love that. The debut and Seventeen Seconds are good for a band developing their sound and of course "A Forest" remains a surprise masterpiece.

The album that I think is really underrated though is The Top. I cannot understand for the life of me the issue people have with it. It is so inventive and Shake Dog Shake is one of their best openers.
I like the Top but it never gels as a coherent album for me, though it does have some blistering tracks, Shake Dog Shake in particular.

Seventeen Seconds is one of my autumn albums (does anyone else have albums that they only really listen to at certain times of the year?) so hasn’t had a play fir a while.

I used to have Pornography back to back with Joy Division’s “Closer” on a c90 - now that really was for my less cheerful moments
 

This has become one of my favourite Cure songs over the years, the melancholy is real, perfect listening at the end of summer.


Why Robert left this absolute gem off Bloodflowers is beyond me, he has a habit of doing that though!

Pornography is where I started when discovering the Cure and it has all the angst and darkness I craved in my teens, so for that, it’ll always be my favourite and have a special place in my heart, but after that it’s easily Disintegration and Wish,
but I enjoy all their albums, I treat Japanese Whispers as a studio album of the poppy stuff from that era.
I’m still yet to get into The Top properly, I do LOVE Piggy In the Mirror and Dressing Up though.
 

This has become one of my favourite Cure songs over the years, the melancholy is real, perfect listening at the end of summer.


Why Robert left this absolute gem off Bloodflowers is beyond me, he has a habit of doing that though!

Pornography is where I started when discovering the Cure and it has all the angst and darkness I craved in my teens, so for that, it’ll always be my favourite and have a special place in my heart, but after that it’s easily Disintegration and Wish,
but I enjoy all their albums, I treat Japanese Whispers as a studio album of the poppy stuff from that era.
I’m still yet to get into The Top properly, I do LOVE Piggy In the Mirror and Dressing Up though.

I’d forgotten all about the ‘pre Bloodflowers’ tracks that got canned. I now need to see if I even have a copy of Spilt Milk - if not I need to rectify that soon
 
I’d forgotten all about the ‘pre Bloodflowers’ tracks that got canned. I now need to see if I even have a copy of Spilt Milk - if not I need to rectify that soon
Left me know if you need it! I used to dream of the scrapped electronic album they were working on before it became Bloodflowers.
 
Left me know if you need it! I used to dream of the scrapped electronic album they were working on before it became Bloodflowers.
Thanks - my blind spot has often been those internet only tracks that artists used to ‘add’ to CDs…

I’d love to know what it would have sounded like. Though we’re still waiting for the latest album so any leak of something that old I’ve given up on!
 
Thanks - my blind spot has often been those internet only tracks that artists used to ‘add’ to CDs…

I’d love to know what it would have sounded like. Though we’re still waiting for the latest album so any leak of something that old I’ve given up on!
I believe this is from the sessions apparently so I imagine it would have been similar to this.


I wonder if the new albums will ever see the light of day?
 
I believe this is from the sessions apparently so I imagine it would have been similar to this.


I wonder if the new albums will ever see the light of day?

I rather like that. Reminds me of the song they did for the Crow soundtrack.

they’d better release them. Have tickets to see them in December and Robert promised that they’d be out beforehand.
 
I rather like that. Reminds me of the song they did for the Crow soundtrack.

they’d better release them. Have tickets to see them in December and Robert promised that they’d be out beforehand.
Yes hopefully an October release with a single coming soon, surely it has to be out before the tour starts.
 
Robert said he had to finish his last vocals by April as the album is due around September/October.
Fingers crossed!
I think we’re all waiting with bated breath. The Cure being one third of the ‘old’ bands I’ve loved since the Dawn of Time (the early 80’s for you young folk) I hope whatever they release is as agreeable as New Order and Depeche Mode’s last offerings that both felt like returns to form.
 
I think we’re all waiting with bated breath. The Cure being one third of the ‘old’ bands I’ve loved since the Dawn of Time (the early 80’s for you young folk) I hope whatever they release is as agreeable as New Order and Depeche Mode’s last offerings that both felt like returns to form.
It's been a very long time in the making so I'm really hoping for the same, I really enjoyed 4:13 Dream on release, it was my first Cure album as a fully fledged fan, but I rarely go back to that album, except The Hungry Ghost, which, is just such a great song.
What we know from what Robert has said is there are 2 albums, one album is one of the darkest albums he's ever made, which required the vocals to be finished, the other is the pop album, and is finished and ready to go, but something tells me we'll get the pop album and the dark album with be shelved with 4:14 Scream.
I think it's safe to say the fans will mostly be interested in the dark album.
 
I like the Top but it never gels as a coherent album for me, though it does have some blistering tracks, Shake Dog Shake in particular.

Seventeen Seconds is one of my autumn albums (does anyone else have albums that they only really listen to at certain times of the year?) so hasn’t had a play fir a while.

I used to have Pornography back to back with Joy Division’s “Closer” on a c90 - now that really was for my less cheerful moments

Although I play it all the time, Seventeen Seconds is sooooo autumn. I always get creeped out by that instrumental that just cuts off because something malfunctioned but they didn't have enough money or studio time to fix it.
 
It's been a very long time in the making so I'm really hoping for the same, I really enjoyed 4:13 Dream on release, it was my first Cure album as a fully fledged fan, but I rarely go back to that album, except The Hungry Ghost, which, is just such a great song.
What we know from what Robert has said is there are 2 albums, one album is one of the darkest albums he's ever made, which required the vocals to be finished, the other is the pop album, and is finished and ready to go, but something tells me we'll get the pop album and the dark album with be shelved with 4:14 Scream.
I think it's safe to say the fans will mostly be interested in the dark album.

The Hungry Ghost is excellent and by far the best song on 4:13 Dream. The album has really grown on me. I hated it the first time I listened to it, but I've come to like that it has some good pop melodies on it.
 
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The Hungry Ghost is excellent and by far the best song on 4:13 Dream. The album has really grown on me. I hated it the first time I listened to it, but I've come to like that it has some good pop melodies in it.
Actually agree it does have some other great songs on it, like Underneath the Stars, Sleep When I'm Dead, The Perfect Boy. I might have to dig my vinyl out this weekend and give it a spin, it's been a while.
I also really enjoy Self Titled too, it could just do with a trim down, Before Three is euphoric and nostalgic, there's some great album worthy b-sides from that album era too like This Morning.
 
Actually agree it does have some other great songs on it, like Underneath the Stars, Sleep When I'm Dead, The Perfect Boy. I might have to dig my vinyl out this weekend and give it a spin, it's been a while.
I also really enjoy Self Titled too, it could just do with a trim down, Before Three is euphoric and nostalgic, there's some great album worthy b-sides from that album era too like This Morning.

I've always liked Self-Titled. I feel like it doesn't try to be ambitious and succeeds at feeling spontaneous and strangely warm. And there's plenty of good melodies. Which is the opposite of Bloodflowers for me, which feels forced, like they were trying so hard to make a sequel to Disintegration, and is sorely lacking melody.

If I was to rank their albums, it would probably be like this:

1. Disintegration
2. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
3. The Head On The Door
4. Faith
5. Wish
6. The Top
7. Pornography
8. Wild Mood Swings
9. The Cure
10. 4:13 Dream
11. Seventeen Seconds
12. Three Imaginary Boys
13. Bloodflowers

I actually think Seventeen Seconds and Three Imagery Boys are better "for their time" than self-titled and 4:13 Dream, but they are pretty clearly a product of a band still finding their sound and just compared against each other without the historical context, the self-titled and 4:13 Dream sound better. Plus, Three Imaginary Boys gets marked down for "Object" and that hideous Jimi Hendrix cover. Also, not a fan of that song where Robert Smith is basically reading advertisements.
 
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