your favourite The Cure album and why
Jul 17, 2005 at 11:26 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 31

bong

Headphoneus Supremus
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Posts
1,821
Likes
10
humour me guys, i'm bored.
biggrin.gif


i'm only including studio albums, eliminating live/remix/compilations... which includes Boys Don't Cry, Japanese Whispers, Concert, Staring at the Sea, Mixed Up, Entreat, Show, Paris, Galore, and Greatest Hits.

i'm split with Faith and Pornography, so i'm not voting at the moment.
tongue.gif
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 12:59 AM Post #3 of 31
as dark and oppressive as PORNOGRAPHY is, it's pretty one dimensional. A cool dimension though.

SEVENTEEN SECONDS is nearly my favorite, but it's still the work of a young, albiet genius group of musicians.

DISINTEGRATION gets the vote, because it really has all their elements in one package, all done to near perfection. I know, "Love Song" isn't quite "Just Like Heaven" but song for song, it's just the strongest thing they ever did. How can you beat an opener like "Plainsong" and a closer like "Untitled" Both are among the best they ever did. If anything it's a bit too long, and I really got burned out on "Fascination Street" but the rest of the album remains magical to this day.

Everything I've heard since DISINTEGRATION has had a higher percentage of what could be called "filler" songs. WISH was good, but just not as strong. Going back an album, KISS MEx3 was great, but a bit too schizophrenic for its own good. It does contain several of their best pop songs, you just kind of have to dig through the album to get to them. It's not one I listen to end-to-end very often.

HEAD ON THE DOOR is awesome and tight as hell. Just about a perfect album in its own right. A very close 2nd, but coming from the other side, so to speak.

If DISINTEGRATION is the center of the Cure solar system, PORNOGRAPHY, HEAD ON THE DOOR and SEVENTEEN SECONDS all orbit in a very close inner ring.. then going out you have FAITH and KISS MEx3, the others.. though I really can't do much ranking beyond that.

hope this made some kind of sense.

-jar
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 2:10 AM Post #5 of 31
Quote:

Originally Posted by Masonjar
DISINTEGRATION gets the vote, because it really has all their elements in one package, all done to near perfection. If anything it's a bit too long, and I really got burned out on "Fascination Street" but the rest of the album remains magical to this day.


Yeah, Disintegration is my favorite by a big margin. I know it mainly from the vinyl version, so when I finally picked up a copy of the CD a few years ago I was a little disappointed in the flow because of the extra songs. Just seems to work better for me without Last Dance and Homesick. Not that they're bad songs or anything, but they just sound a little out of place to me and make it too long so I "remastered" it without them and now it's perfect again
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 2:44 AM Post #6 of 31
Disintegration here. I'm not a huge The Cure fan, but I loved that album
cool.gif
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 3:36 AM Post #7 of 31
i love DISINTEGRATION as well, probably my third fave behind FAITH and PORNOGRAPHY.

DISINTEGRATION is perhaps their most realized, most cohesive album though, i would have to agree with that. it has everything The Cure is about, and was done so flawlessly. i never did mind the length of the album, and it's one where i can play from start to end. sometimes i even wish "The Same Deep Water as You" goes on a bit longer in the outro. and i could never imagine the album without "Last Dance" and "Homesick." it's the way i grew up listening to the album, i guess. it's the same reason i could never listen to New Order's POWER CORRUPTION AND LIES with "Blue Monday" and "The Beach" tacked on... i made my own copy without those two songs.
biggrin.gif


that said, i love PORNOGRAPHY's intensity. like Masonjar mentioned, it's one dimensional, but The Cure has never recorded anything quite like it since.

FAITH got my vote though... it's beautiful, melancholy, and ethereal. it's a lot more introspective than the aggressive PORNOGRAPHY, and opens up much more to the imagination.
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 4:12 AM Post #8 of 31
I like Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me for the same reason I like The Smiths' "Louder than Bombs" and New Order's Brotherhood- really hit or miss, but when it hits, it hits hard. Just Like Heaven and Catch are two of my fave songs of all time (not just fave Cure songs). As an album it's sketchy but what can I say, flashes of brilliance are sometimes enough. I agreee tho, for an overall album Disintegration is the best, but Kiss me has that special Mojo.
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 4:47 AM Post #9 of 31
I have Disintegration, but haven't heard the others as albums. I'm a big proponent of Mixed Up though. Maybe it's because it's the first work of theirs I really heard, but I really love it start to end.
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 5:00 AM Post #10 of 31
I voted for Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, for many of the same reasons as Jahn (though not the same songs). I like Disintegration, but I don't actually even own it, because all the songs on it I really like are on Mixed Up, and I like the Mixed Up versions better.
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 3:25 PM Post #12 of 31
Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn
I like Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me for the same reason I like The Smiths' "Louder than Bombs" and New Order's Brotherhood- really hit or miss, but when it hits, it hits hard. Just Like Heaven and Catch are two of my fave songs of all time (not just fave Cure songs). As an album it's sketchy but what can I say, flashes of brilliance are sometimes enough. I agreee tho, for an overall album Disintegration is the best, but Kiss me has that special Mojo.


Can't really argue with that.. I agree on those two songs, two of the best songs ever, by anyone. I've never done a "top Cure song" list, but If I did, those would be in the top 10. I've always thought that "In Between Days" was kind of like the practice run for "Just Like Heaven."

-jar
 
Jul 18, 2005 at 11:11 PM Post #13 of 31
The Head on the Door. RS must have been in a slightly less gloomy mood when he wrote the music to these songs. One might almost call this a "pop" album. Lyrics still heavy going, however.

Disintegration is a close second, and I probably listen to it more than THotD.
 
Jul 19, 2005 at 3:56 PM Post #14 of 31
kiss me kiss me kiss me

it's a double album... and it has some sort of musical narrative, the songs connect. ('the kiss' at the start and 'fight' at the end form a fitting frame). later on with 'disintegration' they perfected that approach, but i prefer the less polished, more rambling and experimental "growth" on kiss me... the growth in robert's singing, in instrumentation, in lyrical themes, in the range of songs...

i really like the light-hearted, optimistic stuff there, for me just like heaven IS just like heaven... (even in dinosaur jr's slightly tongue-in-cheek cover version)
 
Jul 20, 2005 at 12:09 AM Post #15 of 31
Disintegration, hands down. It may not have all of their greatest songs or even my favorites, but it's simply the best in the way that the songs flow into each other and just take you on this smooth musical voyage that makes you feel all better at the end and ready to face the world again.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top