The CaterPOLLar -- ILM Artist Poll #23 -- The Cure -- voting thread

http://www.picturesofyou.us/photos/87-89/87-Fr-Interview-1-Franck-2.jpg

It's time to poll The Cure!

After a brief discussion on the poll coordination thread, I'm asking for your top 40 Cure songs. Any song recorded by The Cure is eligible, and so is anything by The Glove. 12" versions and demo versions won't count but any of the remixes off Mixed Up will.

Ballot part one (mandatory): Your top 40 Cure tracks. Usual scoring method (1:50, 2:46, 3:43, 4:40…) will be applied. Please order your list with your #1 at the top and your #40 at the bottom.

Ballot part two (optional): Your top 5 Cure albums.

Ballot part three (optional): Your top 5 Cure videos.

Deadline:[b] Friday August 8th, 10pm UK time.

[b]Send ballots to: n a t h a n w o o l l s at gmail dot com (take the spaces out of my name to make it all one word.) Put 'ILM Cure Poll' in the subject and I'll email confirmation.

The Cure discography

The Glove discography

(I'm going to be busy with college work til Tuesday so I won't be here much for a few days. Have fun while I'm away.)

F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O

If this doesn't end up in the Top 10 I'll be very disappointed in you, ILM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJIJOVNeG5w

I'm actually trying to put a ballot together now and finding it extremely difficult. 'Bananafishbones' definitely won't be making it.

so excited!

I don't know any Cure after the Staring at the Sea comp, but I might give this a go anyway.

uh oh cure poll

Breathe and To The Sky vying for position in the top ten, huh

here is a detailed list of everything (you can even sort songs by title and year}:
http://australian-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=The+Cure
or official web site:
http://www.thecure.com/discography/

Doing this now. Apparently I like the majority of the 'B' sides from the cassette of 'Standing On A Beach' more than anything they have done post 'Disintegration'.

7/40 from the reverse of that tape is too many right? Hmm.

Sad to say 'I'm A Cult Hero' missed out.
Also 'Cure In Orange' is clearly the best video, though it doesn't really count.

August 8th is a Wednesday. Is the deadline the 3rd or the 10th?

Sorry about that. Deadline is the 10th.

this will be fun. i'm a huge fan, have been since i was 13 or 14, but only got to see them for the first time in barcelona at end of may. setlists are the moment are pretty amazing, totally lived up to my expectations after so many years of waiting to see them...

Plainsong
Pictures of You
High
The End of the World
Lovesong
Push
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
The Hungry Ghost
Play for Today
A Forest
Bananafishbones
Lullaby
The Walk
Mint Car
Friday I'm in Love
Doing the Unstuck
Trust
Want
Wrong Number
One Hundred Years
Disintegration

Encore:

The Kiss
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
Fight (First performance since 1987)

Encore 2:

Dressing Up (First performance since 1996)
The Lovecats
The Blood
The Caterpillar
Close to Me
Just One Kiss
Let's Go to Bed
Sleep When I'm Dead
Why Can't I Be You?

Encore 3:

Boys Don't Cry

Please confirm no points penalties if I offer less than 40.

Wrong Number excepted.

You don't have to submit 40, I'll adjust the scoring accordingly.

This is going to be tough ...

I have been looking forward to and dreading this poll

My short list will probably have 100 songs on it

Play for Today
A Forest
Bananafishbones
Lullaby
The Walk
Mint Car
Friday I'm in Love
Doing the Unstuck
Trust
Want

wow – an awesome set!

You don't have to submit 40, I'll adjust the scoring accordingly.

The wording here is troubling...will you be scoring from the top down or the bottom up?

xpost -- Yeah that looks pretty spectacular, think I need to scrounge up a recording of that one. Glad that "The Hungry Ghost" is turning into a keeper.

love this band like crazy and am very excited for this!

Hooray! for the CURE

this band is too good.

You don't have to submit 40, I'll adjust the scoring accordingly.

The wording here is troubling...will you be scoring from the top down or the bottom up?

To be honest I was going to go to the coordination thread and ask for advice there!

oh shit a cure poll

F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 6:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I LOVE THAT SONG SO MUCH

Doing this now. Apparently I like the majority of the 'B' sides from the cassette of 'Standing On A Beach' more than anything they have done post 'Disintegration'.

― pandemic, Thursday, July 26, 2012 5:10 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I haven't even started thinking about songs and yet I know this will probably be true for me as well.

- My first real favorite band. I got into them because my babysitter liked them.
- First CD I ever bought was Disintegration
- First band shirt I ever bought (from the SST catalog iirc) was Paris shirt with just RS's lips on the front.
- First song a boy ever played for me on the guitar in an attempt to impress was Three Imaginary Boys
- First real "big rock show" I ever saw was them at the Nassau Collesium on Long Island in 1996. I was 18 and dyed my hair purple for the occasion (lol). It was so awesome.
- Saw them one other time here in Boston (DJP was also in attendance) in 2007 and it was just as awesome.

<3 <3 <3

at the Nassau Collesium

oops Coliseum

Same for me, except:
- sister
- Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
- ^ tour tshirt
- uh no
- Birmingham NEC, KMKMKM tour

But yeah, probably my favourite band ever. Looking forward to running this poll, hope we get lots of ballots and that I don't fuck it up too much.

Thank you for doing this! I am excited already.

I was going to sit this one out, but I watched some youtubes of the days before makeup and I might just have to investigate further

so i have started and i'm already pulling my hair out. i think like DJP i will have a list of around 100 when done.

I just want to throw out some often-overlooked songs for people to consider as they are making their ballots:

Another Day
World War
Secrets
Another Journey By Train
Cold
The Dream
The Upstairs Room
Throw Your Foot
Wailing Wall
Six Different Ways
Screw
Torture
How Beautiful You Are...
The Snakepit
The Perfect Girl
Fear of Ghosts
2 Late
This Twilight Garden
Play
The 13th
Trap
Treasure
Home
A Pink Dream
Spilt Milk
Out of this World
The Loudest Sound
Lost
Before Three
Anniversary
Going Nowhere
Underneath the Stars
The Real Snow White
The Hungry Ghost
The Scream
It's Over

I know ppl started rolling their eyes around The 13th but I do think there's something to all of these songs (and I'm also certain more ppl remember/think fondly of the older material)

I've started making my list. I've flicked through all the albums and got a rough list ready of what will make it from those. Just started listening through Join The Dots which I only got last year so don't know that well. Just wow at Throw Your Foot, incredible song. The Upstairs Room and Lament have also stood out from Disc one so far.

I know ppl started rolling their eyes around The 13th but I do think there's something to all of these songs (and I'm also certain more ppl remember/think fondly of the older material)

― keeping things contextual (DJP)

Good call on Before Three and Out of This World. Will be voting for a few songs of the last three albums. End of The World should also be mentioned, it's one of my favourite singles of theirs.

I have been looking forward to and dreading this poll

My short list will probably have 100 songs on it

^^^
Me too.

Will they place more album cuts and b-sides than any other band that's been polled? It always seemed to me like big fans really love those more than the singles (although they have fabulous singles, but that's not what I love The Cure for.)

Of course I do expect "Just Like Heaven", "A Forest", "Inbetween Days" and "Boys Don't Cry" to place really high.

I think A Forest us probably my least favourite of the "big" Cure songs and I doubt if it'll make my top 40.

you are crazy, "A Forest" is the pinnacle of most The Cure live shows...

Realistic estimate: I've probably listened to "A Forest" 400-500 times in my life and it's going to be in my top five. I can see how it would wear on some people, though.

how many times can I put "Lament" on my ballot? is 40 too much?

I ended up going with the 40 songs which still thrill me the most to listen to today, rather than the 40 'best' songs. So for instance I think 'Just Like Heaven' is a much much better song than 'Do The Hansa' but I always enjoy hearing the latter more these days.

lament and upstairs room love is otm. the japanese whispers stuff is maybe my favourite collection of cure songs

y

ep

I've replied to every ballot I've received so if you have't had an email off my you should resend. I've just replied to the most recent ballot, is your name Al** St*****? Sorry, I don't know the real names of most of the people itt.

Yeah, that's me. Just checked and an email arrived just after I posted. Thanks!

I'll send my ballot sometime this weekend, I've picked and ranked the songs but I'm still tweaking here and there (taking full advantage of the deadline extension).

I originally wasn't going to submit a videos list, partly because I don't think The Cure made any exceptionally good videos. The five on my list are more or less the only ones I like.

ok, i'm starting this...i think i will have 75 songs and than go from there.

i came up with 43 album tracks but i need b-sides. i think i went about this wrong...

I originally wasn't going to submit a videos list, partly because I don't think The Cure made any exceptionally good videos.

Really?? Most of their Tim Pope collaborations were creative, original, and fun IMO. Especially compared to other bands from the era, like U2, Bon Jovi, The Cult, Def Leppard, who mostly were just filmed on stage. I guess their videos weren't as stylish as Depeche Mode, but they weren't so SERIOUS.

when is the new deadline again?

i finally have forty but i'm killing myself over the order, i should just send it but i want to be sure.

Midday UK time, Wednesday the 15th.

Really?? Most of their Tim Pope collaborations were creative, original, and fun IMO.

Yeah many of them were as formulaic as the "serious" videos you mentioned. Bon Jovi videos = we're huge rock stars, watch us play on stage and see how much people cheer for us ... Cure videos = watch us frolic around and throw/push/paint things. And there were plenty of Cure videos where they were just playing the song somewhere, albeit on the side of a cliff or in a balloon, which is clearly an upgrade over the Def Lep/Bon Jovi stuff. That's not to say I don't like some of their videos, but they were recycling a lot of their ideas too.

yeah and all the songs are like playing some music and then having some other instruments play some more music and then usually singing on top, ugh get some new ideas guys

you know what, "Lost" is a totally bad-ass song; the whole slow creep mixed in with the ramping up of the vocal line and how it goes higher and higher with each restatement of the verse as the music swirls together in a dissonant vortex, the bitter venom Robert is spitting by the end of the song until everything kind of deflates into hollow wistfulness... how the whole thing swings from disassociation into fury and back into timid realization

fukkin love that song

I hope I'm not giving too much away to say it's going to need a lot of love before Wednesday if it's going to make the top 100.

;_; it couldn't find itself

DJP's #1 was "my computer"

still super pissed that I forgot about "Burn" and "Carnage Visors"

Ballot sent. The video list was the hardest part because I had a hard time choosing which of my 6 faves to exclude. :-(

i finishing this tonight...help me.

Less than 24 hours to go, 26 ballots received. Happy with that.

I haven't done mine yet.

plz put "Carnage Visors" at #1

I've got down to 86 songs.

I missed this one — are you still accepting ballots?

There is time! Vote.

my "shortlist" was something like 95 songs? and I still wanted to vote for them all

and I still forgot 2 off of it, at least one of which had a very good chance of being on my ballot

Yeah voting is still open, til midday UK tomorrow.

I know this poll is going to end up reinforcing Cure orthodoxy and all of the big placers will be pop singles, but I'm super interested in the early stages to see what, if any, bizarro songs place

also this is a pre-emptive "you all have terrible taste" in anticipation of "Push" making the top 20

Haha, that was my #2.

Is it really about catching the train to Brighton while wearing a dress? Or was Robert taking the piss?

I've never been less sure about my ballot in these single artist polls. There were so many things I wanted to vote for, I kept waffling on the rankings ... kicking myself already for leaving certain songs off my ballot ("Trust", "High", "All Cats Are Grey" ...)

you will get mine in about 12 hours, i need to go to work. still working the video list but pretty much done.

HOW THE HELL COULD YOU LEAVE "ALL CATS ARE GREY" OFF OF YOUR BALLOT

seriously, that was one of five songs that were absolutely no question destined to be on my ballot

Considering I scrambled at the last minute to get this together, I'm pretty pleased with my ballot. I didn't have to relisten to much because I know the band pretty well anyway. Still, I even surprised myself when I found a genuine obscurity had made it into my top ten.

Here's my breakdown of albums and how many songs off each made my list:

Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don't Cry — 4
Seventeen Seconds — 3
Faith — 3
Pornography — 2
The Walk EP/Japanese Whispers — 3
The Top — 1
The Head on the Door — 5
Kiss Me — 2
Disintegration — 2
Mixed Up — 0
Wish — 3
Wild Mood Swings — 1
Bloodflowers — 2
The Cure — 2
4:13 Dream — 0
Non-album/b-sides — 7

Funny other things I just realized:
Wish barely scraped my top albums picks at #5, but three Wish (or Wish-related songs) are in my top ten.
Disintegration did not make my top albums list.
A song from the self-titled album made my top ten. I hate that album, how did THAT happen?

Really hope I got my ballot in on time. This was fun. Can't wait to see the final tally.

~Austin

Listening to THOTD in its remastered form, which I received in the mail a few hours ago, I'm thinking the only dud is "Six Different Ways." Every song is distinct, opening a door to a genre excursion on which the band could have gone.

The Head on the Door really is a great piece of work. They managed to pack so much, so well, into such a great, concentrated package.

I like 'Six Different Ways.' Although, it did take me hearing the great Peel Session recording of it to fully appreciate it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjgvXuSGQF4

Scatting, squealing vocals Bob at his best.

got my list down to 70, just dropped Carnage Visors, RIP DJP

;_;

it's really sad, it was gothy rose-tinted glasses

says the guy who just heard subdivisions

sorry <3

Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don't Cry — 5
Seventeen Seconds — 2
Faith — 2
Pornography — 3
The Walk EP/Japanese Whispers — 4
The Top — 2
The Head on the Door — 4
Kiss Me — 4
Disintegration — 5
Mixed Up — 1
Wish — 4
Join the Dots (B-Sides) - 6

I'm a huge fan, so can I just go on record right now and say that 'Carnage Visors' is extremely overrated?

Ballot sent. I can't believe this band, every last song on my list I can relate a specific memory to, it's outrageous.

34 ballots received. In your face, Paul Simon!

"six different ways" is my second favorite off the album, after "close to me"

When're you doing the countdown?

TIB/BDC - 3
SS - 2
Faith - 2
Pornography - 2
The Top - 2
Head - 3
KMKMKM - 6
Disintegration - 5
Wish - 2
WMS - 1
Bloodflowers - 1
Cure - 3
4:13 Dream - 2
other singles/b-sides - 6

Semi-serious response to DJP, I was trying to balance out my ballot a bit (i.e. not getting sentimental and voting for 15 songs from KMKMKM) and a bunch of songs fell through the cracks. Is "4:13 Dream" as good as "Wish" and "Pornography" (I voted for two songs from all of them)? Definitely not, but there are a few really good individual songs there, and I didn't want to ignore that (or any) album completely.

So yeah, I already regret not finding room for certain songs, but I feel really good about my top 20-25 though (=where most of the points will come from).

I'm hoping to start about 9 tonight with the albums, videos and tracks 50-41.

rad.

A load of ballots in the last few hours (as someone predicted) means I need to do a lot of number crunching when I get home but hopefully my spreadsheets are up to doing most of the work. I'll never forgive myself if I fuck these results up.

POLLography: The Cure poll results, ILM artist poll #23

btw Boris is the fucking BEST, I still maintain that ppl would like the later material more had he drummed it instead of Jason Cooper

althrough the evidence of Entreat Plus suggests it mightn't have made much difference