A thread for the Cure reissues

Dang, the holidays are starting early. Thanks!

I saw Show at the cinema (having seen the actual Wish tour twice) and thought it was remarkably dull.

nothing beats the real thing.

sidebar: was a smidge disappointed there was nothing in the way of a _tape (demo)_ on the new deluxe edition. it's so great, but (still!) unavailable on streaming.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/robert-smith-talked-wish-for-its-30th-anniversary-on-tims-twitter-listening-party/

To celebrate Wish's 30th anniversary and plug the reissue, frontman Robert Smith -- whose Caps Lock key on his laptop has been stuck for years -- stopped by Tim's Twitter Listening Party to offer up a very entertaining track-by-track look back at the album. You can replay the whole thing over at the Listening Party site, but here are some highlights.

"MAKING THIS ALBUM I USED TO GET GOING AROUND 4PM… LISTEN TO THE PREVIOUS DAYS THING… CYCLE TO THE LOCAL PUB… CYCLE BACK… FAFF ABOUT… EAT… THEN GO FOR IT!," Robert said. "ME AND SIMON AND PERRY (AND OF COURSE DAVE AND STEVE) WERE THERE FOR THE DURATION… BORIS AND PORL WOULD FREQUENTLY TAKE TIME AWAY… WE DEMO’D EVERYTHING AS A BAND, BUT WE RECORDED THIS WISH ALBUM IN DIFFERENT WAYS. USUALLY BORIS AND SIMON AND ME WOULD PUT DOWN A BACKING TRACK - ONCE WE WERE HAPPY WITH A TAKE (THIS WAS RECORDED TO TAPE REMEMBER - NO CUTTING AND PASTING BACK THEN!) ME AND SIMON AND PERRY WOULD OVERDUB ‘OTHER BITS’. THEN PORL WOULD ADD HIS THING - THEN I WOULD SING - AND THEN ME AND BORIS WOULD ADD SOME FINAL BITS OF ‘THE WEIRD STUFF’… USUALLY PERCUSSION! BREAKFAST AND BED AROUND 7AM…" Robert then added, "I STILL KEEP THESE HOURS! BUT I DO CYCLE TO THE PUB FAR LESS OFTEN."

He really is a vampire.

I for one would love to see photos of RS cycling to the pub back in 1991.

the NME cover feature at the time saw Robert explain that his High video look was the result of repeatedly getting his usual hair caught in overhanging branches and thus being pulled off his bike when cycling back to the studio.

Sounds like a Cure video

Watching this now. I don't know why I can't ever seem to remember that the Cure are a psychedelic rock band — I mean, there are three guitarists onstage! And when I saw them on the Bloodflowers tour there were a (to me) shocking number of extended, almost Hendrixian guitar solos. And I mean I don't even hate Smith's voice. One of these days I'm going to have to really dive in.

It's worth it, they're a pretty neat band. And the psychedelic element pops up pretty early in their career, too.

Yeah it's very much a throughline -- like, he's not the ONLY guy who found a way to further explore the spaces that Hendrix opened up of course but he's easily one of the most strongest and most distinct; you can actually tell his guitar tone from a mile off in a lot of cases. By translating that into a time and a presentation that wasn't just trying to clone 1967, or simply redo the sonic and songwriting tropes, he synthesized a distinct aesthetic and approach.

Didn't they get comparisons in the press to Pink Floyd back around 17 Seconds/Faith? I never understood that.

Maybe because they were slow?

(fwiw, along with alcohol, weren't the Cure really into taking acid?)

I think acid had a big part in their output, yes.

From what I recall reading starting around "Pornography" to ???

I'm amazed Smith isn't in rehab. Guess he found a way to moderate.

He and Bernard Sumner have that in common at any rate.

Drinking a ton and taking loads of LSD (and other drugs) doesn't necessarily imply a substance abuse problem requiring rehab?

Of course not. Given the noted public breakdowns of their peers, though, it's surprised me how well these two have lingered.

The Cure always seemed to have a marked lack of scandal and newsworthy antics, which I guess is supported by these bike-riding anecdotes I'm seeing this morning... I guess there's that photo in Ten Imaginary Years where you can see lines of coke on a mirror

cycling is The Cure:

Simon Gallup was interviewed in SingleTrack magazine - https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2019/04/stw-2019-04-23-DSF5938.jpg
https://singletrackworld.com/2018/11/singletrack-magazine-issue-121-simon-gallup-there-is-no-cure/

Jason Cooper did a fundraiser for the British Heart Foundation earlier this year: https://images.jg-cdn.com/image/cb26d615-f163-421f-8a0b-351816fa8ac0.jpg
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jason-cooper25

i certainly used to take lots of acid and listen to the cure.

This was the last Cure album i bought

https://imgur.com/7b47da61-e4ac-4b5c-b382-9f6a94bdcb27

https://i.imgur.com/UusBhG2.png

excellent.

His face looks like that because of all the acid, you see.

the exploding boy!

speaking of his hair when are we going to see Cocteau Twins reissues with bonus treasures!?

"Wish" was never a favorite, except for FMTEOTDGS, but this remaster is giving me a new appreciation for most of the rest. The bonus stuff is pretty solid as well. Love the weird remix of High with the sequenced harpsichord.

xp They've already reissued the CT albums, remastered by Robin "cocaine ears" Guthrie to add brickwall compression to their galaxy of sonic disasters.

The Cure have today shared an upgraded, extended HD version of Play Out, their 1991 behind-the-scenes their documentary.

Directed by Peter Fowler, Play Out follows The Cure across a handful of vastly different, yet equally important performances. From debuting future hits at small-scale English clubs to a headlining set at Wembley Arena and a coveted spot on MTV Unplugged, the expanded version of the documentary offers an even closer look at how one of history’s most influential goth-rock bands came to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9A7BG7omKY

Someone on YouTube was nice enough to break it all down:

Tracklisting and time codes:

T&C II Club London - 17th January 1991
Behind The Scenes 0:14
Wendy Time 1:25
The Big Hand 7:13
Away (Cut) 11:58
Let's Go To Bed 16:51
A Strange Day 20:15
10.15 Saturday Night 24:17
Killing An Arab 28:28

Wembley Arena - London - The Great British Music Weekend - 19th January 1991
Behind The Scenes 32:09
Pictures Of You 39:41
Fascination Street 47:19
Lullaby 52:24
A Forest 56:40
Backstage At The Wembley Arena 1:06:49

Jonathan Ross Show - 23rd January 1991
Rehearsals ("Hello I Love You", "Just Like Heaven", "The Walk", "Bland with an Edge") 1:10:17
Harold And Joe 1:13:28

E - Zee Hire Rehearsal Studio - London - 22nd January 1991
The Blood 1:17:35
The Walk 1:22:50

MTV - "Unplugged" - 24th January 1991
Backstage At The MTV Studios 1:26:27
Just Like Heaven 1:39:12
A Letter To Elise 1:43:40
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep 1:48:23
Boys Don't Cry 1:51:56

Dominion Theatre - London - 9th February 1991
Rehearsals For "The Brit Awards" 1:55:07

London - 10th February 1991
At The Fiction Office 2:00:13
Backstage At The Dominion Theatre 2:03:57
Never Enough 2:06:18
"The Brit Awards" Presentation By Roger Daltrey 2:10:40

Ah, so great. Will be downloading that for sure.

feels great to be a cure fan rn

put out the new record before i die robert!

it's raining cure videos this week

Oh man I watched that soooo many times back in 91-92. It aired on ppv in the States under a different name and somehow my parents let me buy it.

Great to see Play Out again, I was at that ‘91 Wembley show that’s featured, having travelled down by coach from the North. Johnathan King arranged the shows which were to be filmed and shown as part of that years’ Brits awards TV programme. Billy Bragg was one of the support acts and did a furious speech in between songs about the Iraq War. King had told him he could say anything he liked, so long as he played Levi Stubbs’ Tears. He did! Ride and The Wedding Present also played and they showed videos in between the bands on a big screen. I recall The Cult’s Eddie (Ciao Baby) going down a storm.

*Edie!

awesome to see the cure play out available again! that's -easily- the best video release they've done.

ok finally getting around to the wish remaster and wow it sounds so good it made me like the album more

It's fun to dump on the Hoffman board but all of these Cure remasters really do sound like toilet compared to previous versions, unless you love compression of course. You only need to A/B the first 20 seconds of Pornography to get the gist. Bonus stuff is always a goldmine, of course

i think disintegration is the only remaster that sounds obnoxiously brickwalled

and if i’m not looking at a waveform in audacity or whatever, i’d say the wish remaster goes in the opposite direction…. there’s a lot of clarity and dimension to the instrumentals that i didn’t get with the previous cd

I'd like some Cure downmixes

https://www.reddit.com/r/talkingheads/comments/38u89x/talking_heads_discography_51_downmix/

I thought the first four deluxe Cure reissues sounded pretty good and they amped up the compression after that, but I never A/B'd any of them. Pornography always sounded kind of "close," though, didn't it?

The only bonus disc I found thoroughly worthwhile was for the debut -- the Curiosity compilation had made it seem like there must be loads of really interesting unreleased stuff, but that really seemed to be the cream of the cassette collection. So many of these demos just sound so staid; I'm not sure what enthusiasts hear in them.

Anyway, re:Wish, can I just say the Higher Mix of "High" is maybe a top 10 Cure track for me. Outdoes the album/single version completely, which to make room for the jangle has the keyboard arpeggios mixed far too low :(

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Saturday, July 30, 2022 9:43 AM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

just got to the higher mix on the third disc and holy shit otm

Those of us who bought the CD single have been enjoying that mix for the past 30 years ^_^

Indeed! :-D