Taking Sides: Goth Cure vs. Pop Cure.

That said 'Lovecats' & 'Close to Me' are both likeable enough, but what you really want with The Cure is 'A Forest'. That's if you want anything.

Whatever happened to the "no new threads at weekends" rule?

while allowing for "friday i'm in love" and "love cats," i must say goth because _pornography_'s the only one i keep around.

lovecats - indie diskos - KILLKILLKILL !

OK. so what is goth cure, then?

Yay Cure!

(I'm playing at a Cure tribute night at the end of the month, and I'm trying to get motivated. Sorry 'bout that.)

laaaaaaa... goth Cure. For 'All Cats Are Grey'.

Ned, do people laugh a lot at Swans and/or goth shows? I didn't realize that they all realized what a colossal (and personally, boring boring boring) joke that all was.

Ned, do people laugh a lot at Swans and/or goth shows?

Since when is all humor signified with a belly laugh? Sometimes you are not laughing at, but with.

I can't find a thread for The Top album.

I can't believe I haven't heard the title track to that in over 20 years. That is an absolute masterpiece of goth despite whatever one might say about the rest of the album.

I have to go with pop cure for such masterpieces as "Let's Go To Bed", "Friday I'm In Love", "Just Like Heaven", "High", "The Lovecats" and "Mint Car".

That's not to say I don't love goth Cure also. Particularly the early 80-82-incarnation was often really brilliant. "Faith" is one of their all-time best albums.

Yes, and the tracks on the bonus disc of the Faith reissue were driving me out of my mind last weekend.

I totally listen to "the rank shit" all the time these days.

Goth Cure for me, their pop stuff can sound a little forced at times, though I've a lot of time for 'Just Like Heaven'. That said, my favourite song of theirs is 'Lovesong' which is pretty much the best of both worlds.

is "Lament" goth Cure or pop Cure?

which is best? The miserable Cure of "A forest", "Lullaby", or the quirky pop Cure of "Lovecats", "Close to me" etc..? Or neither?

Neither. I doubt I'm the first person to say this (though on this thread, it weirdly looks like I might be), but the art-punk Cure of "Jumping Someone Else's Train," "10:15 Saturday Night," "Grinding Halt," and "Fire in Cairo" wins by a million miles.

The first three revive posts in this thread are complete winners.

This thread is utterly daft.

To use my favorite Cure song as an example:

A Forest, Amsterdam, 1980
A Forest, Japan, 1984
A Forest, Wembley Arena, 1991

technology gets "better" with each year, song gets longer and atmospheric tempo gets slower, and the performance gets worse and worse.

I'll take early, spare Cure over nearly anything.

xhuxk is totally otm. Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don't Cry are far and away the best Cure albums.

Errr, no.

I like the singles and "Three Imaginary Boys" but Boys Don't Cry might be one of my least fave Cure albums. I could understand picking that as the best if you just hate the rest of their career and it's a "by default" thing.

Kinda surprised Chuck wouldn't like "In Between Days" "Close To Me," etc etc unless its a) the voice or b) hasn't heard them since they came out.

I don't "hate" the rest of their career (or those particular songs), but I also don't like them much. And yeah, the voice bugs me. But no way is Boys Don't Cry a "default" vote -- it's a really good new wave/punk album. I've always thought of it as being in the category of Singles Going Steady or Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts -- it may be closer to those than to later Cure stuff.

(Or I've always heard it as being closer, anyway. I don't doubt there are some tracks on Boys Don't Cry that they could have done later, as well. And maybe vice versa. I'm not entirely sure why Robert Smith's voice tends to bug me more as he gets older, though, but it definitely does. And right, maybe I should revisit more of the later stuff someday; I might be surprised by some of it. But I doubt I'll be that surprised.)

no, it is closer to Buzzcocks than Disintegration. But aside from the hits (which I prefer in the context of Standing On A Beach: The Singles), its pretty weak Buzzcocks. And "I'll take weak Buzzcocks over whatever the hell he became" is what I mean by "default."

but if you really like hearing a guy spell "Fire In Cairo" over and over, great.

I'm completely with Chuck on about everything he just said. Especially the voice getting more annoying as he gets older part.

Complaints complaints.

This thread is licky as trips.

the hits (which I prefer in the context of Standing On A Beach: The Singles

For whatever it's worth, I've got Standing On A Beach, too. And I prefer the "hits" on Boys Don't Cry (whichever ones the hits are -- sorry, I didn't live in England in 1979) in the context of Boys Don't Cry's apparent "non-hits" myself. (Let's see, though: Okay, "Killing An Arab" got college radio play during the first Gulf War, so I guess that counts as a hit, right? And "Grinding Halt," because it's on the Times Square soundtrack?) (And yeah, I often like spelling songs.)

Oh wait, I get it! -- the hits are the ones on the later Cure singles comp, right? Duh. But personally, since the singles comp is not where I heard them first, I could never figure out why they picked those particular songs. ("Killing An Arab," "Boys Don't Cry," "Jumping Someone Else's Train.") The weren't really the best ones BDC, after all.

Bottom line is, as far as I've ever heard (and yeah, I've listened, just not in the last two years or so, so what) the Cure never came close to matching the energy or bite of those first hits. I never thought of them as "weak Buzzcocks" myself (I definitely like "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Grinding Halt" as much as most singles-that-went-steady.) But even if were, better weak Buzzcocks than weak Cure anyday.

matching the energy of those first hits

Now you've got me doing it! The best songs on Boys Don't Cry (which was sort of a compilation itself, after all) I meant.

They weren't really the best ones on BDC...But even if they were. (Aw, fuck it.)

Especially the voice getting more annoying as he gets older part.

i'd say this is true for about 90% of music ^^

I was referring to the four songs from BDC on the Standing on a Beach CD. I tend to call songs on hits comps "hits" even if they weren't big hits (I was born in West Germany in 1979, so I'm probably less sure than you). Sorry if that was confusing.

I bought Wish for $1.90 yesterday at a thrift store, which I saw at the counter as I went up to purchase a long, black coat. They also had a copy of Disintegration, but I already own that. I think that, somewhere in suburban Maryland, a goth may have died.

I can't make up my mind about the Goth vs. Pop (vs. Punk) thing.

I do think Robert sounds too much like a kid on the first album. I haven't heard them in 10+ years, but I think his vocals were better on the Peel Sessions (Boys Don't Cry, 10:15, and a couple of others).

(I never knew until now that "10:15" was added to the CD version of Standing On A Beach, for whatever that's worth. It's not on the LP version, which is the only one I've ever owned -- and which, judging from Amazon, apparently sells for a pretty decent amount of money--which is news to me, too.)

I can't make up my mind about the Goth vs. Pop (vs. Punk) thing.

Each is great in its own Cure-ish way.

That's pretty much what I'm saying. I like all varieties of the Cure; evaluation can happen on a song-by-song basis.

'The Walk'! when I discovered this song I played it over and over!

(a long time ago now)

If I listen to an album I'll probably choose Goth Cure, but if I'm only in the mood for a song, it'll be Pop Cure (Inbetween Days/Caterpillar/The Exploding Boy/Just Like Heaven/Six Different Watys)

Six Different Ways must be one of the greatest Cure songs never to be a 45 (not saying it should have been) - it's quite adorable.

ooh if you're talking Exploding Boy, then throw in A Few Hours After This !!! mercy, what a B-side.

agreed on both.

in a hanging garden, wearing furs and masks