"4:13 Dream" by the Cure

I didn't go to Curiosa because of those very reasons, too much money ect. I had seen them on every tour since The Top but missed them during the Wild Mood Swings and then Curiosa.

Can't wait for some new stuff without Ross Robinson producing it.

OTM.
I said it before, but not many bands can record a song like "Lost" after a 25-year long career.
For all the production shortcomings, at least they tried it hard with that album - or, at least, someone in the band tried it hard.
Probably, if the whole group was really into it, final results could have been a lot better.

In any event, I don't buy Roger's indignation that it was an RS album and nobody enjoyed it. It's not like the Cure were ever less/more than RS's band. Sounds like another falling out over the impotence O'Donnell et al are willing to ignore for sake of joining the carnival; there's always the big standoff when pride catches up with them, and RS always wins. There's almost always someone in the splitter's ear...Babacar you say?

The Curiosa show set at Randall's Island WAS too short, but not many bands that old could touch the quality. I'm glad someone recommended purchase of the Trilogy DVD to me, tho. They should just tour!

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ChainofFlowers/Curestudio06.jpg

Meantime, Perry Bamonte speaks.

I am, aren't I?

Bring back Boris!!!

Yeah, I've got a recording of that and it was mindblowingly great.

from pitchfork:

The Cure Announce Tour, Ready New Album

The Cure have just announced the North American leg of their 2007 world tour, which means that Asians and Australians won't be the only ones treated to a healthy dose of makeup and mood this summer and fall.

The band are also readying their 13th studio album, the as-yet-untitled follow-up to their 2004 self-titled record, for a fall release on Suretone/Geffen.

Frontman Robert Smith, guitarist Porl Thompson, bassist Simon Gallup, and drummer Jason Cooper will begin their jaunt in Fuji, Japan on July 27, and they have shows scheduled through October 17 in Dallas at the oh-so-goth American Airlines Center.

Sheffield up-and-comers 65daysofstatic will open all of the North American shows.

Dates:

07-27 Fuji, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
07-30 Hong Kong, China - Asia World Arena
08-01 Singapore, Singapore - Singapore Indoor Stadium
08-04 Perth, Australia - Challenge Stadium
08-06 Adelaide, Australia - Entertainment Centre
08-08 Brisbane, Australia - Entertainment Centre
08-10 Sydney, Australia - Entertainment Centre
08-12 Melbourne, Australia - Rod Laver Arena
09-13 Tampa, FL - St. Petersburg Times Forum *
09-15 Atlanta, GA - Gwinnett Civic Center *
09-17 Charlotte, NC - Charlotte Bobcats Arena *
09-19 Washington, DC - Patriot Center *
09-21 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum *
09-23 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden *
09-25 Boston, MA - Agganis Arena *
09-26 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Center *
09-27 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre *
09-29 Chicago, IL - Allstate Arena *
10-02 Denver, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater *
10-04 Salt Lake City, UT - E Center *
10-06 Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheater (Download Festival) *
10-08 Seattle, WA - Key Arena *
10-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - General Motors Place *
10-11 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl *
10-13 San Diego, CA - Cox Arena *
10-14 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
10-16 Houston, TX - Toyota Center *
10-17 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center *

* with 65daysofstatic

i think i will be going this time around. i' missed them on the last tour and was the first time in years.

yeah Cure!

Yeah, same here, the Curiosa deal was fairly annoying in concept. I didn't want Festival Cure but straight up Cure (this said, an opening band this time around is a bit different from the 1996 and 2000 tours where they went without, but if they don't take up too much time I'm fine with it...)

nice to see 65DOS get a decent support act for once

No support for Australian shows - Cure perform whole concert!

Oh yeah!

OMG 65dos are supporting the Cure on the US leg? NO FUCKING FAIR

That said, fuck paying $120 for a ticket (which is how much they are here).

So that means they're going to start a tour before having a new album out?

nice to see 65DOS get a decent support act for once

HUR HUR HUR

Cure + 65DOS = must see

09-15 Atlanta, GA - Gwinnett Civic Center *

:D

I need to find someone to go with though because I suspect my gf, having already seen the Cure live and not wanting to pay a shitload of money, would not go

Grrrrrr not fair mutter mumble stupid australia.

10-16 Houston, TX - Toyota Center
10-17 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center

MMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNEEEEEEEE

Grrrrrr not fair mutter mumble stupid australia.

They already announced Australian dates! Quit yer whinin'.

Actually *I* need to whine -- I've just realized that unless I'm very wrong their SoCal dates are exactly when I'll be in Hawaii. >:-( Bah. Well, at least actually seen them a few times.

*checks* Phew -- it's the week after. Yay, happy mood again!

No Ned you misunderstand - we're not getting 65dos (only one of my favourite ever bands atm) as a support :(

Also, $120!?

Ive never seen the Cure live. I probably never will.

we're not getting 65dos (only one of my favourite ever bands atm) as a support :(

Clarity. They're one of those names I've heard about but have not heard.

cover of the new album has leaked:

http://www.bentocorner.com/roller/resources/bentoblog/cure-blight.jpg

Matches the last album cover nicely!

How very them :)

(It'd be even better if it was real but hey.)

The $120 has scared me away too. I've seen them 3 times over the years, the last at RLaver and while it was THE CURE, RLaver sux big time as a venue.

Yeah its a fucking TENNIS ARENA man. Ugh. Talk about complete lack of atmosphere.

Still its probably better than Festy Hall.

Any word on how much ticket will be in the US?

I, for one, don't think US ticket prices matter one little bit. I missed Curiosa (first tour I'd missed since 1992), there's no way I'm missing them this time.*

* I can say this with confidence because I know my wife's performance schedule and she's not onstage that day; also my band hasn't scheduled a gig for that day and I will make myself completely unavailable to play if necessary.

Have they ever played the Hollywood Bowl? I'd go to see that.

(I have to say this is one of those times where I'm glad I don't live in the Twin Cities anymore.)

Have they ever played the Hollywood Bowl? I'd go to see that.

First time there, I think.

how I wish afi weren't on this bill in SF

hahaha

I would sit through AFI, probably. They're not so bad in small doses.

from chain of flowers:

PLANS

6/29/2007 5:28:48 PM - by CURE:ROBERT

IT NOW DOESNT LOOK LIKE THE ALBUM WILL COME OUT UNTIL AFTER THE USA TOUR...
YAY!

SERIOUSLY
THIS IS A GOOD THING!
AS ANY NEW SONGS WE PLAY WILL BE EXTRA UNKNOWN...
THERE WILL PROBABLY BE SOME KIND OF A SINGLE RELEASE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER...
AND PROBABLY SOME PROMO STUFF AROUND THE ALBUM RELEASE

I THINK THE ALBUM WILL BE A 'LIMITED EDITION' DOUBLE...
WE WILL SEE!

SO
LATE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER NEEDS TO BE FREE FOR ALBUM RELATED SURPRISE STUFF...

WHICH MEANS SOUTH AMERICA HAS BEEN JOSTLED TO THE BACK OF THE QUEUE BEHIND EUROPE...

OH NO!

BUT WE WILL GET THERE...
RSX
PS
THERE WILL BE USA DATES PRESALE INFO/PASWORDS UP HERE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS...

Here's the next confirmed presales:

Sat-Sep-29
Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 12-Jul

Mon-Oct-08
Seattle, WA Key Arena
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 12-Jul

Wed-Oct-17
Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
Pre-Sale Date:Thu, 12-Jul

Tue-Sep-25
Boston, MA Agganis Arena
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 19-Jul

Thu-Sep-13
Tampa, FL St Pete Times Forum
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 19-Jul

Sat-Sep-15
Atlanta, GA Gwinnett Center
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 19-Jul

Thu-Oct-11
Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 19-Jul

Sat-Oct-13
San Diego, CA Cox Arena
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 19-Jul

Sat-Oct-06
San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amph
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 19-Jul

Mon-Sep-17
Charlotte, NC Charlotte Bobcats Arena
Pre-Sale Date: Thu, 26-Jul

The Hollywood Bowl show, which is what I'm aiming for, looks to be doing a separate pre-sale.

My God, there must be sth seriously wrong with the album for it to be postponed so many times...

120 big ones to see the cure in sydney. that's some fucken cheek

glad i've already seen them, with robbo smith howling for the whole 3 hours no less.

Lots of info in new interviews:

"Smith has a vision -- an extended one. He wants the new, as yet untitled record to be available as both a single and double album.

The Cure have form for double albums -- such as 1987's Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.

"Back then we were the band," Smith says. "If we'd said we wanted to put out a quadruple album back then, no one would have minded."

However, in the iTunes-friendly world of 2007, double albums have become the dinosaur of the music industry.

"I'm not stupid," Smith says. "I know commercially it's not a very attractive proposition to release a double album by the Cure. But I got the record company down to listen to it, to listen to what I'm trying to do, and they went away a lot wiser and happier.

"What we're doing isn't aimed at selling shedloads of albums on the back of a hit single. There's more to it."

Smith's vision is for a 13-track single album (to mark their 13th album) and a 26-track double album that contains several instrumentals. The double will feature different versions of songs on the single and he's hoping to use a different mixer for each record to create different moods.

Or it might not come out at all, if Smith isn't happy with his double vision.

"I'm not stamping my feet saying it has to be a double. If it doesn't work, I'll know. But I'm buggered if I'm going to get this far down the line and at least not try to make it work.

"I've always been our harshest critic. I don't need anyone else to tell me it's not good enough. We have 33 pieces of music, 20 of which have turned into songs. Six are great instrumentals. If it's put together in the right way, it'll work. If it doesn't, it's a f---ing great single album anyway."

SMITH is so passionate about the project he's halved his royalty rates so the double album can be sold at the same price as the single, circumventing any bleating from the record company.

"The cost of making a single album and a double album are the same. A disc costs about 10 cents. If you put a double album and a single album on the shelf, Cure fans will buy the double album. It's a no-brainer.

"But they think, rightly, that stockists in the big chain stores in America will look at a double album and go, 'Why?' and put the single album on the shelf. We'll see. If we do manage to get the double out it'll be an interesting experiment. I'm on a good bet with them the double outsells the single. I win something."

Oh and maybe this belongs more on the reissue thread but what the hell:

Cure fans will have to wait slightly longer for the next instalment of their re-issues. Next in the que are 1989's classic Disintegration, 1990's Mixed Up and 1992's Wish.
They won't surface until next year at the earliest.
"They're half-ready", Robert Smith says. "I gave up on compiling the extra disc".
However fans will be rewarded for their patience.
"The extra disc for Disintegration will be great", he says. "It's very atmospheric. There are some strange versions of some of the songs".
Meanwhile the remix album Mixed Up will come with a bonus disc of new remakes by "contemporary" remixes.

Smith has also discovered the missing tapes for the 80's live concert The Cure in Orange, which will be issued on DVD along with 1993's Show.
Rifling through old Cure tapes in his archive isn't only good for material for bonus discs.
Smith has uncovered 3 songs which he's reworking for the new Cure album.
"I was loath to put them on as extras; I'd thought they'd work well if they were played by this band", Smith says.
"One's really early, between Pornography and The Top, from 1983. The other are from the Kiss Me period, 1986-87. I'm sure I'll find more, we did loads of stuff that didn't get used on Disintegration".

Smith is also preparing a comprehensive DVD for The Cure's 30th anniversary in 2009.
"It's all the live footage that hasn't come out, lots of TV stuff I've got on video. That's the full stop. Once that's done, that's it for the re-issuing and remastering".

I am torn between feeling quite excited and worried that they have to use scraps from 20 years ago. That can't be good right?

Really looking forward to the Mixed Up reissue.

"The extra disc for Disintegration will be great", he says. "It's very atmospheric. There are some strange versions of some of the songs".

Oooooh now THAT I want to hear.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Cureness

double album? plz to go all progressive on us :-D

I am all for this of course. And thank god Mixed Up IS coming out.

Hollywood show on sale tomorrow. I would have done the presales but there's a four ticket limit and our bunch is at least five. Oh well! I'm not expecting great seats, just enjoyable ones.

I rather hope that the second Mixed Up disc includes the two mixes from then that didn't surface on Join the Dots -- "Let's Go to Bed" (I forget who by) and Keith LeBlanc doing "Primary."

Presumably Wish will include the Lost Wishes cassette.

I have seats for Gwinnett Arena :D so fucking psyched. My gf has seen the Cure live but I haven't.

Anyone else going to the Houston or Dallas show? I have tickets for both, 12th row center in Houston and 3rd row center in Dallas. So psyched for these shows...

Ahh, the 'Let's go to bed' milk mix. The best mix of that era really.

I've got tickets to the Chicago show, v v excited. Never had a chance to see them before.

Not just the Milk and Red mixes (though they're mega-essential, esp the LeBlanc one), he'd be better off collecting other existing remixes rather than commissioning more Blank & Jones-style own-the-rights new versions...

And I have my tickets. Rock. I was sad to miss the 2004 tour -- first time I'd missed a big tour since _Wish_ -- but this is EXACTLY what I want, a full on headlining show, not festival set nonsense.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003624356

New Cure Album Shifts From Fall To Next Spring

August 10, 2007

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Originally due in early 2007 and then bumped to the fall, the new Cure album will now not see the light of day until next spring, according to a Geffen spokesperson.

Frontman Robert Smith is still recording material for the planned double-disc set but ran into a time crunch with an impending North American tour on the books. That outing begins Sept. 13 in Tampa, Fla. The band is presently in Australia for three shows, beginning tonight (Aug. 10) in Sydney.

"Whenever I think we're finishing it, it becomes something else," Smith told Billboard in late June. "We recorded all 33 backing tracks with scratch vocals last April, May and June. Then I took a break to kind of knock the words into shape and figure out which of these songs are going to make the album."

From there, Smith got sidetracked by work on the Cure live DVD "Festival 2005," but returned to the album material in March. "We've now reached the point where I've lost track of the number of songs we've got," he said. "There's an A-list of 30 songs on the wall."

Tracks due to make the cut include "Lusting Here in Your Mind" ("It sounds suspiciously like heavy rock to me," Smith said), "The Hungry Ghost," "The Perfect Boy," "Christmas Without You" ("That's not a very happy song," he said) and "Please Come Home."

"There are songs about relationships, the material world, politics and religion. They're very upfront and dynamic," said Smith of the new songs. "People will be surprised how stripped-down and in-your-face the record is."

as long as it sounds better than the last one. i guess if they aren't even pretending to have keyboards on this I won't be miffed that they've been mixed out this time.

Oh man, I have to edit the thread title again? (I really shouldn't be surprised it's another four year gap between albums...)

Oopsy:

PRESS RELEASE 24/8/07
Body: 24/8/07
North American Fall 2007 Cure shows re-scheduled for Spring 2008

With all apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment it may cause, we have made a decision to move the September/October 2007 North American Cure shows to April/May 2008.

The schedule as it stands only gives us a couple of weeks to finish our new double album before we hit the road again, and we know this just isn’t enough time to complete the project to our total satisfaction.

Although this last month’s tour of Australasia showed that a great Cure show is not dependent on a new Cure album, it has to be remembered that we hadn’t played Australia for 7 years, New Zealand for 15 years, Japan for 23 years(!), and Singapore or Hong Kong ever before – so the absence of ‘new’ songs in the set was not really much of an issue.

However, we want to remodel/rework the live show for North America, change things around, incorporate new songs… and we need time and focus to do this.

So although we can agree it is a great shame to move these dates – believe us we have been looking forward to them more than anyone! – and know there will be a lot of disappointed people out there, we honestly feel that in the bigger picture we are making the right decision.

All tickets held for all 2007 North American Cure shows will be valid for the re-scheduled 2008 shows, and of course anyone who seeks a refund will be able to get one.

All validity/refund/rescheduling details will be announced as soon as we have them.

We are still going to headline the San Francisco Download Festival October 6th, and we will still be performing at the MTV Latin America Awards October 18th.

We will also play the three scheduled Sports Palace Mexico City shows October 20th/21st/22nd, as by this point we feel sure we will have finished the new album, and will be more than happy to start dropping a fresh song or three into the set each night…

Once again, our genuine apologies to anyone who is upset by this announcement - please be encouraged by our promise:

The Spring 2008 Cure shows will be even better than the Fall 2007 ones would have been!!!

See you all soon…
Love

Robert, Simon, Jason and Porl – The Cure 24/8/07

If this turns out to be the same weekend as EMP I'll be annoyed. (And this had BETTER NOT mean a substitution of Coachella for a standalone date.)

http://accordionguy.blogware.com/Photos/2005/05/noooooooo.jpg

Robert's looking a bit satisfied with himself back there.

urgh... This is turning out to be the Cure's 'Chinese Democracy'

shit :(

Meantime, Porl seems to have turned into Billy Corgan. Are those tattoos?

http://cache.umusic.com/MCAImageUpload/1589606-Full.img6074.8-07.vella.small.jpg

Chain of Flowers has handily collected a bunch of Robert posts from the main site on the whole recent hullabaloo, which can make for some amusing reading.

all-caps is cruise control for cool eh Bob

Hahah wow, Bob's not happy.

I hadn't spotted this earlier that the tour went south - its a shame, what happened to 65daysofstatic? Did they still play some US shows regardless?

(cause if I'd had tix for the US tour I would be pretty pissed off at missing out on 65dos! I mean the Cure will come back but I bet 65dos dont)

http://columns.ultrasecretwebsite.com/Archive/Reviews/Music/marissa.jpg

SO
I AM KIND OF HALF WITH YOU?

BUT ALONG WITH A FEW OTHERS ON HERE I THINK YOU ARE MISUNDERSTANDING THE KEY POINT

WE MOVED THE DATES BECAUSE I AM DESPERATE TO FINSH A PROJECT THAT WAS STARTED IN MARCH 2006

IT IS DRAGGING OUT TOO LONG AND I KNOW IN MY HEART WE NEED TO FINISH IT NOW
NOW
NOT IN 2 MONTHS
BUT
NOW

WHEN IT IS DONE
WE WILL PLAY SHOWS

Roffles

wow!! a remastered/ 2 cd 'mixed up' is coming out?? NO WAY!
what extras will that have on it then?
funny cause Harold and Joe and the Lets Go To Bed (Milk Mix?) were the best things about the whole project/era and they were both b sides.

Also "Primary" (Red Mix)

Harold & Joe won't be on it, they haven't doubled up with Join The Dots on the rest of 'em

So, there was a new song "Please Project" at Download the other night. From the low-quality YouTube recording, it sounds (to me) like the love-child of "Just Like Heaven" and MBV's "Soon" and of course, the lyrics are recognizably Robert Smith's.

Details + link from a chain of flowers:

------

Here's a video from the Download Festival of the new song 'Please Project':

"I managed to get the whole new song on video, unfortunately it was through my little digital cam which hasn't the best microphone in the world.
We were also right in front of the speaker stacks so that adds to the decrease in quality. Still, you can kind of get a feel for what the song is like and since I haven't seen anything else come in for that song, I thought I'd forward this on until a better quality recording is available.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCveIQjPuvw

I'm also currently uploading the full "quality" file on google video, it was too big for youtube, and I"ll send you the link for that too if you like.

I loved the show, utterly loved it, they did a great job and they were so energetic and it looked to me like they were having a blast. Robert was very animated through most of the songs and all in all it was a wonderful night!"

Yeah yeah. *thinks bitterly over how he SHOULD have been seeing them this weekend...*

Not related to the new album...but too good not to link:

"One Hundred Years" at Download
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQXl8R4Dvw

Chain of Flowers has links to the new song. Sounds very much like something from the Wish era

One of the new songs sounds amazingly close to their "Man in my Mouth/Throw your Foot" era: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M0MBqx5oHc

There'll be a 6 7 8 up there before long!

Will this be "Pornography" part 4 or are they finally doing something more poppy and uplifting again after two (missed) depressive albums?

After all they haven't been able to come up with a good "dark" album since..... "Pornography".....

In my somewhat outspoken opinion, they haven't been able to come up with a truly, truly brilliant album since (or before) Pornography. Plenty of very good stuff, sure, but nothing else they've done touches that record's genius (with the possible exception of The Top).

Are they planning to ever finish the reissue series? It's been well over a year since the last batch of releases...

Geir doesn't like Disintegration? It's tuneful.

I'm guessing he doesn't like the long songs.

Time to change this thread's title. Laters rumor is that this will come out on 31 March and will have 33 songs.

I am more interested in the remasters. Because, yes, I kind of like "Disintegration" even though it would have been better had it been trimmed by 10-15 minutes. Plus I still only have those three as burned copies and I will not buy the proper CDs before I have the remasteres.
But I don't like "Disintegration" as much as the earlier stuff, or Cure's more poppy later stuff.

Obviously looking more forward to the "Wish" remaster.

It struck me when I got the Cure Hits DVD for the kids (and me) that they haven't had an all conquering pop hit since "Friday I'm in Love" and at the time you would never have thought it would have 'ended there'.

I guess the 'media' changed so much, there were other fine singles but the radio stopped playing them.

So, what to expect? This long gestation period never bodes well for most artistes.

Yeah, make the "8" up there!

What happened is that they haven't released a pop album since "Wild Mood Swings", which landed in the middle of the Britpop boom and suddenly they seemed like the previous generation. The guitar/song oriented audiences didn't need them anymore, as they had Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede instead.

After that, they have been very much revalued and are seen as a very important act today. But those "dark" last couple of albums have lacked obvious hits.

Had it been on "Wish", then "Mint Car" would have been just as huge as "High" and "Friday I'm In Love". It's the same kind of song, after all.

I thought it was because "WMS" wasn't good enough! (I never heard it so can't say for certain)

If it had been, the guitar/song oriented audiences would have bought it also: There was no great "year Zero" about Britpop (in fact blimey, far from it!)

I have to agree with Geir here. WMS did have IMO one of their finest pop singles, "The 13th"

i just don't like the overly-jubilant robert smith. as witnessed on 'mint car', 'the 13th', a couple of tracks on kiss me etc.
the japanese whispers singles are awesome though

Japanese Whispers
Chinese Whispers
Chinese Democracy

I thangyew.

New single is out on May 13th. 4 singles to be released over the next 4 months.

waht

from COF:

May 13th - The Only One (mix 13) + Ny Trip (CD, 7", Digital Download)
June 13th - Single #2 (mix 13) + new b-side (CD, 7", Digital Download)
July 13th - Single #3 (mix 13) + new b-side (CD, 7", Digital Download)
August 13th - Single #4 (mix 13) + new b-side (CD, 7", Digital Download)

Also, the the first single will come with a collector's box that will house all 4 of the singles. There will be a separate box for the cds and the 7" vinyl singles. If you were around for the Wish era, you'll remember that they did the same thing with the High single.

Such teases.

mutiple pastic single releases in boxes, such a 90's thing to do!

Things not mentioned here yet are that the album itself comes out in September and that the single mixes will be different from the album versions.

also not mentioned: whether it will be any good or not

I want to believe etc.

I for one am excited

and yes the collectors box is totally 90's and totally awesome

http://bp0.blogger.com/_5LP1Yi4Xov4/SBGppL9JiDI/AAAAAAAAADo/JzfDo6USgJg/s1600-h/cdinsert1.jpg

and yes the collectors box is totally 90's and totally awesome

it's true

i've still got that HIGH box somewhere. my friend and me almost drove all the way to liverpool to watch the premiere of the HIGH video too, in HMV, as there wasn't one near where we lived. man i wouldn't even click a YOU TUBE link for the new video these days.

About time with a new album, but I am kind of just as interested in the last bunch of the remasters. "Disintegration" is in a lot of discount campaigns here, so I guess it's just a matter of time now.

the single mixes will be different from the album versions.

more likely that they're just 3-4 minute 7" versions of 7-8 minute album cuts than that they're especially different mix-wise tho? especially if they're still doing the "label mix"/"Robert mix" dual-formatting of the album.

Yeah, that 'High' video viewing.. Went to that. Got the box (with the balloon). As I say upthread, "Friday I'm in Love" was their last decent 'hit' single, as in "didn't just sell to rabid/rabbit Cure fans"

So, maybe they're trying to get that back with the boxset thing.

Wasn't there something about the album coming in a 'one disc' version for the record company, and a 'deluxe' 2 disc version for Robert?

that waas the original plan, yes. I still think this will only come out as a regular single album.

Hmm.. The 'announcement' is due for today, so maybe it is that 'double'.

Going to the Boston show tonight (Dan P - you going?) The set lists from the previous two shows are incredible. I'm so excited!

Yes, I am going!!! ^_^ Super-excited!

We ended up with floor tickets, row P; how about you?

New songs are sounding very good so far!

We're in 106 row E which I'm a little nervous is going to suck but have no idea since I've never been to AA before. It won't matter that much though because it's going to be awesome wherever we're stting!

Three weeks to go to the Hollywood Bowl show. Can't wait!

baader, where are you finding the new songs?

I've only seen them once before and that was 12 or 14 years ago and L never has. One of the three (!!) encores they played last week was four songs all from Seventeen Seconds. When I read it to him over the phone earlier today I heard him gasp - ha. The tickets were part of my 1st anniversary present (paper) to him. :-) I have a feeling it's going to be pretty great.

Very nice. Not seen them since 2000 since that whole festival thing in 2004 was non-fascinating -- gotta be full-on long sets or nothing with them.

I'll be hitting the Chicago show this Saturday, very very excited as I've never seen them live before.

I also haven't seen them since 2000. AM VERY EXCITED

I haven't seen them since '85. they were decent then tho

I am trying to get my sis to get me a ticket for Charlotte. No other show could get me this excited at this point in time.

They were beyond awesome in '98.

You saw the 1998 tour? At the small venues? Damn I'm jealous.

I am wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt from that tour right now! lol u mad

FUCK YES I'M MAD

lol

or rather, post-Lol

http://www.chaindlk.com/interviews/images/Levinhurst/Levinhurst_pic.jpg

ps check yr email

I DID DAMN YOU

hahahahahahahahaha

Great Cure tour regrets -- missing the 1989 show at Dodger Stadium, knowing there was no chance in hell of getting to see them in 1998.

I sold my tickets to the Patriot Center show last Friday on ebay at a loss. : (

;_; (for you)

Dan - it says the show starts at 7:30 - that probably means doors at 7:30 and opening act at 8:30 right? Just trying to figure out what time to get there.

Is there an opening act? I didn't think there was one.

65daysofstatic, I believe.

Yup, confirmed on their Myspace site:

http://www.myspace.com/65propaganda

ugh, I might be in trouble because I had my wife park the car in a garage that closes at midnight

hmmmm - the last couple shows started at 9 (which is when I suspect they'll start playing tonight) and went until just after midnight w/ the encores so you might want to move car if possbile. :-(

not possible at this point

or rather, possible but super annoying

Dan - re. new songs, check COF. There are a few youtube links of new songs that have been premiered. The latest being The Perfect Boy

and the new single is streaming on pitchfork: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/50590-the-cure-the-only-one-stream

the news single sounds like outtakes from friday i'm in love

car crisis averted, yay

Qdoba is super fucking packed though

We demand regular show updates.

(Or not.)

http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/50024.the-cure.jpg

I can't wait for the next step in Robert Smith's transformation into Bernadette Peters

We demand regular show updates.

pretty sure the Chain of Flowers blog is doing live setlist updates, like they did for the first two shows.

http://craigjparker.blogspot.com/

In fact, soundcheck's already up:

Soundcheck: The Baby Screams, Us or Them, New Song #1, New Song #2, New Song #1, Plainsong.

I also haven't seen them since 2000.

I haven't seen them since 1984. Looking forward to the Hollywood Bowl show also.

I caught the Houston and Dallas shows for Curiosa 2004; never seen a full-length Cure set. I'll be hitting Houston, Austin and possibly Dallas this year, the latter depending on my work schedule. But definitely the first two!

Hev DP if you happen to check this and are walking around we're in first row right next to players' entrance!

Guys guess what is rocking balls

No I'm not jealous. >:( How do the new songs sound?

Guess what is still rocking balls

ANSWER THE QUESTION

hahahahaha

5 new songs: 3 were good, one (the first single) was great, one (during the second encore) was FANTASTIC.

Last encore: "Boys Don't Cry", "Jumping Someone Else's Train", "Grinding Halt" (!!!), "10:15 Saturday Night", "Killing An Arab"

They also played "The Lovecats", "The Blood", "Never Enough", "Wrong Number", "Plainsong", "One Hundred Years", "Primary", "alt.end" and "Signal To Noise", among others.

Good mix, that. Roll on the end of the month.

It was amazing. I agree with Dan's assessment of the new stuff (I was actually surprised by how much I liked it) and the encores were incredible.

That venue was awful though and our seats, while we had a great view, sucked. It didn't feel like we were part of the show and kind of ruined a lot of it for me. We made our way onto the floor for the hour of encores though and that was amazing. I kind of just wish I could see the whole thing all over again while on the floor. Oh well, it was still pretty awesome.

I'm getting really excited for Saturday. I hate Allstate Arena, but I'm encouraged that we actually do have floor seats! Very far back on the floor, but still...

I don't understand why I didn't go see them during the European leg. I thought I'd had enough but there seems to be a consenus on the quality of this line-up.

Oh well since they'll only release a single album after all, I'm sure they'll put out a follow-up next year...

lol ENBB, during the breaks between the encores I was looking over in your section to see if I could figure out which one was you. No wonder I was failing!

We were on the front half of the floor in the section furthest to the left, back about 15 rows. The only time I've had better seats was sitting in the 8th row at the Orpheum in 1998.

I kind of can't believe how expensive the t-shirts were! I was thinking of getting 5 or so until I saw the prices (I still got 2; lol my moneys, let me give you them).

Also there were only 4 new songs, not 5. I don't know what I was mentally inserting into the main set; maybe I was pretending like I didn't know "Us v. Them" or something. "Freakshow" is FUCKING GREAT.

someone please add a new "78" strikethrough to this thread's title, it's starting to drive me nuts every time I see it on new answers.

I was actually thinking it was just time for a new thread, but I keep thinking maybe to wait for the album title to be announced. Then again that'll take forever.

I was hoping they'd play "Lost".

why not keep this thread? xp

The shirt prices were insane!! I really liked one of them (the girlie pink one with the red RS on the front) but couldn't justify the $$.

Also insane was standing in line for a beer for 20 minutes only to be told it was one per customer.

I was honestly blown away by how good they sounded.

A couple of the people I'm going with still owe me for the tickets but as I bought them way the hell back last summer to me it's like free money -- so I'll use their cash to pick up the shirts. All evens out in the end. ;-)

people I'm going with still owe me for the tickets but as I bought them way the hell back last summer to me it's like free money

haha me too, i love this -- i bought tix like 10 months ago!

Oh! I forgot to mention that I ran into the brother of one of my college roommates and his fiancee while 65dos were playing! That also made my night.

So how were 65dos anyway?

I don't really know, we got there halfway through their set and spent the remaining time buying t-shirts and looking for non-crowded bathrooms. What I heard seemed cool.

The Chicago show last night was fantastic. And despite everything you might be reading about Robert's voice being "fucking awful", it wasn't really that bad. You could notice between songs that he had a cold or something, but it didn't seem to be hampering his singing all that much.

65dos were pretty good, other than the fucknut who thought it was still funny in 2008 to try and blind a band member with a laser pointer (the drummer was the unfortunate victim last night, through their entire set).

"Freakshow" is "Shiver and Shake" in half time...

48 CURE THE ONLY ONE

Yeah, it's flopped.

Which is a shame because its the first really good Cure single for 16 years, kind of like High mixed with Just Like Heaven.

Having said that, you couldn't get the CD single, it sold out pretty much immediately. And as far as the 'box' edition, I didn't see one.

The box thing was a myth.

Only One is probably their best post-Wish single after "The 13th" and the b-side ain't bad either. Premiered live tracks, esp The Perfect Boy, leave me hopeful.

comment from Robt replying to fan about how frustrating it is trying to find the single:

YOU'RE FRUSTRATED?
IMAGINE HOW WE FEEL!
THE BEAUTY OF THE MIGHTY UNIVERSAL GETTING US OUT THERE AND IN THE SHOPS... YEAH!

ANYWAY
ITS AN ONGOING THING...

MAYBE THE NEXT ONE WILL BE FOUND IN A FEW MORE PLACES... ?
(the sound of not holding breath)

ITS AN ONGOING THING...

LIKE MAKING THIS WEBSITE the official cure siteLOOK AND FEEL LIKE THE ONLY ONE...

SOON
PLEASE
SOON!

ITS AN ONGOING THING...

CHICAGO!
RSX

PS
THE NEW ALBUM 'SINGLE OR DOUBLE?' DEBATE...

I JUST FEEL ON REFLECTION THAT MAKING THE NEW ALBUM A 'SINGLE' (WHATEVER THAT MEANS... 8 TRACKS? 13 TRACKS? 21 TRACKS?!!) WILL BE SOMEHOW 'BETTER' - MORE COHERENT - MORE IN TUNE WITH THE BAND AS IT IS...
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LABEL - THEY ARE HAPPY(?!!) TO TRUST ME WHATEVER WE DECIDE...

AND ANYWAY (BIG CLAIM ALERT!) EVERYTHING WE RECORDED DURING THE NEW ALBUM SESSIONS WILL GET RELEASED - IN THE REAL WORLD NOT JUST AS DIGITAL...

THAT DARK SECOND ALBUM FOR CHRISTMAS MAY NOT BE AS FANCIFUL AS I THINK?!!

ONWARDS...

I really can't wait for the next batch of remasters. I was listening to a Cure playlist on iTunes last night and the difference between the remasters and my old Disintegration tracks was pretty huge.

The CD single is suddenly now available (I got one on Sunday. See it move up three places? That was me)

thanks for that Mark, i found this one interesting as well:

THE MAJOR CONFUSION

5/7/2008 1:45:12 PM - by CURE:ROBERT

A FEW OF THE MORE IRRITATING FALSEHOODS FLOATING AROUND...

1)
"THERE IS A "SPECIAL VERSION" OF THE FIRST CD SINGLE "THE ONLY ONE""

NO THERE ISN'T
ANYONE THAT OFFERS OR CLAIMS ANY KIND OF "SPECIAL" VERSION OF THE FIRST SINGLE - WITH A BOX OR A FREE HOLIDAY OR WHATEVER - IS EITHER LYING OR STUPID
OR BOTH

2)
"THERE IS NO USA VERSION OF THE FIRST CD SINGLE "THE ONLY ONE""

YES THERE IS
ITS JUST THE MIGHTY UNIVERSAL CANT GET IT TOGETHER TO EITHER
A) GET AMAZON ETC TO LIST IT
OR
B) GET IT OUT ON THE 13TH... IT WILL BE AVAILABLE AT $2.99 (OR THEREABOUTS) FROM MAY 20TH

APPARENTLY "NO-ONE BUYS CD'S ANYMORE"...
UNSURPRISING IF THEY ARE NOT AVAILABLE EH?!!

3)
"X,Y OR Z HAVE 'EXCLUSIVE X,Y OR Z' REGARDING THE FIRST CD SINGLE "THE ONLY ONE""

NO THEY DON'T
IT WILL BE AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE
IT IS NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ANY RETAILER

AND...

NO...
THATS IT FOR NOW!

BUT I AM SURE I WILL BE BACK..

RSX

So guys, likely album opener, "Underneath the Stars" is pretty godly: http://www.mediafire.com/?jdm4zyfpljx

(that's a live bootleg recording i should mention)

"The Only One" is a cross between the Smiths' "Shakespear's Sister" and, um, "High"

anyone go to San Jose last night? looks like they played "The Blood," "Catch," "A Strange Day," "Doing the Unstuck" and the full, 4-song Seventeen Seconds encore. So jealous...

SO impatient for Saturday.

they've been mixing up the setlist a bit more lately -- I think you're in for a treat, Ned :)

http://media.tumblr.com/HMYQgMDrx9jx6fraqYiPJE1R_500.png

OMG Mookieproof! You won the internet for the day! (That being the Sasquatch fest pic, I think.)

I <3 those Robert smith ALL CAPS UPDATES.

KEEP IT UP ROBERT

YES
NO
HAHA YES I MEAN

MACKRO.MACKRO

So, judging by the setlist, our friend Ned must have had his head blown...

yeh NO SHIT

*whistles idly*

34 songs, six of them new, perfect sound, great performances, Robert looking just fine, way into it crowd, Hollywood Bowl...nah, sucked.

You didn't go the Shrine show?

Trust me, after seeing THAT setlist, I regret not being able to catch that as well. ;-)

Setlist: Intro (Adagio For Strings), Out of This World, Pictures of You, Fascination Street, alt.end, A Strange Day, The End of the World, The Baby Screams, Love Song, Sleep When I'm Dead, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Lullaby, The Perfect Boy, Kyoto Song, The Only One, Push, How Beautiful You Are, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, Primary, Us or Them, Signal To Noise, One Hundred Years, Bloodflowers

1st encore: Plainsong, Disintegration
2nd encore: "Simon would like to dedicate this next song to Lol and Michael. Says he can play it much better (without them?)" Three Imaginary Boys, Fire In Cairo, Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab
3rd encore: "Cause I'm not sure how to play Happy Birthday, we'll do this instead." Faith!!! (Happy Birthday to Simon mixed in, plus 2Late extra lyrics)

o_0

To put it mildly!

'Faith' from said show. FLAC format so it'll take a bit.

OH MY GOD i said earlier in the thread i would LOVE to see them do Faith. i hate you Ned. make them play Faith in Texas this weekend please. oh and Bloodflowers too. best setlist of the tour, so far.

No, that's the point! I didn't see them do that, so I'm in the same boat!

Been talking with people today who went, though. LOTS of compliments on my shirt, yay me. (Got the black/red striped one.)

Who knew? A review of the Shrine show:

So Cindy and I went off to see The Cure at The Shrine here in Los Angeles last night. Really strong and powerful performances from everybody I thought. This was the first time ive seen the band as a four piece and I have to say I was very impressed.It was truly rockin at the shrine!
One of the highlights for me was how so many of you guys came up to say hello to me afterwards.That made it a great end to a very nice evening! Thanks!

Why quote this -- easy: the identity of the author.

blimey!

That'd explain the second encore intro, just above.

Any idea what the new album will be like? I hope it will be nothing like "The Cure", which was easily their worst ever album.

I would imagine you'd like the new single, no?

the new single's great.

Ned, i see now you went to the Hollywood Bowl. fair enough, still a great show i'm sure. i would kill for that Shrine setlist though, that is gonna be the stuff of legend on this tour.

would have loved to see the shrine OR hollywood bowl show (hi ned!). mind you, i got super-lucky with middle floors close to the stage for the toronto show, which was awesome. are they doing approx 3-hour sets for every show? as others have said, his voice sounded amazing - i was shocked how it really didn't seem to have changed at all.

Toronto Main set: Open, Fascination Street, alt.end, The Walk, End of the World, Lovesong, Pictures of You, Lullaby, The Perfect Boy, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Hot Hot Hot, Sleep When I'm Dead, Push, Friday I'm in Love, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, Primary, Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough, The Only One, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, End

1st encore: Lovecats, Let's Go To Bed, Freakshow, Close To Me, Why Can't I Be You?
2nd encore: Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab
3rd encore: Play For Today, A Forest.

robert's one and only 'stage trick' during the show - spitting in the air and catching it in his mouth. yuck.

The Cure - Faith - The Shrine Los Angeles, CA 6/1/08

i would kill for that Shrine setlist though, that is gonna be the stuff of legend on this tour.

Yeah, that's all pretty sharp. I won't complain, I got a great show in a great setting.

One more clip:

The Cure @ The Shrine - Bloodflowers (clip)

as others have said, his voice sounded amazing - i was shocked how it really didn't seem to have changed at all.

Sign of that -- his legendary held note on the live version of "Prayers for Rain"? PERFECTLY held on Saturday night, for the same length of time.

Also, I should say without hesitation that "Baby Rag Dog Book," which they ended the main set with at the Bowl, is THE new aggro monster rampage death track from the band. Astoundingly great.

...what was the OLD aggro monster rampage death track??

"Dressing Up"

"Catch"

(Actual potential answers depending on era: "Doubt", "One Hundred Years", "Give Me It", "Shiver and Shake", "Disintegration", "Cut", "Lost", "Us or Them")

You forgot "Trap" and "Watching Me Fall".

"Watching Me Fall" has the guitar squalls but is more self-loathing than rageful. You're right about "Trap" although it also might maybe be too soft...?

"Disintegration" is pretty self-loathing too. In fact, I always thougth "Watching Me Fall" was kind of a sequell or a re-write of "Disintegration" which itself was a re-write of "One Hundred Years". Each one slower and more self-loathing than the one before it.

had to miss this tour since it was all the way in san jose, but hope they come back soon after the album comes out

LRLR, you're right, but somehow "Watching Me Fall" doesn't fully hit the aggro button for me (probably because it is slower, as you mention).

And you're right that "Trap" is a bit soft, but lyrically the first time I heard it I thought "Ah, this is the "angry track" of the album". It reminds me a lot of "Cut".

just watched the entire Trilogy DVD this afternoon, A+++++

LOVE ME LOVE ME LOVE ME, YOU NAIL ME TO THE FLOOR AND PUSH MY GUTS ALL INSIDE OUT

Crossed my mind as well, before "Shiver and Shake"! Ditto "Shake Dog Shake".

Having just relistened to "Baby Rag Dog Book" just now -- it's amazing what you can find out there -- and given the comparative songs above, I would place this one in a "Doubt"/"Shiver and Shake"/"Cut" vein -- Simon's bass starts and carries this whole thing, it's this high-speed grinddown that halfway to an unmelodic Joey Beltram riff and is similarly momentous. And unsurprisingly the recording just can't compete with the pin-against-the-wall feeling of hearing it live.

I'm hoping that is the case; I haven't really caught onto the recordings I've heard.

so it looks like Phoenix got to hear "Want," "The Big Hand" and "The Figurehead" last night -- all songs played the first time on this USA tour... *jealous*

I'll be at the next three: Dallas, Austin, Houston. will report back :)

(I would kill for any of those three in Texas)

Dallas was pretty good last night but I have a feeling it'll get better in Austin and Houston.

New song highlight was "Underneath the Stars," just a breathtaking opener. Lowlight has to be "Freakshow," didn't stand up to the other songs in the pop encore, sandwiched between "Close to Me" and "Let's Go to Bed," tough shoes to fill though.

Other highlights: "Prayers for Rain," "Fascination Street," "Push," "Friday I'm in Love" (it was a Friday night), "Primary" straight into "Shake Dog Shake," "One Hundred Years" and pretty much the entire Three Imaginary Boys encore (aka, 7 songs from that album in a row).

Lowlight from the back catalog: "The Baby Screams," some awful rocked-out version that followed "Wrong Number" and tried to sound exactly like it. Didn't work out.

Overall show grade: A-

Side note: They soundchecked last night with "The Holy Hour," "The Drowning Man" and "Faith" (among others) so hoping those are being practiced/perfected for Austin or Houston...

Bah, "Freakshow" is great, you. SO THERE. And yes, "Underneath the Stars" makes for a wonderful opener -- they'd be fools not to have that start the album.

HELLO
THERE IS NOTHING NEW TO REPORT
WE ARE ON TOUR
HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE SHOWS

SO THERE
ROBERT SMITH

HELLO ROBERT WHAT IS IT MAED

Ned -

The Cure - Underneath The Stars - Dallas 06.06.08

xoxoxo

Woah, that's some heavy goth, man.

Wait..wait...are you telling me this is a new song for them?

yuuuuup

I know...I mean I found the..whatever that list was of the new songs. And I'm so sorry I ignored this thread. I'm so fucking sorry. Oh my god. Please forgive me.

When does the album come out? Is it? When?

September

2009

Hly mthr of gd

Ah! I see you kid, Dan Perry. Surely a new Cure album is due before 2009!

Whoops I got myself confused entirely. Dan Perry has not posted on this thread lately. Crikey.

Please continue as normal. I shall be banished to the stale world of predictable classic rock radio for exactly 34 minutes as punishment.

hahah what'd you hear Bimble?

Oh I was just joking. I didn't actually punish myself like that!

Austin show tonight, the only 100% General Admission show of the tour (as far as i know)...

If you don't get up there and stage-dive and hug Robert and all that you're not a real fan. (I am the fakest fan ever.)

All hail "Fat Bob"! :)

Just got back from the Austin show, wowee! Great show. They played forever and ever!

Can't remember the main set list very well (they did all the singles from Disintegration, and from Pornography we got The Figurehead, 100 Years, The Hanging Garden and Strange Day) but the encores were classic:

1st encore: At Night, M, Play for Today, A Forest
2nd encore: Three Imaginary Boys, Grinding Halt, Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Fire in Cairo, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing an Arab

Made me wanna rush to the next town and see 'em again, they sounded so good!

Made me wanna rush to the next town and see 'em again, they sounded so good!

Yeah this was a great show. I'm going to Houston tomorrow, you oughta too!

We got a seriously great setlist in Austin tonight, lots of stuff that either hadn't been played before at all on the tour (Torture, The Hanging Garden) or had only been played 2-3 times (The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Catch, Signal to Noise, The Big Hand, Doing the Unstuck), plus the Seventeen Seconds encore -- all pretty lucky I'd say.

More discussion of Austin in the morning though, I'm tired.

Urgh. I wanna bang my head against a wall for missing this tour. Fantastic setlist. i can't believe they'd play "Torture". I don't really care for this song but it seems so random.

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS GOT THREE IMAGINARY BOYS

woulda gone down to see the houston show tonight but i had work... sounds like they got a nice set with plenty of stuff from head on the door, i would have liked that.

last time i actually saw them play was 1989! bob's voice is still great, and the sound was just excellent. looked like they were having fun, too. i forgot how goofy robert smith was!

only real downside is that the austin music hall couldn't deal with the crowd on a day where the temp hit the upper 90s... the A/C couldn't cope and it was stifling in the thick of the crowd. made people cranky, just near us there a couple of fights! security didn't give a shit at all.

a couple years later, what's the fan consensus on "The End of the World"? 'cause i still think it's awesome and catchy and nice to listen to when i'm sorta sad (a companion to "Boys Don't Cry," i guess)

Good song, worked very well live at the Bowl.

I actually loved that single when it came out.

I must say I like "Freakshow" - its quirky and twisted, good stuff.

So, Austin on Sunday night:

Definitely the most "hipster"-oriented setlist of the Texas shows, lots of rare stuff, b-sides like "The Big Hand" and "Signal to Noise" plus 4 (!!!) tunes from Pornography and 4 more (!!!) from Seventeen Seconds. Not a lot of "pop" stuff was played, no singles aside from the ones they're doing every night.

Music Hall venue was great, though a bit stuffy. I was front/center about 10 feet from the rail, got there an hour before doors opened. This was the only General Admission show of the USA tour (as far as i know) and also the tiniest venue (4,500 capacity), it was like a small theater compared to the arena shows in Dallas and Houston.

The bad: It seemed like the band took about 6-7 songs to really get going at this show. Robert's singing was FLAT during "Alt.end," "Torture" (great set choice, fucked it up though) and "The End of the World" but by the time "The Big Hand" came around 35-40 minutes into the night, it was all good.

The good: Lots and lots of highlights! "Doing the Unstuck" was incredible. "Catch" was perfect. "The Figurehead" straight into "A Strange Day" was killer, just like the album transition (I recall Louis J. stating recently on ILM the necessity of these songs being paired together). "The Hanging Garden," only time that's been played all USA tour, awesome performance there. And it was great to hear "The Big Hand" and "Signal to Noise," both very nice songs. The Seventeen Seconds encore was FANTASTIC, "At Night" --> "M" --> "Play for Today" --> "A Forest" = WOW.

Grade: A- (would have given an A, had the first 30 minutes not seemed "off")

Compared to the Dallas show? Definitely a setlist for the bigger Cure fans than the casual ones. No pop encore like in Dallas, not as many new songs. But i think overall, i enjoyed Austin a little more.

Houston last night:

This was my favorite of the three shows, and mostly I'll chalk that up to song selection. The band opened the main set with "Out of This World" and closed it with "Bloodflowers," both personal favorites from Bloodflowers the album (their most underrated, and a fucking GREAT album), and they squeezed "Maybe Someday" into the middle of the set, their best pop song of the past 15 years (to these ears). I was hoping for some Bloodflowers stuff this show, so that worked out very well.

Additional highlights: "Want" was the second song of the set, absolutely destroyed. A couple nice tracks from The Head on the Door, "Kyoto Song" and "The Blood," both awesome. "How Beautiful You Are," "A Letter to Elise" and then the first encore consisting of "Plainsong" into "Disintegration," all great songs. "Disintegration" and "Bloodflowers" in particular, mindblowing performances both.

The bad: I'm hard pressed to name anything here. The performance was solid the entire night, Robert and the other guys all seemed like they were enjoying themselves more so than Dallas and Austin.

Venue was fucking massive, almost a full arena, maybe 9,000 to 10,000 capacity. Pretty packed too. I was down 12th row center (seated), a bit closer than Dallas, not nearly front row like Austin. Great seats though.

Overall grade: A

In comparison, if Dallas was the most "pop" of the Texas shows, and Austin the most "hip," then Houston just seemed like they wanted to play a big, expansive set with lots of massive songs; one part of the set reads "One Hundred Years" --> "Bloodflowers" --> "Plainsong" --> "Disintegration," which is a lot of sprawling, heavy songs in a row. A lot to take in. But I have no complaints about this show, it was out of this world. Har har har.

You are forgiven. For now.

Anyway.

Very glad that I went to all the Texas shows, now that it's all over. I heard about 15 songs unique to each night, and I'd be kicking myself if I'd missed the highlights unique to any of these shows. I counted up, looks like i saw 67 unique songs over three shows, AWESOME. (The only songs I didn't hear that they've played elsewhere: "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep," "The Kiss," "Other Voices" and "Faith.")

YouTube highlights, all decent quality audio/video:

The Cure - Underneath The Stars - Dallas 06.06.08 - I think Ned mentioned he loves this new song. And rightly so.

THE CURE DALLAS 060608 PRAYERS FOR RAIN - Did i mention how great this was???

The Cure One Hundred Years Dallas, Texas - "It doesn't matter if we all die..."

The Cure live at Austin Music Hall 6/9/08 The Figurehead - This gives an idea what it was like in the midst of that packed General Admission crowd. Very happy this was played.

Doing The Unstuck - The Cure live at Austin Music Hall 06.08.2008 - My favorite song from this show.

The CURE Maybe Someday LIVE Houston June 9 2008 - Incredible.

The Cure at Toyota Center Houston, Texas. June 9th, 2008. Just Like Heaven, and A Letter to Elise. - "Elise" especially was a winner.

I said "unique" in that first paragraph a lot, huh.

i'm so mad i missed this tour but told myself don't see them until there is a new album out. now, after reading this thread, that was a huge mistake. can't wait for the new album and looking forward to seeing them real soon or end of this year, beginning of 2009.

Another video showed up on YouTube, definitely worth checking out. This is a new song they played in Houston (for the first time on the USA tour), and along with "Underneath the Stars," it's by far the best new song they've played live.

LIVE! A Boy I Never Knew - The Cure Toyota Center in Houston, Tx 6/9/08

Alright, the new single "Freakshow" is seriously great. I haven't been so excited about a new Cure album since "Wish"

"Freakshow" is their best single since "The 13th".
And this line-up is definitely ace.

"Freakshow" is their best single since "The 13th".

Very apt comparison. And HI DERE Marco!

still able to find 5 minutes to check ILM every now and then.
and ciao to you, Ned! :)

I still don't care for "Freakshow," bah.

"Freakshow" is a bit like a successful "Screw". HI DERE

Whatever, "Screw" is not half bad. Killer bassline.

"Screw" is awesome! (So is "Freakshow".)

oh shit I am finally listening to "Baby Dog Rag Book" and wau

lol or whatever it's called

It's called something like that! And see, I TOLD you you'd love it.

O SHIT IM FINALY LISTENNG 2 BABY DOG RAG BOK AND WAU

-- HI DERE, Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:58 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

LOL OR WUT ITS CAL3D

-- HI DERE, Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:58 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

ITS CALED SOM3THNG LIEK TAHT!1!11! OMG WTF LOL AND SE I 2LD U U LUV IT
!!!1!!!!! OMG

-- Ned Raggett, Saturday, June 14, 2008 11:17 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

You kids today.

The English-to-12-Year-Old-AOLer Translator

U KIDS 2DAY
!111!!1! WTF

-- Ned Raggett, Saturday, June 14, 2008 12:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

JUST SAW THE CURE FOR THE FIRST TIME LIVE

a set so good but they didn't play a few tracks I'd been expecting -- is this like the first concert in 20 years where they haven't played a single note of "Plainsong"? :(

They didn't play it at the Bowl! Luck of the draw, duder. But glad you caught 'em. :-)

NU ALBUM.!!11111!!!!!1!1111 WTF LOL 5/3/206 42941 PM - BY CUREROBRT
NO RAAL NEWS
WHICH SI Y THEIR SI LITLE POST3D HERE
BUT.
THIS!!1!1!!!1!!!11!!! OMG LOL WEK SI OUR SIXTH IN TEH STUDIO
AND W3 WIL FINISH TRAKNG (EI RECORDNG DRUMS/BAS/GUITARS/GUIED VOIEC) OUR 20TH SONG THES FRIDAY.
EVARYONA!1!1!1!!!!!!!!1!!1!!! OMG WTF SI V3RY HAPY
AND IT SOUNDS GORGAOS
WE!!!111 WTF R TAKNG A BR3AK NEXT WEK SO I CAN FIGURE OUT DA A-LIST SONGS AND G3T DA WORDS 2 WORK.
AND!1!11!11!!!!11!! OMG TH3N W3 WIL B BAK IN2 SNGNG AND OV3RDUBS AND R3-RECORDS AND MIXNG.
STIL!11!!!!!!11!1!1!1 OMG WTF HOPNG FOR A HALOWEN RAL3AES
BUT UNTIL IT HAP3NS.
IS!!!!1!1!11!!11111!!11 OMG LOL THES NAWS!
RX?!???!!1111111!1! WTF LOL

Going to see them on Wednesday night... for the first time ever!
I didn't even know they were coming because I don't really stay in touch with things. my wife tells me today "hey we're going to see the Cure. i bought tickets ". WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

anyway, im excited. i hope they play.. hell i don't even care what they play

Hahaha, that's pretty nice.

Curt1s, who cares about "Plainsong"? Looks like you Atlanta dudes got "Charlotte Sometimes," only time they've played that all tour. I would've killed for that one in Texas. Good setlist though, I bet it was a blast.

(Tell us more about the show!)

NU CUR3 ALBUM OMG

I was standing there listening and it just sort of hit me what a phenomenal event was going on in front of me & thank god I was alive in the 21st century so I could see Robert Smith alive and in person. It hit me how much they are really one of the biggest influences in the sound & style of modern rock. This is the first band I've seen that's had that kind of mystique, and certainly the first act that's had this sort of charisma. In every note they played you could hear them outclassing every sad mallindie band that tries to sound like them. The most beautiful, emotional, playful, dark, hypnotic music you can imagine.

Peak of the night for me was probably "A Forest," the performance of which was pretty much the embodiment of everything a good rock song should be. The Cure are the not-so-secret masters of the repetitive, hypnotic hook. And "Charlotte Sometimes" did make me freak, yes!!

65daysofstatic def sound better live than on record, and their light show was impressive too!

It hit me how much they are really one of the biggest influences in the sound & style of modern rock.

There's something gratifying in realizing that, I've found. Very few of the open borrowers of the sound/style have made things their own but damn if they aren't an increasingly broad touchstone for a lot of things.

otm

"Holy Hour" in Charlotte, NC...

oh shit

wish I could go to all of these shows

1st encore: The Holy Hour, Other Voices, Drowning Man, Faith

!!!!!!!!!!!

for Ned: The Cure * Underneath the Stars * Hollywood Bowl May 31 2008

Uh, yeah, I'll take that encore there.

goddamnit fuck, why didn't they play that Faith encore in Texas, or "Charlotte Sometimes," or...

New video footage:

The Cure : Charlotte Sometimes : Charlotte, NC 6.16.08

The Cure : Faith : Charlotte, NC 6.16.08

ok, so they were fucking amazing in Cleveland last night. best seats i've ever had at a show. we were right in robert's line of sight. he totally looked right at me like 3 times. he did, seriously! so here is the set list. they played for like 3 and a half hours...fuck, so good!

Open
Fascination Street
A Night like This
end of the world
lovesong
want
pictures of you
lullaby
the perfect boy
edge of the deep green sea
kyoto song
hot hot hot
the only one
charlotte sometimes
torture
sleep when i'm dead
push
inbetween days
just like heaven
primary
us or them
never enough
wrong number
100 years
end

encore 1: at night!, m!, play for today, a forest

encore 2: 3 imaginary boys, fire in cairo, boys don't cry, jumping someone else's train, grinding halt, 10:15 saturday night, killing an arab

wow, "Torture" is back in the set. cool, they played that in Austin.

COF has posted links to the entire Atlanta show if anyone's interested

Okay wow I did a search for this thread on ILX that did not leave me confident I'd be able to find it again off the New Answers page. Any tips?

Also...
I like this damn Freakshow single. That's fucking funky greatness or something. I just wish they'd release the goddamn album already.

search for Cure's instead of Cure

Fantastic! I'll write that down and remember it thanx

new single "Sleep When I'm Dead" (Mix 13) is out on July 15th. good to see a single a month continue.

streaming here

Not my favorite song from the new record, so far.

I'm saddened by the lack of interest for the singles here on ILM

I'm interested but I also haven't had a chance to pick them up properly.

I definitely like this one the most so far.

c'mon, it's the Cure we're talking about here!!

xp

yes this is a grower and you can clearly see how they found this amongst the scraps of the 'Head on the Door' sessions

The single sounds like classic The Cure, at least in terms of style and atmosphere (even if the razor-sharp hooks aren't there anymore). Somehow, returning to (or maintaining) their "classic sound" isn't enough for me with R.E.M. (on the okay but sort of lackluster Accelerate), but it might be enough with The Cure.

I dont know - for me the "classic" Cure sound has grown to mean the 'Wish' type of dreamy jangle. Whereas, this single kind of reminds me of that transition sound the Cure had in 1984-1985, eg. say "Baby Screams"

this new song is quite good - for the first time in years I'm really waiting for the new album.

I have to say that, based on the snippet looped on their site, I like this a LOT more recorded than I did live.

well the snippet is just the quiet intro

I know, but I hated that intro when they played it live.

I posted the whole song upthread

haha oh yeah, you did

okay so based on the link posted to this thread, I like this a LOT more recorded than I did live.

I don't dig it much. Something about the guitar sound just doesn't feel right.

i bought all three new singles as they were just $1.99 each.

Really Bee OK? The vinyl singles (weren't they to be released as 7"s)? Where'd you get them? I'd do that.

i got them from Amoeba Hollywood but the CD singles are also at Amazon for the same $1.99 each.

I saw the Cure tribute band here in Seattle last night called Fascination Street and words fail me...the singer had the whole Robert Smith thing down, you would have thought it was the real article, hair, clothes, movements, slight double chin, even down to his voice...at first I thought he must be just lip-syncing to a backing track but when he flubbed his accent a few times on one song I realized it must really be someone other than Robert Smith singing. They did a good variety of songs from across the Cure's discography. It was a fun gig.

I feel duty bound to link to their website.

I mean...you know...until the REAL Cure album comes out and all...

Alright final single is out, "Perfect Boy". Easily the best of the series and probably my fave Cure single since god knows when

The video

I think I still like "Freakshow" and "Sleep When I'm Dead" more, although my favorite song of the 8 new ones is "All Kinds Of Stuff".

Yeah that one is killer (esp that bassline)

It's all a good batch of songs in general -- really looking forward to the new album. (And finally getting a NAME for it.)

The Cure 2

Through the Portal of Time

still haven't listened to these.

anyone hear about this?

The Cure - Hypnagogic States EP [US CD]
All 4 Cure singles from the summer of 2088 - remixed! The Only One (Remixed by Jared Leto, one-time member of Fight Club), Freakshow (remixed by AFI's Jade Puget), Sleep When I'm Dead (remixed by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance), The Perfect Boy (remixed by members of Fall Out Boy). Plus a megamix by 65 Days Of Static of all 4 singles, entitled, Exploding Head Syndrome.

WAHT DO NOT WANT

my favorite song of the 8 new ones is "All Kinds Of Stuff"

Same here.

WAHT DO NOT WANT

it's a charity limited-ed thingo, no big deal
(also obv designed to get attention for the now-delayed-again album from ver kids)

sadly I will buy that even though I'm conviced it will be a big pile of suck

Anyway, BUMP because as you can see with the thread title we FINALLY have an album name!

sadly I will buy that even though I'm conviced it will be a big pile of suck

the question is: will it be as bad as the Korn Unplugged cover of "In Between Days" sandwiched between two halves of Korn's "Make Me Bad" with Robert Smith on guest vocals???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krf9_Ktupcw

(My apologies in advance...)

... I kind of liked that (the first time I saw it; haven't watched it since).

7 minutes till 4:20 amirite

Korn Unplugged!? For real? Fuck me dead.

RIP trusty long-serving thread name :(

I know, I hardly knew ye!

It never even got its "78", did it? ;_;

It had that in our hearts.

Regarding Korn + Robert unplugged, D31R34DH4NTU4TH has this to say: "the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

So who actually believes this will come out in October?

if they put out that sure-to-be-godawful emo/remix EP, then fucking DELAY the regular album... boy will i be pissed.

http://www.mcarecords.com/MCAImageUpload/1637984-Full.13dream-smallRS.jpg

01 UNDERNEATH THE STARS
02 THE ONLY ONE
03 THE REASONS WHY
04 FREAKSHOW
05 SIRENSONG
06 THE REAL SNOW WHITE
07 THE HUNGRY GHOST
08 SWITCH
09 THE PERFECT BOY
10 THIS. HERE AND NOW. WITH YOU
11 SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD
12 THE SCREAM
13 IT’S OVER

Fucking despairing Robert is fucking despairing

i like the cover and that Robert rant is good stuff.

Due to a very unfortunate typo in a recent Ilxor AIM Chatz session, someone had me believing this album had leaked. I was very disappointed to realize the truth.

Fucking despairing Robert is fucking despairing

Wait... if it costs more then it's more money going to charity, right? So why the long face??

Fucking despairing Robert is fucking despairing

Wait... if it costs more then it's more money going to charity, right? So why the long face??

"IT'S FAB AND THE MONEY (WELL - OUR SHARE OF IT!) IS GOING TO A GOOD CAUSE..."

so all that extra money will go somewhere else, i can understand why he is upset.

Album opener posted here

Best opener since what, 'The Kiss'?

You accidentally ignored "Plainsong" and "Open" in your haste to hyperbolize.

ok, this is seriously good.

xp - no I didn't. It's that good

the album probably wont be this good, but who cares?
one VERY good song every 4 years is enough for me (that said, I think I like the singles and the generally revitalized vibe of the band).

I think by now I've heard a good half of this albuml and as it stands I think it's a pretty great album

They were playing some of the album on France Inter last night.

It's kind of a stunning return to form, really.

now I really would like to listen to it!

So all the songs are now out (well at least the live versions). I've only listened to 2 or 3 of them since The Cure is probably the last band I'll be an anal geek for and not listen to leaks, ect.

10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM - by Geffen

ROBERT IS ABOUT TO DO AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FOR www.thecure.com AND HE NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW...

ANY QUESTIONS?
PLEASE SEND THEM HERE ASAP

askrob✧✧✧@intersc✧✧✧.c✧✧

4:13 Dream release dates:

Oct. 24th - Italy, Germany.
Oct. 25th - Australia.
Oct. 27th - Europe, Mexico.
Oct. 28th - North America.
Nov. 5th - Japan.

that is:

askrob✧✧✧@intersc✧✧✧.c✧✧

what?

ask
robert
at
interscope
dot
com

o hai album go leaky

Based on the singles and the tour I expect to be pleased rather than blown away by this album -- couple of flat out stellar songs, definitely, but I'm keeping my expectations low.

Though based on Marcello's comments a few posts back, hm!

this is pretty damn good!

Based on the singles and the few songs I've checked out on youtube, I'm expecting to be blown away bt this.

Not a fan of the singles, Ned?

I like the singles! But aside from "Freakshow" they all felt, well, pleasant -- B-sides I enjoyed more.

based on the 1/2 of it I heard this morning, best Cure album since Wish, easily.

just listened to it in its entirety.
first impression: its a grower, and 3 or 4 songs have that instant classic quality.
by the way, if this is the "upbeat" album...

Haha yeah from what I've heard it seems a bit tormented for an upbeat poppy album... TBH these days I'm more interested in uptempo Cure songs than "dark" brooding ones (which I find they don't do too well these days)

me too, but luckily this time around the songs do not sound too forced and they have a certain pop grace even if the general atmosphere isn't that happy.

this is starting to sound like it might be worth my cautious optimism.

I think the tone is definitely more "wish" than "disintegration", a kind of tension b/w the dark and the poppy. the 'brooding' stuff got very by the books by the time they did Bloodflowers.

yeah, the best thing is that some of the new songs can be slightly unnerving without trying too hard to be heartfelt or dark - they're more similar to some of the lenghtier tracks on Head On The Door or Kiss me, but with this 4.13 spicy bit.
the arrangements are concise, there are no big statements, everything seems to be much more in control. I need to listen again, but the first impression is overall positive.

I had a good vibe since I saw the Festival dvd - the one that no one bought. I liked the 4-piece line up and for the first time in years (as I wrote before) the band seemed actually enjoying the live set.

yes I'd basically written the cure off after the last album, and in fact, half of the singles didn't work for me as standalone singles (I like them more on the album in context though) so this is a pleasant surprise.

;_; I still like the last album a lot (esp. "Lost", "Labyrinth", "Anniversary", "This Morning" and "Going Nowhere"; most of us were severely shortchanged by not getting the Japanese/vinyl track listing because those four extra songs are CRITICAL to the album's success).

I have all of these extra songs but over the years I think that last album has become my least favorite Cure album to be honest. I can't stand the vocals on it.

i have the japanese version of the cd also and I just hate the way the entire album SOUNDS. It's just harsh and annoying.

I do think the new one has potential but where I feel about it in six months time, not sure.... REM did a "best album since x" this year as well and while I liked it for about a month, I don't care to ever listen to it again; it just wasn't good "enough". This is the Cures "best since x" but do I still care? I hope so.

;_; ;_;

I really liked the harshness of the last album.

I just don't play this game, staying with a band way past their prime, hoping, trying to like each new album, half-convincing yourself you actually do like it, never listening to it again 2 months after release date. What a drag.

I wonder if that isn't just a function of overfamiliarity with any band, though? Not in every case, obv, but in terms of my listening habits I'm not surprised that I'm not living as much in newer albums than in older ones (if I really did live in said albums that heavily to start with -- not always what happened!). Then again these days my listening is much more broad than deep in terms of turnover.

aha yeah Ned OTM. This is prob worth its own thread but if Disintegration came out today I'm sure I'd find it great and all but not sure if I'd listen to it that much two months later. Kinda said but hey ho

I listen to The Cure more than any of their other albums, actually!

I had high hopes after the first single, which was glorious, one of their best ever.
However the consequent releases have seem them playing at the same kind of sludgy mediocre netherworld between pop and gloom that they've specialised in for too long. It's not a happy tour either, by some accounts.

Really? I felt the 1st single was by far the least interesting. Now that I think of it, each successive single sounded better IMO than the previous one.

I think the last one dips a little bit, but otherwise OTM, especially when you look at the B-sides.

ok, after another couple of spins I dare to say its very good - as good as some of their mid-80's lp's.
also, for the first time in a long time, it seems that Smith spent a little bit devising an actual sound for the album. the songs are all drenched in this glowing golden haze made out of endless reverbs, echoes and delays and there are even a couple of "weirder" songs, like This Here And Now.

wow exciting!! damn stupid record shop opening hours.. i'll need to wait til this w-e

obviously I could be completely wrong, considering that I spent part of my day listening to bad Jan Akkerman albums...

it does sound like the album the cure COULD have done instead of Disintegration, b/w Kiss Me and Wish.

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 tracks in and still loving it entirely!! EXCEPT for "Only One" which seems to me to be a terrible pastiche facsimile of their glory days gone bye.

"Sleep When I'm Dead" also strikes me as a slight weak spot, only slightly...not enough to interrupt the good flow of the album, though.

I wonder how fast the local Cure tribute band will learn these songs.

A nearly perfect album. I'm astonished, I am.

Does this mean I have a goth mid-life crisis on the way?

wow so so good. If any album deserved to be self titled this would be the one

Got "4:13 Dream" today and it is indeed surprisingly good! A wonderful return to form after the disappointing self-titled album, and IMO their best album since the unfairly underrated "Wild Mood Swings".

Annoying use of compression though, but that is 2008. :(

heir best album since the unfairly underrated "Wild Mood Swings".

okay that is the first thing I've read that has dampened my enthusiasm for this album

The second thing being the author of said critique

Pffff, for all the talk of "best album since Wish", this thing actually blows Wish out of the water

Dan is gonna go nuts when he hears the last two songs

okay that is the first thing I've read that has dampened my enthusiasm for this album

Well, stylistically it is in the same eclectic and pop oriented category. But so are "Wish" and "Kiss Me Kiss Me".

Amazing how this album comprehensively represents everything the Cure has ever done and still manages to sound like somthing that could have only been made in 2008 by the current line-up

"Ever since Friday I'm In Love there hasn't been a decent fucking rock song in the entire universe."

There is nothing as great as "Friday I'm In Love" or "Let's Go To Bed" here, but that would be putting hopes up too high anyway.

"Rock has descended into an amelodic maelstrom ever since the Who did You Better You Bet."

xxxp esp. noteworth, "The Scream" which starts like a Top album cut, then descends into a Pornography tribal maelstrom, before finishing as a new "Forever" incarnation.

okay baaderonixx is helping me ignore Geir ^_^

Heard it tonight -- very good indeed. The treatments on the vocals were what stood out the most. Smart move to end on "It's Over" aka "Baby Rag Dog Book."

I've played half of this album so far.

It's great!

The singles *work* better in the flow of this album rather than individually, I'm thinking.

Have you heard the 2nd half?

I agree with Ned, although I already loved the two last singles. SWID has surprisingly grown into one of my fave singles ever

Glad to know I'm not completely alone on this!

"Freakshow" remains my favorite of the singles -- just a wonderful arrangement.

Good album! I'm realy surprised. I'm guessing having Porl back did a world of good as they sound 20 years younger.

Ned, I think the arrangement on "Freakshow" is middlingly dull, "neither this nor that" in a sense. The Quietus put it nicely in their review:

There's another style of song on show here as well, the one about going mad at a party on drugs before he's met the gothic girl. This is called 'Freakshow' and would have benefitted from the crisp pop approach of 'Six Different Ways' or the straight up rock attack of 'Never Enough'.

That said, I'm one full listen into the album and it strikes me as less rock, more pop than the last one but about the same quality. I think about half the songs are good to great, while the other half sounds like b- or c-side material. I haven't been able to judge the production yet as I've only listened on earbuds, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also, the twinkly sound effects on "Underneath the Stars" sound insanely out of date, seeing as half the songs on Disintegration did it better 20 years ago.

Production/compression is the one weakness of this album i find (and I usually really don't give a damn about these things). The more hectic songs at the end can get a bit messy.

but god no comparison with the s/t I find. I mean "It's Over" (ie. the fat bombastic cousin of "Shiver & Shake") effortlessly trashes that last album's attempts to "rock".

Have you heard the 2nd half?

O_O

omg "The Scream"

btw why do the drums sound so HORRIBLE

I've had The Hungry Ghost stuck in my head for nearly a week now.
Live version is superior though

omg "The Scream"

Indeed.

Mind you, I'm wondering what Siouxsie thinks about a Cure album with songs called "The Scream" and "Switch."

Live versions of everything on this album are better because the drums are completely muffled.

Nah I'd say half of them work better on record, cf. This here now with you or The Real Snow White (ie I guess the weirder songs)

Haha soooo loving this

"Annoying use of compression though, but that is 2008. :("

agreed, it almost sinks the album. luckily the songs are strong enough to almost forgive it, but I can't listen to the entire thing straight through.

Haha soooo loving this

As soon as that bass line started...

srsly I cannot handle how much I am loving "The Scream", holy shit

also "Underneath The Stars" but I already knew I loved that song

"Hungry Ghost" is my fave so far.

Truly have not been worth a shit since Boris Williams left.

Well, you don't really belong on this thread, then, do you?

Listening to "The Scream" now. Wonderful. See, I'm not as familiar with the last half of this album as I am the first, yet.

"I think the arrangement on "Freakshow" is middlingly dull, "neither this nor that" in a sense"

This is exactly what I like about Freakshow.
Also, I really like those muffled drums!

I didn't care about Freakshow until they added that wah-wah guitar hook

I find it very good: fractured, dislocated, not-really-there - always good things in a pop song.

"Switch" is also really, really great. I have to agree with Ned's comment upthread; Siouxsie must be seething about this album!

That's one the few things(along with "Sirensong") that hasn't really clicked with me so far.

"Switch" I meant

"Switch" is good but I think needs another listen from me but "The Scream" is the best thing they've done in a "Wailing Wall"/"Like Cockatoos" vein since who knows how long. Album's gelling for me very quickly after three listens.

off topic, but some interesting covers on this new tribute album

Ha, "Sirensong" and "Switch" were the first two songs I really liked on my initial listen (hadn't made it to "The Scream" or "It's Over")

re: that tribute album, I would really, really, REALLY like to see someone do a covers album where every song was from WMS or later.

JESU "THE FUNERAL PARTY"

!

listening to this now via the myspace page. this is worth the price of the album alone. jesu(s) fucking christ, this is gorgeous.

Yeah, supposedly I'm getting a copy of that shortly. And I agree with Dan!

I think I'm alone in loving Bat for Lahses, but I really really dig her cover of A Forest

"Underneath the Stars" (duh!), "Scream", and "Hungry Ghost" off this are definitely my frontrunners off this so far. But listening to that JESU cover of "Funeral Party" makes me realized I would love to hear them make something new that is along the minimalistic lines of that. Could be an interesting turn.

About that putative double-album plan:

I mean, you'd expect the Cure - a band with past double opus form, thanks to 1987's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - to be able to release a double album, right? Er, sadly not. Their new album 4:13 Dream is the "light" first half of a double collection, with the second "dark" half to be released separately in 2009.

Robert Smith recently told me the rather shocking factors behind the release strategy. Basically, Geffen were only prepared to pay them royalties equivalent to a single album, even if the album was priced as a double. In effect the label were penalising the band for wanting to give their fans more music for less. Smith insisted he didn't care about making any more money but the principle was paramount; he was furious at the idea of a major label conning him out of making the record he wanted. So he held back the second half of the album for six months and one day later, the earliest moment that his contract permitted. The concept would be intact, it would just be up to the fan to Sellotape the two "episodes" together.

Because songs like "The Scream" and "It's Over" are so light!

So the title will be 11:15 Nightmare or something.

Seriously excited for that other half!

Interesting! i don't really understand the last 3 sentences though

So it's gonna get even DARKER? Great news! I dunno, overall this album seems to have a lot of anger/frustration/exasperation in it, to me, though I do need to give it some more plays all the way through.

in all honesty, i probably didn't enjoy this quite as much as i'd hoped -- largely because "underneath the stars" stopped me dead in my tracks and nothing else quite lived up to that. what is it about the cure and opening tracks? honestly, my adoration of "plainsong" has probably fucked my enjoyment of the rest of "disintegration" for ever.

that said: there's something enveloping and enticing about this album that was sorely missing from the last one. i think that when i listen again, without thinking O JOY ALL THE SONGS MIGHT SOUND LIKE THIS FIRST ONE, i might warm to it more.

Yeah, some songs are growers. The first-time-through standouts that I hadn't heard previously were "Sirensong" and "The Scream." "Underneath the Stars" does pretty much set a high bar, though -- that's what they opened with at the Hollywood Bowl.

i'm over this album already. my attention span is freakishly small these days. i'm also trying to finish my own album right now and having a hard time dealing with anything else, so that might play a part of it; buy my initial excitement wore off very quickly, partly because I find the album so fatiguing to listen to.

I'm so sad. I picked up a physical copy of this today to go along with the iTunes version I bought last week.

I gotta say I'm with akm at this point. Despite my intital enthusiasm, I too find it fatiguing to listen to, and I find I can't even get through "It's Over" without wanting to turn it off already. There are a couple of pretty good tracks here, but the rest doesn't leave any real impression and I just get tired of the overall ANGST I get from it. It's like I just wish he'd chill out a bit with the mood. I don't know, maybe some of that is to do with the compression or the way his vocals are recorded, but even from a pure songwriting sense, I don't think there's much to latch onto here.

I think I said this elsewhere but I've basically listened to nothing but this album since I bought it.

I've been thinking a lot about their 1997+ output and I seriously believe they've released a string of flat-out brilliant songs that have had the misfortune of being spread out across multiple albums/b-sides. That list would include:

Jupiter Crash
Treasure
It Used To Be Me
Home
Out Of This World
The Loudest Sound
Lost
Labyrinth
Anniversary
Going Nowhere
Underneath The Stars
The Scream
It's Over
The Only One
All Kinds Of Stuff

I put together a two CD collection of B-sides/one-offs/etc. from 2000 to now that's essentially a continuation of Join the Dots -- I'll dig up the tracklisting here when I'm home...

um help, I srsly can't stop listening to this

I thought the Portishead album was going to beat this for me this year but apparently I'd forgotten exactly how much uncritical lizard-brain affection I have for The Cure

Actually, wouldn't that make a great tour, the two of them together.

+ Santogold

I need to get back to this album. As a lot of posters here it seems, I love the songs, especially RS's vocals on this (which for me had been the weak point of the last releases) bu the compression is really preventing me from playing it on repeat

Two weeks on, I must have played 'Hungry Ghost' 50 times already. For some reason that song really sticks out for me

That song's been coming to mind a lot too, especially the chorus. I don't suppose there'll be another single from this but it would be an interesting choice.

Not a big fan of this album a few spins later. I think the self-titled record may be better, actually.

I think this album is a lot better than The Cure, and I'm on of the few people around here who still likes that album.

btw "The Real Snow White" and "The Hungry Ghost" grew on me massively over the weekend

oh hey I just read [nabisco]'s review; obv I disagree with the score and the conclusions drawn but it's a great write-up

"I think this album is a lot better than The Cure, and I'm on of the few people around here who still likes that album"

I am the other one who thinks this album is quite good. Obviously, we are right and the rest of the world is ridicolously wrong. : )

Yay us! ("The Hungry Ghost" is rapidly turning into a massive favorite, that's an astonishing chorus.)

saddened by absence of "Watching Me Fall" from Dan's mixtape (for reasons of space?), altho I haven't rly listened to Bloodflowers much save for that song

maybe tonight is the night I give it a full appraisal

"Watching Me Fall" is a great song but it's WAAAAAAAAY too pompous. I like it a lot but the other Bloodflowers songs I listed are much better IMO.

well I'm a sad-sack pomposity-junkie who thinks "The Promise" is the best song they've done since "End", new album notwithstanding

and yeah I'm gonna give Bloodflowers a proper listen, let's do this

Have you heard "This Morning"?

nope, haven't. is it a soundtrack number/single?

ah it's a The End Of The World b-side, and a promising 7 minutes long! ;-)

It's really, really, really, really great; probably the best description of it would be a weird hybrid of "It Used To Be Me" and "Fear Of Ghosts".

btw it should have been on my list upthread, I have no idea why I left it off

Robert: still peeved at UMG:

APOLOGIES TO THOSE THOUSANDS WHO BOUGHT 4:13 DREAM ON ITUNES AND DIDNT GET ANY ARTWORK OR BOOKLET

NEEDLESS TO SAY

IT WASNT INTENTIONAL

NOR WAS IT OUR FAULT

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET IT FIXED...

BUT...

ITS MERELY DRIVEN ME TO ANOTHER EXPOSE OF THE KAFKAESQUE WORLD THE MIGHTY U MOVE IN...

AN EXAMPLE OF THE CORRESPONDENCE SO FAR?

>

TO:

<INSERT NAME HERE OF MAN HIGH UP THE MIGHTY U FOODCHAIN>

DO UMG HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST US?

PLEASE TELL ME!

AS I AM FINDING IT MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO RECONCILE THE DIFFICULTIES WE FACE IN OUR DEALINGS WITH THE COMPANY

"Due to an internal miscommunication the “iTunes” version which has a different UPC was not scheduled which is why the booklet did not get delivered."

WHAT KIND OF "INTERNAL MISCOMMUNICATION"?

THE SAME KIND THAT HAD "HYPNAGOGIC STATES EP" UP ON ITUNES WITH THE WRONG TRACKLISTING AND SELLING @ £4 MORE THAN WE AGREED?

WHY DOES NO-ONE EVER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THESE "MISTAKES"?

AND DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS

"With regards those who have already purchased the album, unfortunately they will not be able to receive it but anyone who purchases from 10th will get the booklet – there will be 2 versions available, with and without the booklet"

IS A FAIR RESPONSE?

IN NO WAY INSULTING TO THE THOUSANDS OF CURE FANS WHO HAVE BOUGHT OUR ALBUM ON ITUNES?

WE NEED TO MAKE THE BOOKLET AVAILABLE NOW TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BOUGHT OR WILL BUY THE ALBUM BEFORE NOVEMBER 10TH - PLEASE CONFIRM THIS WILL BE DONE

(AND WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE WANT 2 VERSIONS AVAILABLE? WHY WOULD WE WANT A VERSION WITHOUT A BOOKLET? IF WE DID WHY WOULD WE BE SENDING ANY OF THESE EMAILS?!!)

DO UMG HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST US?

PLEASE JUST TELL ME...

THANKS

RS

why doesn't he just put a pdf on the cure website or something?

Okay, fair points all, but it might help things out if Bob could write like a normal human being and not like a 5-year-old that just learned how to use e-mail.

I'm pretty surprised you put The Only One on that list, Dan. Along with Sirensong, it's the only track that I often skip on the new one.

I really adore that song. I love the guitar tone, I love the breezy tempo, I love the turns the chord progression takes in the chorus and I love oh I love oh I love how he structures the verse with innocent images and dirty words; I love all the repetition, it makes me smile.

I got a nice e-mail from Apple yesterday telling me my booklet was now available for download. Really, they shouldn't have bothered. Because it's not a very good booklet. Hey ho.

and yeah I'm gonna give Bloodflowers a proper listen, let's do this

I went back and listened to it again for the first time in years. And you know what? It's gorgeous. So much so that, umm, it's slightly overshadowed 4:13 Dream for me.

I'm sorry to say this, but Bloodflowers is a hundred times better than 4:13 Dream could ever hope to be.

YouTube commenters are really laying into Jason the drummer.

I'm sorry to say this, but Bloodflowers is a hundred times better than 4:13 Dream could ever hope to be.

OTM, but it might be more because of that tour than anything else for me.
4:13 is much better than their last album but hardly in the mood to play it despite being a huge Cure head. i think i need to wait until becomes colder but being in Southern California, that might be awhile.

The highlight of the three shows I caught on the 2008 tour, for me, was finally seeing them do Out of This World, Maybe Someday and Bloodflowers in Houston. Much, much better than any of the new songs, and they stand nicely against the back catalog material as well. Three totally classic songs!

Okay so there's TWO new Cure tribute albums out, the one mentioned above with Bats for Lashes that I need to get around to and then there's this one:

http://www.alr-music.com/curetribute/mediapage.php

Mix and a match so far but the Dean and Britta take on "Friday I'm in Love" is great.

As time has gone on, this album remains all about the bookending songs for me (first two, last two) with most of the songs in the middle jockeying for position as fifth-favorite. I still don't like "This, Here and Now, With You", though.

Should i really dare listen to this? I'm a long-term flyer of the "they should've called it a day after Wish" flag and haven't bought a new Cure release since that album, but many reviews make me think I ought to hear this.

I would at least listen to "Underneath The Stars", "The Scream" and "It's Over".

it's alright

I quite like it - without buying the "best album since XYZ" hype, I enjoy most of the songs and its overall simplicity. No big statements, just good pop songs and a couple of absolute highlights.
Thats why it's their best album since etc... : )

Marco completely OTM. Just a straight up pop-rock album and that's exactly what I wanted them to do at this point

faves being "Hungry Ghost", "Sleep When I'm Dead", "Perfect Boy" and the last two - which is quite a lot already

I guess Angelinos already know this but just in case, the Cure will be playing KROQ's acoustic xmas this w-e.

more pop to come! :)

i've listened to the new cure tribute album "perfect as cats" more than i've listened to this.

blackblack's cover of in between days rocks my socks.

So they're playing Las Vegas and all.

A recent interview with some bits, including more on the next album:

It was a less acrimonious split than that in 1989 with the Cure’s former drummer, founding member and chronic booze-hound Lol Tolhurst, who unsuccessfully sued Smith for unpaid royalties five years later.

Smith giggles ruefully. “The funniest thing about him taking us to court, or taking me to court in particular, was that he couldn’t actually remember all the things that would’ve won him the case at a f***ing stroke. I almost felt obliged morally to stand up and say: ‘Lol, don’t you remember the time that . . .’

“The worst thing we did to Lol was when me and Simon stripped him on the bus. We were pulling up to a hotel in Chicago, it was about five in the morning, we’re saying: ‘We’re going to a health club, Lol, we’re all gonna get a rub-down’. ‘Awloveeelovegreat.’ ‘We’re going to strip now and it’s straight out of the bus door, straight into a hot tub.’ He’s like: ‘Riiightoootherewaaghh’. So we pretend to take our trousers off and he actually takes his trousers off and his pants and at the bottom of the hotel steps there’s a porter with one of those luggage things with wheels. So we put Lol on it and go: ‘Into the hot tub!’ and we push him through reception of the Chicago Hilton. Simon rolls Lol into the lift and goes, ‘You f***ing idiot’ and the lift doors close.”

...

...they emerged with 33 songs completed, 13 of which made up, last October, the upbeat and experimental return to form, 4:13 Dream. Most of the rest will form the second, “dark”, half to that record’s lightness. Smith hopes to release it this year.

“It’s the companion piece, the nightmare piece to the dream thing,” he explains. “4:13 Dream ends on a dark minor chord and I feel like there’s an intermission and everyone goes out and goes: ‘Ooh, I wonder what’s going to happen next.’ The next one picks up where the last one ended.”

...

He’s intensely critical of his own label’s reluctance to let him put out the Olympic songs as a double set and plain livid when it comes to the download revolution. “It’s staggering the percentage of illegal downloads,” he says. “It’s almost silly in a tragic way. There’s a strange reluctance on the part of the majors [to tackle the issue]. Their artists suffer hugely from illegal downloading: they don’t sell legal units so the label doesn’t really have to pay them. But the label is owned by a parent company some way down the chain that owns the internet service provider. That side of it is very murky.

“The Radiohead experiment of paying what you want — I disagreed violently with that. You can’t allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don’t consider what you do to have any value at all, and that’s nonsense. If I put a value on my music and no one’s prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan, it can’t work.”

Though softly spoken and giggly, Smith displays signs of being the oldest Angry Young Man in music (he will be 50 in April). And who can blame him: he’s credited with inventing a goth scene that he constantly disowns (“Most goth kids look really cool; I think those people would be horrified by the idea of us representing them”), is criticised for retaining his spider hair and make-up well into middle age (“The idea of growing old gracefully is immaterial. I look at myself and I’m kind of on the cusp at the moment. But I’m hanging in there”) and has been the focus of blame for some of his fans’ most violent extremes.

“I’ve been in the unfortunate position of having someone kill themselves onstage just prior to us going on,” he recalls with a shudder. “It was hugely disturbing. We were playing the Kiss Me set [1987-88] and it was an upbeat kind of night, but there was an emotional depth to the stage show that was put in perspective when that happened.

“It’s happened to us a few times. A policeman blew his brains out at the show in Czechoslovakia on that tour and on the Bloodflowers tour [200-2001] someone killed himself. It’s the ultimate theatre I suppose. It’s very difficult to sit on your own thinking about it, let alone get into the kind of mentality to do that public a thing.”

One suicide note sent to him by a fan was made into the lyrics of 4:13 Dream’s deceptively poppy The Reasons Why, including the line: “I won’t try to bring you down about my suicide/ If you promise not to sing about the reasons why.”

Whole thing's worth a read.

playing 'The Only One' now! maybe they will play it tonight.

I still don't believe that dark companion piece will ever come out.

i live in the Los Angeles area and Coachella is happening next weekend. because of the company that i work for, we deal with a lot of these type of bands. so today i picked up a band member from The Cure, it wasn't one of the main four but he is in the band. so i started my conversation and he says "yeah, i'm here for Coachella and with a band that you might have heard of called The Cure." i had a heart attack, i said not only have i heard of them but they are my favorite band of all time. so i started to ask questions and one of them was "is the 'nightmare' album going to come out this year?" he said that he doubt it and that they are done with Geffen Records, but i remember reading somewhere that they have one more record under contract with them. that album is done but he thinks Robert will sit on it and will release sometime in the future but not on Geffen and not this year. he said that the band is going to probably take a year off, than go from there. they are going to play in Las Vegas than they are off to Coachella with no more dates for the rest of this year.

i also have huge My Bloody Valentine news and will tell that story when i bump that thread.

i also met Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth yesterday, wanted to kiss her feet...

i also have huge My Bloody Valentine news and will tell that story when i bump that thread.

GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO

it wasn't one of the main four but he is in the band.

uh huh

but he thinks Robert will sit on it and will release sometime in the future

a completely different uh huh

Err, there are four band members these days, so was it like a roadie or sth?

shut up, Bee OK TOTALLY has a Candaian boyfriend!

↔

haha, i wrote that out when i was very drunk last night...that member was probably a sound guy or something...

wish the drums were mixed up/vox mixed down on this album.

"It's Over" is fucking fantastic, wow.

Was just thinking about that one the other day.

So how much you want to bet this 'sequel' album never comes out.

Oh and thanks French TV or whoever did this:

http://craigjparker.blogspot.com/2009/07/live-in-paris-08-on-dime.html

The sequel album will come out shortly after Robert's solo album.

I kind of wish they would just do a string of random singles and EPs.

Porl Thompson gives a new definition of glam rock in those videos.

Haha - I pity the fool who ever believed that whole dark sequel BS. See you in 4 years for another batch of dreamy pop tunes ("we recorded some of the most amazing stuff we ever did, but it just didn't fit on the album this time")

there's a lot of buzzing regarding an imminent announcement on live dates and it seems pretty much a given at this point that Roger O'Donnell is now back in the band

oh hot

and If I can read through the lines, I have a feeling they're gearing up to play the 'Faith' album

thank god.

4:13 dream is kind of terrible. I can't listen to it. I think it's the production. the songs I guess are alright, but it's hard to get into, and so tiring to listen to .

It is mostly the production; Robert's become kind of enamored with this muddiness that sometimes works well ("The Scream", "It's Over") and sometimes gets in the way of the song ("This. Here and Now. With You").

Basically, if the whole album was aggro freakout songs it would read much better.

crap production indeed, as well as persistent annoying vocal ticks (SHOUTING EVERYTHING!!!). But tbh at the end of teh day these songs were just alright for the most part but nothing spectacular.
'Hungry Ghost' is the one I still come back to (although it is plagued by the aforementioned problems)

I still really dig "Underneath the Stars", "The Real Snow White", "The Holy Ghost", "The Scream" and "It's Over"

There are a number of keepers for me as well -- and hell, the shows were spectacular, so no complaints!

Yeah, the shows were fantastic!

xxp The Scream and It's Over start out great but then the whole muddiness gets exhausting (compare how raw the pretty similar "Shiver & Shake" sounds in comparison)

I think exhaustion is part of the point of those songs

My problem is with the mastering, rather than the production per se.
Superloud, ultra-compressed, it worked against a sound that apparently was meant to be as hazy and, yes, muddy as possible.
There was a number of good songs: I have a soft spot for the frantic funk of Freakshow - and forgive the alliteration.

agreed on the mastering

surprised they aren't going to haul out a disintegration tour, since the remaster came out in the past year....a disintegration/wish tour would be just fine with me. because I am a nostolgist.

I think I probably meant "mastering" rather than "production"

Good if they're going to play Faith live - I just hope they dust off the version of All Cats Are Grey played back in 89 rather that the lazy one performed during the Bloodflowers one.

About the 4:13 mastering: it is a pity, because all the "atmospheric" production touches turned out sort of flat and uninspired (see an otherwise excellent song like Underneath The Stars) and, despite the in-your-face sound, took away a lot of strenght from the freak-out songs.

so here it is:

"In two nights labeled Reflections, on May 31 and June 1, the band's mainstay, songwriter and owner of the worst applied make-up in rock, Robert Smith, will be joined by Simon Gallup on bass and Jason Cooper on drums for the performance of the 1979 album Three Imaginary Boys The original drummer, Lol Tolhurst - now playing keyboards and percussion - will join in for the albums Seventeen Seconds and Faith."

what woah

Kind of a weird move, but yeah woah.

Roger is supposed to be playing as well.

but with those albums, and not Roger-era albums, I might still stay more excited for Spiritualized doing Ladies & Gentlemen in the Opera Theatre and The Crystal Ark playing in the Studio

will be slightly annoyed that the late late announcement means I got Odd Future tickets for the Wednesday when I could have got the Thursday and not clashed tho

hoping Azari & III at a queer party in the Studio will be ace too

I'm guessing this'll be recorded for DVD like Trilogy. Which I'm more than fine with.

you know what would be wau, is if they pulled together shows where they plays specific albums and had the ppl who originally recorded them play the gig

looks like that was sort of the plan? except Robert can't let go of Jason