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

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

It's time to poll The Cure!

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Cure discography

The Glove discography

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

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

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

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

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

so excited!

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

uh oh cure poll

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sorry about that. Deadline is the 10th.

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

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

Encore:

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

Encore 2:

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

Encore 3:

Boys Don't Cry

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

Wrong Number excepted.

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

This is going to be tough ...

I have been looking forward to and dreading this poll

My short list will probably have 100 songs on it

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

wow – an awesome set!

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

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

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

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

Hooray! for the CURE

this band is too good.

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

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

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

oh shit a cure poll

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

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

I LOVE THAT SONG SO MUCH

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

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

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

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

<3 <3 <3

at the Nassau Collesium

oops Coliseum

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

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

Thank you for doing this! I am excited already.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

― keeping things contextual (DJP)

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

I have been looking forward to and dreading this poll

My short list will probably have 100 songs on it

^^^
Me too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

y

ep

I must echo the love for "The Upstairs Room" - an awesomely overlooked Cure song.

Also "Just One Kiss" (the extended version, natch). It seems they've finally started playing this song in concert after 30 years. http://youtu.be/ip1r5kGtkd8

Helpful tip: the Faith LP will only take up 8 slots on your ballot.

I don't know if the Glove will see much love, but "Punish Me With Kisses," "Perfect Murder" and "Mouth to Mouth" are all ace.

You must also remember: Primary, The Baby Screams, The Exploding Boy, 2 Late, Halo, The Big Hand, Burn, The 13th.

I'm not sure I understand why remixes from Mixed Up count when a lot of them were taken from 12" singles (Disintegration & KMKMKM tracks), but does anyone actually prefer any of those mixes anyway?

I love the dub remix of "Pictures of You"

I'm not sure I understand why remixes from Mixed Up count when a lot of them were taken from 12" singles (Disintegration & KMKMKM tracks), but does anyone actually prefer any of those mixes anyway?

The thing I wanted to avoid was any votes for mixes that are just an "extended mix", which as far as I remembered at the time, most Cure 12" were. I had to start this poll with not a lot of notice and my first post was quite hastily written without doing much research. If anyone wants to vote for any remix off any b-sides they're more than welcome to, to be honest I trust the people voting in the poll to vote "sensibly", whatever that means.

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

A few of these will definitely be on my ballot somewhere, probably/possibly Cold, The Snakepit, Lost, Out of This World, Underneath the Stars ...

Exploding Boy is my favourite Cure b-side, by far.

This started getting really difficult as I got to the last 10 or so of my list, and I started to realize just how many songs I was going to have to leave off. Then I started second guessing myself like crazy.

I think this is just too overwhelming for me to vote in.

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

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

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, July 26, 2012 10:54 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I know nate is incommunicado until Tuesday or so, but I'd still like to get this question answered.

In every other poll it's been from the top down, aiui, so your number 1 would get full points

I think Clarke did Fleetwood Mac from the bottom up. I kinda like that idea, if you don't even like 20 songs your vote *should* be worth a bit less.

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

― Neil Jung (WmC), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:52 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's kinda my boat, too. I don't love them enough to be able to spit out 40 songs without a good bit of catalogue digging. But I'm drawn to contributing a ballot for sure...

Top down makes more sense to me. Johnny Fever - you've run a couple of polls, how would you do it? I'd genuinely like to know the best way to do it because I'd hate to fuck up this poll because of some bad maths.

xposts

Bumping this for anyone who might've missed it. I've only had 2 ballots in 6 days and I'm worried that this thread is getting buried.

I'm going to vote, btw

I'll probably give it a go too. I'll likely not make 40 as I'm not a natural fan, but I'm dipping in & out and making a note of what takes my fancy. So far I've got 7.

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

― Neil Jung (WmC), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:52 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's kinda my boat, too. I don't love them enough to be able to spit out 40 songs without a good bit of catalogue digging. But I'm drawn to contributing a ballot for sure...

I hope people who like at least 20 songs will vote.

Yeah, that's my target.

I can easily make 40, but mine will be weighted toward the three basic things I know: the first album, the singles, and the Head on the Door/Kiss Me/Disintegration run. I've tried and failed to get into the murky mid-80s stuff that a lot of Cure true believers love. (I think I actually own a copy of Pornography, but I'm not sure I've ever listened all the way through.)

Also a relisten to the first album the other night reminded me that "Grinding Halt" has to go on the list.

have always loved this despite it sort of being cure by numbers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl7jR4BAJ5Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl7jR4BAJ5Y

there we go

Does anyone else think the bassline to Fascination Street sounds an awful lot like the one from Close to Me? I never noticed this.

I find myself often wishing those earlier records had a more naturalistic drum sound.

"The Upstairs Room" is such a great song.

xps to nate

I'm definitely a fan of the top down method for a ballot that's less than full.

"if you don't even like 20 songs your vote *should* be worth a bit less." I don't know if Ismael was kidding here or not, but I think even people who aren't superfans should be afforded the same value as a voter as everyone else. I mean, I could probably submit a 40 track ballot for The Cure, but after a while I'd just be throwing songs at it that I kind of like and the order would be arbitrary. That doesn't mean that the upper portion of my ballot isn't thought out and ranked as I see fit.

So yeah, top down scoring is only fair. My #1 will be just as valuable as the #1 of someone who has 39 other songs behind it.

Thanks, that's the way I'll do it.

Here's when my newfound affection for The Top will come in handy.

I'm totally in the dark post-Disintegration... Could a real stan recommend 3-4 albums to investigate? I wish I had time to comb through everything.

Bumping this for anyone who might've missed it. I've only had 2 ballots in 6 days and I'm worried that this thread is getting buried.

The deadline is still more than a week away, right?

I just put together my shortlist yesterday.

I wasn't kidding fwiw - there are usually a couple of *very* short ballots and I think it's a bit unfair when those three or songs get a huge boost up the rundown at the expense of all the other songs that haven't been listened to at all. But obviously it doesn't really matter.

Deadline:[b] Friday August 8th

did you mean Friday, Aug. 10?

yah nate confirmed it was a typo.

my "shortlist" has 93 songs on it and I think I'm still missing a few

I'm totally in the dark post-Disintegration... Could a real stan recommend 3-4 albums to investigate? I wish I had time to comb through everything.

there's only five albums since then! DJP will stan for the last two but rly check out the album Wish and the singles The 13th and Wrong Number and then relax, almost every single Robert guest appearance on someone else's record post-90s is better than anything on a Cure record in this period

if you want to hear another whole album get the Trilogy DVD, they played Porno and Disint and Bloodflowers in full at some German stadium gigs for that

oh wait post-Disintegration you totally need the single Never Enough too

lol see I knew I was forgetting something

I definitely thought I'd struggle to come up with a full ballot but my first draft had 36 tracks so I spent some time listening to a couple of albums I wasn't familar with plus a few b-sides (this thread really came in handy) and made 40 no problem. Have to say my ballot is heavy on the gloomier stuff - Seventeen Seconds/Faith will always the absolute pinncale of this band for me.

Totally forgot about that POX B-sides thread, but it's good to see I've stayed consistent over the years (four of the five tracks I named are on my shortlist, the fifth was "Man Inside My Mouth" which I waffled on before finally leaving it off).

I got u covered on that one ;)

10:15 Saturday Night - it's actually this that The Libertines were ripping from all those years, right?

Thanks for the tips... It turns out I actually have Wish on CD but I have no recollection of either acquiring or listening to it... Although I know "High" and love it.

I think my favorite Cure mode is when they balance the mope and the pop lift; they do this pretty damn amazingly well, but when they veer too far in one direction or the other they lose me.

as a package deal, the "High" single ("High"/"This Twilight Garden"/"Play") may be my favorite single by them ("Close To Me"/"A Man Inside My Mouth"/"Stop Dead" is the main contender)

"This Twilight Garden" will def make at least my top fifteen.

there's some post Disintegration stuff thats still half decent, but other than Wish I never find myself wanting to often go back to listen to the other albums when i've got the choice between them and everything before

Voted. An even more dogmatically old school ballot than my Depeche Mode one :)

man

I have 40 songs on a ballot but it's not even close to final

there are 55 other songs I have to go through and make sure I want to discard, then I have to rank

I am on the verge of NOT voting for "The Funeral Party" or "Let's Go To Bed", which can't be right

I listened to the first part of Wish on my iPod today (nice surprise realizing I had the CD), and "Apart" is a REALLY good song. I also forget how good some of those last few tracks on Disintegration are since the thing's so damn long.

Side thought: are The Cure the Iron Maiden of gothy postpunk?

I am on the verge of NOT voting for "The Funeral Party" or "Let's Go To Bed", which can't be right

must admit i'm intrigued what 40 could top these!

it's not an organized top 40 I will admit

"Apart" is a frickin wonderful song, one of those numbers where the lyrical repetition really paints a picture (I find it interesting that he most often does that to signify bleakness, like "Prayers For Rain" and "The Loudest Sound")

Fist rough draft and I have to leave out "One Hundred Years", "Inbetween Days" and "Piggy In The Mirror", which seems ridiculous. This is going to be impossiPOLL.

Ballot sent! Sorry "Pictures Of You", "In Between Days", and "Play For Today", I'm sure plenty of people will vote for you!

I can't imagine a ballet without those three. Two of those will most likely make my top 5. lol.

One of those is in my top 3.

One of those is in my top 3.

i think i am more or less done. can i post my 41-50 or is that bad form?

I'm usually really picky when I make a shortlist for these polls because I don't want to end up with 80 something songs. So I try to pick only the best of the best and reject the song if I have any doubts. That leaves me with about 40 songs and I just have to rank them. That's what I did this time too.

Except then I started thinking about my rankings, listened to a bunch of Cure ... and have been adding more songs to the list. I rejected "Disintegration", "Siamese Twins", and "Faith" the first time around? What was I thinking?

Some of these early bonus tracks on the deluxe editions - the sound quality is terrible! I used to wonder why bands didn't clear the vaults as a matter of routine, I guess this is why.

guys, i am voting in this poll, and limiting it to stuff i bought on cassette (w/the exception of 3 Imaginary Boys which I bought on vinyl because it was an import)

Wish is still the only Cure album I don't have, at this point I'm just waiting for the remaster (soon I hope!). I'm a little over halfway through the discography and my shortlist is nearing 40 songs as it is.

What was it like being a Cure fan at the time? I'm not getting any sense of what the hinterland is. Like if you were into U2 it'd be about passion & adolescence, or whimsy & kitchen sinks for The Smiths ... but what was it with The Cure?

There's a bit of teenage existentialism, a bit of romance, iirc they liked the booze - but that's all I've got.

for me, gloomy dark sloppy scary romanticism

i don't have time to contribute to this poll/thread, but you all have my blessing. i know you will choose well.

I didn't get into these dudes until like 2000, Bloodflowers era. I don't know, I was too young for the 80s heyday and by the time I was aware enough I only knew them through "Friday I'm In Love" as a pop band with the weird looking dude. Had no idea about even Disintegration until later, but by then I was all about "the new" and was in my "kill yr idols, fuck the past" phase - I was rejecting out of hand a lot of bands from the generation just before me. Anyway, I've only really gotten to delve in as the reissues came out and it has been fascinating to kind of follow the development of them throughout the 80s without any other clouding context.

I was a broody black turtleneck 12 year old when KMKMKM came out, was both terrified and permanently altered the first time I heard it. Jumped off the bus with 'Friday', never went back. Would take a lot of excavating for me to choose favorites at this point and I am newly really busy at work. Still, I wish you all luck. Looking forward to the results thread.

First band I really really loved, age 16. First band I ever saw live - Kiss Me Tour @ Wembley Arena, I saw no other non-white face there although seemingly everyone wore black.

I guess I got into the poppier side first care of a tape my friend made me _ Inbetween Days (which I thought was called 'Without You' for ages), Boys Don't Cry, 10:15 Sat. Night (play the drip drip drip one)etc

Kiss Me was the first CD I ever bought. Worked my way back through the albums and was just catching up when 'Disintegration' dropped. Must have watched 'Cure In Orange' video over 100 times along with some late night video show where Robert taalked through the Cure's videos with Gary Crowley. It seems most videos were designed to give Lol a hard time!

It wasn't an angst thing for me, though maybe the 'outsider' thing played into it. They were kinda local. Robert Smith just seemed v v cool. I will never love a band as hard as I loved The Cure for 4 or 5 years.

KMx3 was a real revelation when I first heard it.

Yes, I've just reached it and it's an unexpectedly mighty kick-off

i got into the cure around 1990 as an elementary schooler and honestly you didn't even have to be that dour, just sort of a new wave kid. they had goofy gushy pop hits and dressed funny.

They were about being different, dark, and romantic. For the "weird" kids, the outsiders. I thought they were really experimental for a pop band. They did become more and more popular with each album, but their biggest commercial success was with one of their darkest release, Disintegration.

I was a broody black turtleneck 12 year old when KMKMKM came out, was both terrified and permanently altered the first time I heard it. Jumped off the bus with 'Friday', never went back.

same here

will admit to being freaked out by "subway song" when i got boys don't cry

The first time I heard the scream at the end I almost died. It still scares me when I forget it's coming. Great song though.

The crazy laugh at the beginning of "Shake Dog Shake" and the howl at the beginning of "Other Voices" were other great freaky moments for the teenage me.

Totally geeky/bragging story about me and the Cure:

My freshman year of college, I took a class in existentialism as an elective. I was the exact right age for that, and I loved it. We read all the regular stuff, Sartre et al. The professor was this middle-aged woman of murky mid-European origin, with long black hair streaked with gray. She wore black dresses with black shawls and gold hoop earrings, she was kind of this exotic philosopher Gypsy Queen. The TA was a gay French dude who wore leather vests with no shirt. For the final exam, we had a choice of essay test or we could write a five-page paper on anything of our choice that somehow reflected and summarized the course. So I decided to do the paper. I'd been listening to Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me a lot all year, and really loved "How Beautiful You Are." So I took the basic idea of that song and rewrote the Adam and Eve story and called it "An Existential Eden." I wrote the whole thing the night before it was due and stayed up til 6 in the morning. I put a little note at the beginning saying the paper was influenced by Sartre, Camus, and "Robert Smith of The Cure." When I went to pick up the paper the next week, it had "A+" written on the front page in big red letters (there was actually no such thing as an A+ at the school), and a handwritten note saying, "This is wonderful." So that's pretty much what the Cure meant to me in confused late adolescence.

I discovered them in early '89 just as "Fascination Street" broke. As a soundtrack to misery they made me giggle but, man, I loved their pop side, and after buying Japanese Whispers and Seventeen Seconds I heard the (good) sobby stuff as more good weird pop.

xp - that song totally has that existential parable quality to it! that is a sweet story

When I discovered Baudelaire about a year after The Cure, the connection was one of those great AHA moments

RS is so good at turning literature into songs. "Killing An Arab" really captures the climax and the whole meaning of "L'Étranger" into a three minute rocking pop song. And he wrote it when he was 17! I was so impressed by that.
They've had such a prolific and amazing career since that it often gets overlooked in a sea of gems. But I think it's one of the best first singles of all time.

Ballot sent. As expected, two-thirds of it comes from '85-'89. And since ctrl-F "Kyoto" is giving me no hits on this thread, allow me to lobby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U-XuH3P8ZI

Had to leave it out at the last minute. But THOTD is still well represented in my ballot.

I got into them with "The Top" but first saw them live on the "Head..." tour. For this (then) teen it was the dark romanticism (i.e. gothiness) plus tales of drunken hijiks plus they're cool-as-fuck look at that time - all teased hair and paisley shirts and cool Yohji Yamamoto looking suits and BLACK (Robert knew about looking cool at that time) - just a standout band in every sense that hit every mark in my dark little mind. 'Twas a good time.

Hey, Wish is really good! I may stretch to forty after all and throw most of it some points. I don't think I'd heard it all before, but I remember now I did have a full-print t-shirt with the flowers and the eyes and all. I must've looked great.

God, I should reread and edit my posts when posting from work.

I've been relistening to The Cure all week before making my ballot, the THOTD - Disintegration run is pretty much flawless. And Wish is mostly brilliant too.

Anyone else ever have this book?

http://www2.gol.com/users/fusae/newday/bookpix2/be01cbig.jpg

Some great stories in there, iirc.

yep!

A gift in '92 from my best friend at the time -- certainly eye-opening in detailing the band's drink and drug use.

yes! And the lyrics book as well.

oh god yes, I have that book

I got into The Cure through seeing their albums and iconography all over the place and wondering who this slightly creepy band with a bazillion albums was and were they going to be too "out there" for me to appreciate; then I went to a party at a friend's house who had cable and saw the "Just Like Heaven" video on MTV and went "woah, this is awesome pop music wrapped in a weird wrapper, I love this!" and shortly after that jjj got KMKMKM and pretty much called me up the instant after he heard "The Kiss" and was like "dude COME OVER HERE NOW you have to hear this"

I've basically been obsessed with them ever since

Rereading the book's newspaper clippings and band coments on the making of The Top persuaded me to buy the thing a couple months ago.

The story that I remember the most is someone (Lol?) trying to kick a hubcap back onto a car wheel while on quaaludes, not realising his thumb was trapped between the hub and the wheel.

A most excellent read -- not sure if this has been linked here but I know it was linked somewhere on ILX -- Roger O'Donnell's extensive memories of the making of Disintegration, with photos!
http://www.rogerodonnell.com/disintegration/

holy wow that was fantastic

I didn't know this

Writing parts

Each person’s demos for the songs were finished entities so for example when I brought a song like Fear Of Ghosts it had the drum parts, bass and keyboards. People didn’t really write new parts for other people’s songs. Simon wrote Lovesong and his demo sounds exactly the same as the finished song, he wrote Same Deep Water and Untitled as well. I will have to check who wrote what.

so Gallup wrote "Lovesong"!

he never wrote full lyrics for a song afaik, though he would give Robert suggestions (generally, not nec. for his own compositions)

in an interview I taped off TV in 1989 that no longer even exists in the TV station's archives, Robert said that when he was stuck on lyrics, Simon would post sheets of paper with lyrics on them underneath his door in the middle of the night

ballot sent.

ballot sent.

ballot sent.

TIB/BDC 7
SS 5
F 3
P 3
JW 5
TT 2
THOTD 3
KMKMKM 2
D 8
W 1
& 1 non-album single

ballot sent

I still have to start ranking the songs on my shortlist (blame the Olympics).

I discovered The Cure around '89, the Disintegration singles (all of their singles, in fact) were all over our local alternative radio station. So like most others here, I heard their gloomy side and their pop side right from the start, it was always part of who the Cure were for me. But I've never talked with anyone who followed them in the early 80's, who identified with their most gothic phase, had to suffer through their possible breakup (back when that might have seemed like the real deal and not a cliche), and then suddenly a year later they're back and releasing "Let's Go To Bed" and "The Lovecats", WTF?? Or maybe it wasn't so unexpected at the time?

listening to every Cure song I own - about 147 - in hopes of having a beautifully diverse, obscurity-rich ballot and the damn thing is turning into hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-album track-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit. They were more than an amazing singles band but holy shit were they an amazing singles band.

so is the deal that I can vote for both the regular version & the Mixed Up version of the same song? like I can vote for both "Close to Me" & to the Closer remix of it?

Yeah I'd say that's ok.

I really dislike this idea of splitting votes for songs based on alternate versions. I haven't seen this allowed in any other poll in which I've participated. Is everyone else really OK with this?

I mean, I'd love to specify the full 7+ minute version of "Just One Kiss," but I don't want to split the vote from people who don't specify a version.

Are really early Cure a punk band? I feel like there might be a separate genre for the Cure/U2/Jam/Joy Division strain that's kind-of-rough-n-powerpop-but-a-bit-weedy-not-fighty, but I'm pretty sure it isn't called that.

On another topic - why do most CD versions of "Charlotte Sometimes" and "The Walk" sound so terrible and muffled? The JW version of "The Walk" is the only decent, crisp-sounding version of that song that I've heard, and I've yet to hear "Charlotte" not sound wretched (which is weird considering how clear most Cure recordings from this period sound).

the pre-3IB demos have some stuff that sounds surprisingly like the Vibrators

Are really early Cure a punk band?

yes, imo (same w/Warsaw-era Joy Division)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmoFgi2EB9c

At the very least, The Easy Cure were punk if the Buzzcocks were

so is the deal that I can vote for both the regular version & the Mixed Up version of the same song? like I can vote for both "Close to Me" & to the Closer remix of it?

yeah, I could have easily squeezed the closer remix into my top 40 solely on loving the original the two originals so much, but I stayed away from the Mixup Up album, except for "Never Enough"

I got to thinking about who were the biggest thing to come out of the punk movement. I guess U2 have it in a walk, but The Cure might be second? Or Blondie, I don't know - it's kind of hard to get a handle on, when their peaks are happening decades apart.

Biggest in what sense? If chart success, you could make a case for Adam & The Ants.

I was thinking about playing arenas, but yeah The Ants, The Stranglers, The Rats, The Jam, Blondie, etc all had much bigger hits. Probably Talking Heads too. There are likely other threads for this, it's not exactly what you think of when you think of The Cure.

I've just realised I forgot to vote for that one that goes "ooh, I love cats!"

Ok, when I said that remixes off Mixed Up were ok to vote for, I thought that they were different enough from the originals to be considered different songs. Close To Me certainly is, I'd say. After relistening, I realise that maybe some are and maybe some aren't but it's obviously going to lead to confusion to allow some remixes but not others, so I'm going to say that remixes aren't allowed, and the only song from Mixed Up that is allowed is Never Enough. Sorry for any confusion.

uhh the Closer Mix and Closest Mix are a lot more different to either the single or album versions of Close To Me than the Big Mix is to the single version of Never Enough, wtf

Thanks - that makes more sense to me.

Sic, I think Nate means "Never Enough" qualifies even though it's original album is Mixed Up - not that alternate versions are allowed.

How many ballots so far? Only 4 days left!

Sic, I think Nate means "Never Enough" qualifies even though it's original album is Mixed Up

single came out a couple of months before Mixed Up tho! and Big Mix is the only one on the album. I demand more pedantic pollrunners http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer/SAEmoticons/emot-colbert.png

iirc: single version of Close To Me has some new recording compared to album version (ie the horns), Close and Closer versions are different mixes of a new re-recording?

(A Forest and Primary* were def. completely re-recorded in order to be remixed, bcz Polydor had lost the masters. Which raises some questions about the album remaster project.)

* for the Keith LeBlanc mix on the 12" of above

How many ballots so far? Only 4 days left!

Only 13 so far. I'm a bit disappointed with the turnout to be honest, especially considering (for example) Paul Simon got 33 ballots. Are The Cure not as popular on ILM as I thought? Are people bored with these ballot polls? There's been a couple of normal Cure polls recently, maybe people have run out of things to say about The Cure?

Anyway, I have to extend the voting period because it's my son's birthday this weekend and I'm away Tuesday night, so voting will now end at MIDDAY on WEDNESDAY 15th. So get your ballots in, folks.

Lots of people wait until the last two days, I've noticed.

Still, part of it may be The Cure aren't loved around here like they once were AND their discography is gigantic and hard to narrow down for a ballot AND maybe there's some poll fatigue. Personally, I'm looking forward to taking a break for a few polls after this one.

I wouldn't worry Nate, twenty ballots is enough for a decent poll - and you probably need even fewer for this one since you're asking for forty songs. You might even have enough already.

I would say, though, that raising it to forty songs makes it much harder to vote. These polls are most fun when there's a lot of people pitching in imo, so anything that makes voting more onerous is best avoided.

I definitely plan on voting but haven't had time to work through the options yet. I reckon there will be a healthy influx in the last day or so. No reason to doubt the appeal of the poll - this is a catalogue where the big hits aren't necessarily the best-loved and album tracks loom large, so the results should be full of surprises.

Most of the ballots are always sent close to the deadline. I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, even with the ballots I've already got the results are pretty interesting so far with no clear front runner.

Nate - In keeping with every deadline I've ever had in my entire life I am fairly certain I will wind up sending you mine on 11:59 am on the 15th if not a couple hours later with a note begging for forgiveness. I suspect others will do the same. I really wouldn't worry.

Just voted to relieve nate's stress.

I'd never actually thought about what my favourite Cure song was before now and it's not what I expected. Easier to pick the whole 40 than to settle on the top one.

I'm shuffling my rankings right now trying to nail down a final lineup. All this Cure listening lately has made me: (a) discover some excellent new tunes, and (b) want to kick Robert Smith in the face from time to time. :-(

All the Cure listening that's happened in our place in the past couple weeks has made me realize that I dislike The Top even more than I thought and that I no longer have much time for the overly dramatic and whiny stuff. That's not entirely surprising but it was definitely reinforced.

;_;

overly dramatic Cure is THE BEST, "New Day" and "Lament" and "Siamese Twins" and "Piggy in the Mirror" and "Prayers For Rain" and "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" pwn

"A Thousand Hours" is a bit much, tho

A Thousand Hours is a top 3 dead cert for me.

I've been trying in vain to figure out why some overly dramatic Cure works so well for me and other songs in ostensibly the very same vein don't do it for me. He really is a hell of a guitarist, and I think when he and Gallup brew up a storm that does justice to the over-the-topness of Smith's delivery, that's when those songs work best. Maybe.

Will definitely be voting -- a 20-song ballot.

A Thousand Hours is a top 3 dead cert for me.

that was one of the first songs where I thought to myself "man this isn't so much 'singing' as it is 'unpleasantly moaning on pitch'"

also didn't help that my brother used to ask why Robert Smith sang like he had a horrible migraine all the time and then follow up by moaning "For how much longer/Can my heaaaaaaad hurt so muuuuuuuuuch?" in the most overbearingly melodramatic way possible

(he also used to moan "The spiderman/Is giving me a heeadaaaaache toniiiiiight" but because that isn't really a moany song it made me laugh)

I'm doing 25... There were a few from Disintegration I didn't originally consider pre-listening that realized I couldn't not include.

x-post: haha DJP

Does Smith play all the guitar? (NB just realised I know nothing about them btw, not even how many members or whether there's a second guitarist)

for many years I underrated (as is my wont with singer-guitarists) to what extent Smith instrumentally dominated the first ten years of the band's existence. He also played a fair share of the keyboards and synths.

Does Smith play all the guitar? (NB just realised I know nothing about them btw, not even how many members or whether there's a second guitarist)

depends on the lineup/era

"Disintegration" itself is such an amazing song... Rocketed into my top 5 when I played the album in full again (for the first time in some years).

ballot sent!

When the sequencer riff takes over toward the end: song dies happy. It's their "Soon"--everything (well not everything, but a lot of things) awesome about the band rolled up into one song.

on record, Smith was the sole guitarist up through The Top, after which Porl Thompson joined as lead guitarist/keyboard player/saxophonist. As of Wish they added Perry Bamonte as a third guitarist/keyboardist, which is why so much of the Wish material has a massive wall of guitars on it. Porl left after Wish and Bamonte was released right after The Cure. Porl came back to tour with them for 4:13 Dream and Reeves Gabriel is now touring with them.

poor Lol

Lol never played guitar, did he? He was a drummer/keyboardist.

lol Dan I do not like any of those songs

I am sorry.

Lol is the best name.

well that's what I mean. He got stuck behind an instrument he could barely master (Thompson and Smith ended up playing most of his lines on record, no?) and became a laughing stock.

(I know it's a nickname but still, lol)

obviously E you are happy, otherwise you would love those songs

That must be it.

"Lament" is top-tier Cure imo

I'm debating whether to keep "Sinking" as my top-rank synth-gunk ballad.

all this Cure relistening has made me realize how much I love Seventeen Seconds & am pretty ambiguous about the rest. though I liked Pornography a lot more than I remember. I like when the songs get very drum-heavy, like "The Hanging Garden" & on a number of Kiss Me tracks; who's the drummer on those?

Lol drummed on Pornography, Boris Williams drummed on KMKMKM

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

I guess I wasn't clear: I meant Lol's keyboards.

you were clear to me after the explanation

Ballot sent.

also noticing on relistening how sexual a lot of these songs are, & it's making me wish I'd befriended more of the beaucoup female Cure fans at my high school; like DM they were much more popular with women than with men in those days at least.

I did that (befriend the female Cure & DM fans). Those girls almost immediately put you in the friendzone while dating older losers from other schools or dropouts. My sadness comes back just thinking about it.

Robert also plays a fair amount of bass on the records - six-string bass is his primary compositional instrument.

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

I don't think you need to actually convince anyone of this, even ppl who've not heard any of the Jason albums

Somebody, on one of the many Cure threads, gave an excellent explanation of why Boris is so much better than Jason.

BTW Jason is now the second longest-running continuous non-Robert Cure member, by far, ever :(

(given Simon's off-screen quitting periods he might even have a claim on longest but I don't want to think about that)

After re-listening through Disintegration, I've got a list of 41 songs to rank. Now I have to decide whether to press on into the later material or go with what I have. I think I have Wish on cassette somewhere in the garage. I guess the deadline extension means I have time to hear it all, though I doubt that will change my ballot much.

It's been strange to go through everything in more-or-less chronological order. The changes from album to album are startling. I never paid much attention to Three Imaginary Boys before and agree with comments upthread to the effect that it's kind of like weaker Buzzcocks, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the guitar sound -- Smith's solos are usually the best parts of the songs. If you played some of these tracks back to back with tracks from Disintegration, most (normal, non-ILM) people probably wouldn't realize it was the same band.

This poll is harder for me than the Zep, Stones, or Bowie polls were, partly because the Cure is more closely associated with a specific period in my life. I got into them first in 1988 and 1989, listened to all the earlier albums then, and saw them on the Prayer Tour (still the best arena show I've attended). After Mixed Up I stopped paying much attention. But my reaction to the older Cure material is still a little too tied to personal memories for me to contemplate it the way I can those (other) classic rock acts.

Many x-posts but mostly an aside. Posts about Cure listening girls just reminded me of something.

I remember once making out with a guy in college who was really very cute but not my usual type at all. Mid make-out he said, "Never thought I'd wind up kissing a girl wearing a Cure shirt" to which I responded "Yeah, well, you have Phish posters in your room so I think it's fair to say we've both crossed some unexpected boundaries tonight".

lol

He was in the same deep water as you.

haaa

Somebody, on one of the many Cure threads, gave an excellent explanation of why Boris is so much better than Jason.

Your favorite Cure drummer

*preens*

Haha.

I don't think I've ever met another Cure fan, nubile or otherwise. Even the softgoths I knew were into Sisters or Mission instead.

I guess coming to musical consciousness in 1991 there could hardly have been a more irrelevant band, even though Wish did quite well. But it'd've been like getting heavily into REM for Up, or something. Rob Newman's thing on The Mary Whitehouse Experience is about the only contemporary reference I can remember.

lol I have that bit. I haven't seen it in ages! brb.

Aw, I can't find the "I'm a little teapot" one. That's the best bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2rPpjctNlk

I've liked the Cure for a long time but I've never had that period of real identification with them or their vibe. I think I'm a little too young for them to have meant as much in their prime to me as they meant to some of y'all.

I did that (befriend the female Cure & DM fans). Those girls almost immediately put you in the friendzone while dating older losers from other schools or dropouts. My sadness comes back just thinking about it.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, August 7, 2012 6:06 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM :(

Although I did date a couple of people who were big Cure fans and it was not a recipe for stability, let's put it like that.

I tended to turn my girlfriends into Cure fans, by which I mean I would incessantly play The Cure at them until they lied and told me that they liked them so I would stop, and then would realize in horror that this just meant I would start playing the super mopey sadface stuff at them

One retaliated by playing They Might Be Giants at me, which you know, fair play

(A Forest and Primary* were def. completely re-recorded in order to be remixed, bcz Polydor had lost the masters. Which raises some questions about the album remaster project.)

"The Walk" and "A Forest" for sure. "Primary" sounds like the original vocal to me, though they prolly recorded some new samples (there was no guitar on the original).

I do believe the "lost masters" issue is that the original multi-track masters were needed for remixing (so individual instruments could be isolated), but they had been ruined by being stored near a washing machine....IIRC. The actual 2-track mix-down masters were not (though I suspect "The Walk" may be gone due to the crap sound quality of ever reissue of that song post-Japanese Whispers - not sure why they don't use the Fiction or Sire CDs as a source).

"The Walk" and "A Forest" are the only tolerable tracks on Mixed Up, IMHO.

there was no guitar on the original

really?

yeah, it was two 6-string basses + drums (video makes this very clear)

lol sorry, two 4-string basses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xrZ61cuKLk

The performance from Count Down is awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZFYh6B7Fr8

Man, two six-string basses would have been SICK. (Especially if they were part of one double-neck bass.) That was a top 5 song for me!

"The Walk" and "A Forest" are the only tolerable tracks on Mixed Up, IMHO.

I should clarify: of the new versions/mixes...

Made an effort to include something after 1989 but in the end, nah.

I only had a 20-song ballot and I put at least three post-89 songs on it. Nothing post-99, though.

I paid no attention to the Cure post THOTD. SCHOOL ME, PEOPLE. (Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography are as defining for me as I I have ranted about the Cocteau Twins elsewhere)

hah -- and those are the three albums I can barely finish!

you will probably still appreciate them through Wish; specific songs of note (keeping in mind I am a big mopey goth):

KMKMKM
The Kiss
Why Can't I Be You?
How Beautiful You Are...
Just Like Heaven
Like Cockatoos

Disintegration
Plainsong
Pictures of You
Lullaby
Prayers For Rain
Disintegration

Never Enough

Wish
Open
High
Apart
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
End

Wild Mood Swings is largely a misstep, though there are some decent songs on it ("Want", "The 13th", "Trap", "Numb")

from that point on, they are basically in superfans-only status, although there are still a bunch of songs worth exploring ("The Last Day Of Summer", "The Loudest Sound", "Lost", "Labyrinth", "Before Three", "Fake", "Going Nowhere", "This Morning", "Underneath The Stars", "The Only One", "The Real Snow White", "The Holy Ghost", "The Scream", "It's Over")

their b-sides have largely remained fucking brilliant, seek specifically "A Japanese Dream", "A Chain of Flowers", "Breathe", "Babble", "Out of Mind", "2 Late", "Fear of Ghosts", "This Twilight Garden", "Play", "The Big Hand", "Ocean", "Adonis", "It Used To Be Me", "Home", "A Pink Dream", "All Kinds of Stuff"

also "The Same Deep Water As You" is one of the best things they ever recorded

Ditto. I found that a big surprise actually - indie(ish) acts *never* have their lull in that period

Ditto to Alfred that was

I submit that if you can't finish Faith or Pornography you might be totally high and/or trippin'

it's true that I'm probably listenign to "High" instead.

"High" is great, too! IT'S ALL GREAT (except WMS)

Cheers Dan, I was familiar with about 50% of that (and was voting for a couple of thewm) and obviously I am a big mopey goth too

oh well in that case, don't forget "Torture", "The Snakepit", "To The Sky", "Last Dance", "Homesick", "Untitled", "Trust", "Watching Me Fall", "Bloodflowers", "Jupiter Crash", "Bare", "The Promise", "The Perfect Boy" and "Sleep Til I'm Dead"

OH SNAP

oh shit also "Halo" and "Scared of You"

this is way too hard guys

i know no one is going to vote for it, but i love this cover of "pirate ships" so much that i feel like bringing it up just in case ppl haven't heard it
it's so pretty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BnGQ31YOYM

Ballot sent.

I'd never actually thought about what my favourite Cure song was before now and it's not what I expected. Easier to pick the whole 40 than to settle on the top one.

― Get wolves (DL)

Same for me, I got my top 40 pretty quickly but then really struggled to pick between about five songs for my number one. For most of my other favourite bands there is usually an obvious favourite. Very happy with what I decided to put at number one.

Really looking forward to the results of this one.

(Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography are as defining for me as I I have ranted about the Cocteau Twins elsewhere)

hah -- and those are the three albums I can barely finish!

One thing I've really enjoyed about trawling the discography is that their arrangements and production are always subtly evolving and inventive. Which is true for most of the acts getting polled, actually, but still a pleasant surprise for a band operating in an idiom that isn't particularly imaginative.

But those three albums are the flat ones imo, and not in the uniquely flat way that makes their earliest stuff a slightly weird joy.

It struck me what an odd relationship I've had with this band. Discovered them at 14 via the Lullaby video, loved Disintegration, got all their previous albums, played them all intensively for a couple of years, then lost interest overnight as soon as the first single from Wish came out. Didn't listen to them at all for a decade, to the point where I was embarrassed about having liked them - lol moody teenager - and then came to appreciate those 80s albums again as an adult, but nothing post-Disintegration has any kind of emotional resonance for me. Considering how easy it was to choose 40 songs I loved, it's weird that my serious fandom lasted for such a short period.

This excellent K-Punk blog about Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography helped reignite my passion around the time the first reissues came out.

http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/006087.html

It's so weird, that's almost exactly the same with me, except I was 14 and the video was In Between Days.

one thing about this poll that has enraged me is the unavailability of Join the Dots on US Spotify

ugh, ballot sent

3 TIB/BDC
0 SS (! wtf)
3 Faith
4 Pornography
2 Japanese Whispers
2 The Top
1 HOTD
3 KMKMKM
3 Disintegration
2 Wish
0 WMS (shocker, lol)
0 Bloodflowers
1 The Cure
2 4:13 Dream
3 Blue Sunshine
11 non-album tracks (lol fanboy)

ended up voting for 5 singles and 16 songs that appeared as a B-side (including live versions)

I could submit an entirely different ballot with maybe a ten song overlap

0 SS?? i know where you live and i'm gonna find you and i'm gonna find some stairs and i'm gonna throw you down the stairs

4 SS tracks floated around the fringes of my ballot and ended up not being on it when I finally said "fuck it, send it now or else you never will"

also lolling a little that a good chunk of my late period boosterism started to fade once I started ranking songs, I only have four songs from 1996 or later on my ballot, a lot of them falling victim to b-sides

Yeah wtf? 0? I haven't even actually begun to think about a real list yet but I just thought quick about 17 seconds and mine will without a doubt have 2 if not 3 songs off it.

pretty psyched to see your ballot, DJP. My ballot wound up really hits-centric, about 70% a-sides, 30% album tracks (with 1 b-side that I really hadn't noticed before revisiting everything), but I'm interested to see a more idiosyncratic, esoteric mix.

i think i had 2-5 songs from every full-length through (and including!) WMS, and nothing after.

I would make a Spotify playlist but almost a third of it would be missing ;_;

I def won't have anything after WMS and probably not anything from it either.

My distribution is sort of comical (but unapologetic)

6 TIB/BDC
1 SS
2 Faith (if you count the 2005 expanded edition)
0 Pornography
3 Japanese Whispers
1 The Top
8 HOTD
10 KMKMKM
8 Disintegration
1 Wish

About to send. No surprise that my ballot leans heavily on THOTD.

2 Faith (if you count the 2005 expanded edition)

o fuck I forgot about "Carnage Visors"

FUCK

I def struggled when I got to #30 though.

Hit 20 ballots! Thanks all!

still super pissed I forgot "Carnage Visors", that had a realistic chance of placing high on my ballot

deadline still today?

deadline was never today, it was Friday, but it's been pushed past the weekend

Anyway, I have to extend the voting period because it's my son's birthday this weekend and I'm away Tuesday night, so voting will now end at MIDDAY on WEDNESDAY 15th. So get your ballots in, folks.

― nate woolls, Tuesday, August 7, 2012 2:29 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just made an initial list.

TIB/BDC comes in with the most picks at 8.

HOTD, KMKMKM and Disintegration all wound up with five though that could change a bit as I'm only at 35 and will probably pick five more before submitting.

I realized after the fact that I'd included every song from Staring at the Sea except for one.

I am curious to see what the latest song to make the poll will be

I def won't have anything after Wish.

not even this? http://youtu.be/4hkWX9gUFgE

i actually have one non-album single post WMS (which I think narrows it down to two possibilities, SPOILER) but yeah, considering how many songs people love pre-WMS i'd be surprised if anything then on makes the cut

ah ok it says Deadline:Friday August 8th, 10pm UK time above & I just remembered the 8th

also ppl, don't neglect yr b-sides from any era

http://youtu.be/bFDORnYFnqU
http://youtu.be/S5Y_npen7wA
http://youtu.be/OJIeEIwZJtk
http://youtu.be/4UFhIxaXZcs

omfg I really fucked up my ballot ;_;

plz everyone put "The Big Hand" on yr ballots because I completely forgot that it existed

as long "This Twilight Garden" made yours

well duh

It'll take me a while to work out which albums my songs come from. I actually own nothing by The Cure, but one of my best friends at university (91-94) was a Cure obsessive so I taped loads of stuff off him.

don't neglect yr b-sides from any era
I voted for two of those

^_^

fyi I'm listening to a playlist of all the songs I was considering that I could find on Spotify and it's really the fucking best

TIB/BDC: 5
SS: 3
F: 5
P: 4
TT: 4
THOTD: 2
KMKMKM: 4
D: 4
W: 2

Singles/B-sides not on any 'proper' albums: 7

poor Blue Sunshine is going to get shafted in this

http://youtu.be/7tEcRZTLEGM
http://youtu.be/WCD9bQnTgaQ
http://youtu.be/0B1FeXyjQS8
http://youtu.be/W_XGBF0O_tA
http://youtu.be/c7AvGQivgP0
http://youtu.be/E8LzZpZVfxM

I'd be curious to know what the latest track to hit *any* poll is. Most of these artists are still trying hard, yet Timbaland's the only one I can think of who's sneaked one in from this century.

Hearts can never be POLLed -- ILM Artist Poll # 18 -- Depeche Mode RESULTS THREAD

good old Dave

"Punish Me With Kisses" is an excellent song

I would take Blue Sunshine over pretty much every post-Disintegration Cure album

I think the latest track on my ballot was "Burn"...so, 1994?

OH FUCK I FORGOT "BURN" TOO

FUCKING BAND, WITH SO MANY GREAT SONGS, I HATE YOU

I'd be curious to know what the latest track to hit *any* poll is. Most of these artists are still trying hard, yet Timbaland's the only one I can think of who's sneaked one in from this century.

There must be plenty. Off the top of my head, I'm reasonably certain that 'Out of Time' (2003) placed in my Blur poll. Did 'Vertigo' place in the U2 one you did?

3 on the U2 poll (lol, none of them were "Vertigo" and it's debatable as to whether 2000 is "this century")

"It's a musical journey" - U2 POLL RESULTS
"It's a musical journey" - U2 POLL RESULTS
"It's a musical journey" - U2 POLL RESULTS

I think we should make an exception for Dan and let him vote for 100 tracks.

probably be harder for him to come up with 40 cure tracks not worth our time

ha that's an interesting challenge, lemme think about that

lol I got to 37 before I ran out of songs I disliked or didn't care about

oh hey, can I pad with Glove songs? that might get me to 40

Thanks for doing the gruntwork Dan. I think Vertigo might even have scored negative points - people really don't like voting for recent stuff in these things.

The Cure has no songs with the refrain "uno doz tres CATORCE!"

lol

ha my list of 40 songs Cure songs no one needs to bother with will alternately enrage and make ppl go "well DUH"

I'll post it after voting closes

Mine:

TIB/BDC: 4
17S: 4
Faith: 3
Porno: 3
JW: 3
Top: 2
THOTD: 3
KMKMKM: 6
Disintegration: 3
Wish: 2
B-Sides: 6
Stand-alone single: 1

I've got 5 from Wild Mood Swings, bring it on

huh

wow!

there's at least one WMS on my "don't bother" list that's actually a lot of fun live so I can't even really say I got to 40 songs I thought had no redeeming value

there's also an objectively terrible WMS song that I love in spite of myself that I refused to put on the list

I honestly don't remember much of the stuff off it. That tour was the first time I was old enough to see them live and I remember being terrified they weren't going to play any of their old stuff (dumb, I know but it was my first big concert!). Thankfully they didn't disappoint set list wise.

Although I remember being pissed because all the merch was WMS related and while I wanted to a shirt didn't want one affiliated with that album in particular.

IMO the songs to check out on WMS are:

Want
The 13th
Jupiter Crash
Numb
Trap
Treasure
Bare

(did not list my sentimental fave because no one else actually likes it and I know it's bad but it's SO MUCH FUN)

I was surprised by how solid "Gone" was when I finally bought the '97 comp. Uninspiring mix though.

okay so someone else likes it; I LOVE GONE!

Is it "Gone!"? Cause I think that's a fun one. But yours is probably "Mint Car", cause that's objectively BAD!!

every hear the Ultraliving mix?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34F8u0EuBjQ

Oh x-post, so there's three of us!

man if I'd realized I wouldn't have shamed myself out of considering "Gone!" for my ballot

Well it wouldn't make my Top 40, but I like it.

probably not mine either; I would have probably made room for "At Night" or "M" first

I would've voted for "M" 10 times if I could have.

As excited about seeing DJP's ballot as I am about the rollout.

they played "M" when I saw'em in '92.

ballot sent.

Gone! is indeed my top WMS cut. I'll be sad if we've gamed it out of its rightful top ten berth.

my shortlist playlist is getting into the songs I left off and I'm now all ;_; I wish I had an 80 vote ballot

to wish impossible ballots

Can I assume that any votes for Untitled are for the last song on Disintegration and not for The Weedy Burton?

oh god yes

Just checking.

can we make all of the "Pictures of You" votes into votes for the extended dub mix?

That's one conversation I don't want to have again.

aw you're no fun

i could easily vote for 100 songs, glad this was opened up to 40 votes.

by far my favorite band and i have seen them around 10 times so far.

maybe during the roll out i will get into some stories as i have many...

i haven't even started my list yet but Wish will get more songs in this thing than even it deserves. maybe one song after that and it will come from Bloodflowers.

OK GUYS OK

I think I've figured out a full-on longlist up to 2001, in chronological order - anyone let me know if I'm missing anything?

(and DJP feel free to do an extension for the 2004-2008 period! I would have included Da Hype and Not In Love and Take Forever and Please if they were in the purview of the poll, cos I love them all, but.)

Demos that ONLY came out on the remasters aren't included; demos that were formally released or broadcast or put on official website thingies are; only-played-live songs that had legit release somewhere are also included. Cult Hero and Cogasm included bcz they were essentially legit Cure lineups of that respective month (certainly more so than The Glove). Covers would have been excluded but Nate's OP seems to welcome them.

-----

1978 Killing An Arab
1978 10:15 Saturday Night

1979 Boys Don't Cry
1979 Plastic Passion
1979 Pillbox Tales
1979 Do The Hansa

1977 Heroin Face [LIVE ONLY] (live in The Rocket, Crawley, December 1977 - first available on Curiosity)

--

1979 Accuracy
1979 Grinding Halt
1979 Another Day
1979 Object
1979 Subway Song
1979 Foxy Lady
1979 Meathook
1979 So What
1979 Fire in Cairo
1979 It's Not You
1979 Three Imaginary Boys
1979 ~ The Weedy Burton

1979 Jumping Someone Else's Train
1979 I'm Cold

1979 [CULT HERO] I'm A Cult Hero
1979 [CULT HERO] I Dig You

1980 World War

--

1980 A Forest
1980 Another Journey by Train

1980 "A Reflection" – 2:09
1980 "Play for Today" – 3:39
1980 "Secrets" – 3:20
1980 "In Your House" – 4:07
1980 "Three" – 2:36
1980 "The Final Sound" – 0:53
1980 "M" – 3:03
1980 "At Night" – 5:54
1980 "Seventeen Seconds" – 4:02

1980 Forever [LIVE ONLY - variation on Three]

--

1981 Primary
1981 Descent

1981 "The Holy Hour" – 4:25
1981 "Other Voices" – 4:28
1981 "All Cats Are Grey" – 5:28
1981 "The Funeral Party" – 4:14
1981 "Doubt" – 3:11
1981 "The Drowning Man" – 4:50
1981 "Faith" – 6:43

1981 "Carnage Visors" – 27:51

--

1981 "Charlotte Sometimes"
1981 "Splintered in Her Head"

1982 "One Hundred Years"
1982 "A Short Term Effect"
1982 "The Hanging Garden"
1982 "Siamese Twins"
1982 "The Figurehead"
1982 "A Strange Day"
1982 "Cold"
1982 "Pornography"

1982 "Airlock: The Soundtrack" – 13:07

1982 "All Mine" [LIVE ONLY - variation on Forever]

--

1982 Lament [Flexipop version]

1982 Let's Go to Bed
1982 Just One Kiss

1983 "The Walk"
1983 "Lament"
1983 "The Upstairs Room
1983 "The Dream"

1984 "The Love Cats"
1984 "Speak My Language"
1984 "Mr. Pink Eyes"

--

1983 [THE GLOVE] "Like an Animal"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Looking Glass Girl"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Sex-Eye-Make-Up"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Mr. Alphabet Says"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "A Blues in Drag"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Punish Me with Kisses"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "This Green City"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Orgy"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Perfect Murder"
1983 [THE GLOVE] "Relax"
1983 [THE GLOVE - b-side] "Mouth to Mouth"
1983 [THE GLOVE - b-side] "The Tightrope"

--

1984 "The Caterpillar"
1984 "Happy The Man"
1984 "Throw Your Foot"
1984 New Day

1984 "Shake Dog Shake"
1984 "Bird Mad Girl"
1984 "Wailing Wall"
1984 "Give Me It"
1984 "Dressing Up"
1984 "Piggy in the Mirror"
1984 "The Empty World"
1984 "Bananafishbones"
1984 "The Top"


1984 "Ariel" (Robert Smith home demo) – 2:58

--

1985 In Between Days
1985 The Exploding Boy
1985 A Few Hours After This

1985 "Kyoto Song"
1985 "The Blood"
1985 "Six Different Ways"
1985 "Push"
1985 "The Baby Screams"
1985 Close To Me
1985 "A Night Like This"
1985 "Screw"
1985 "Sinking"

1985 A Man Inside My Mouth
1985 Stop Dead

--

1987 Why Can't I Be You?
1987 A Japanese Dream

1987 "The Kiss"
1987 "Catch"
1987 "Torture"
1987 "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep"
1987 "How Beautiful You Are..."
1987 "Snakepit"
1987 "Hey You!"
1987 "Just Like Heaven"
1987 "All I Want"
1987 "Hot Hot Hot!!!"
1987 "One More Time"
1987 "Like Cockatoos"
1987 "Icing Sugar"
1987 "The Perfect Girl"
1987 "A Thousand Hours"
1987 "Shiver and Shake"
1987 "Fight"

1987 Breathe
1987 A Chain Of Flowers
1987 Snow In Summer
1987 Sugar Girl

1987 To The Sky

--

1989 Lullaby
1989 Babble
1989 Out Of Mind


1989 "Plainsong"
1989 "Pictures of You"
1989 "Closedown"
1989 "Lovesong"
1989 "Last Dance"
1989 "Fascination Street"
1989 "Prayers for Rain"
1989 "The Same Deep Water as You"
1989 "Disintegration"
1989 "Homesick"
1989 "Untitled"

1989 2 Late
1989 Fear Of Ghosts

--

1989 Pirate Ships (Robert Smith solo) [Rough vocal mix – 12/89]

1990 Hello, I Love You

1990 Never Enough
1990 Harold & Joe

1991 Uyea Sound (Thompson) – 5:29
1991 Cloudberry (Smith) – 5:25
1991 Off to Sleep (Gallup) – 3:47
1991 The Three Sisters (Bamonte) – 4:10

--

1992 High
1992 This Twilight Garden
1992 Play

1992 Open – 6:51
1992 Apart – 6:40
1992 From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea – 7:44
1992 Wendy Time – 5:13
1992 Doing the Unstuck – 4:24
1992 Friday I'm in Love – 3:39
1992 Trust – 5:33
1992 A Letter to Elise – 5:14
1992 Cut – 5:55
1992 To Wish Impossible Things – 4:43
1992 End – 6:46

1992 Halo
1992 Scared As You
1992 The Big Hand
1992 A Foolish Arrangement

--

1993 Purple Haze

1994 Burn

1994 Young Americans

1995 Dredd Song

--

1996 The 13th
1996 It Used to Be Me
1996 Adonais
1996 Ocean

1996 Want – 5:06
1996 Club America – 5:02
1996 This Is a Lie – 4:29
1996 Strange Attraction – 4:19
1996 Mint Car – 3:32
1996 Jupiter Crash – 4:15
1996 Round & Round & Round – 2:39
1996 Gone! – 4:31
1996 Numb – 4:49
1996 Return – 3:28
1996 Trap – 3:37
1996 Treasure – 3:45
1996 Bare – 7:57

1996 Home
1996 Waiting
1996 A Pink Dream

--

1997 Wrong Number
1997 [COGASM] A Sign From God

1998 More Than This

1998 World In My Eyes

--

2000 Maybe Someday
2000 Coming Up
2000 Possession
2000 Spilt Milk

2000 Out of This World
2000 Watching Me Fall
2000 Where the Birds Always Sing
2000 The Last Day of Summer
2000 There Is No If...
2000 The Loudest Sound
2000 39
2000 Bloodflowers

--

2001 Cut Here
2001 Just Say Yes
2001 Signal To Noise

-----

(Sorry for some inconsistencies with quotes and times.)

Mine

TIB/BDC - 6
SS - 3
Faith - 2
Porno - 2
Top - 2
THOTD - 4
JW - 1
KMx3 - 4
D - 4
B sides etc - 12

So going by sics list I've got 2 from 1990, but none from later than that which suggests that once I'd got into them circa Kiss Me x3 I only liked them for 3/4 years which seems wrong to me. Obviously I had 8/9 years to work back from luckily.

Oh man sic, you don't want me to get any work done today, do you

I'm Cold is really good; I should've bumped it much higher than I did.

I think the first b-side I heard that just didn't click with me was "Sugar Girl"

Finally did this. Surprised myself with some of my choices, but knew before I started what my #1 would be.

Oh man sic, you don't want me to get any work done today, do you

lol I stayed back for two hours to work on and post that

I really want to jump into that but I have a demo to run in an hour and meetings in the afternoon and basically fuck you, job (not really tho, need that paycheck)

I'm really looking forward to rolling these results out, such a diverse selection of songs at the top of everyone's ballots.

Completely forgot about Cult Hero! "I Dig You" might have made my ballot.

If "In Your House" had remained "Two People" it would have easily been on my ballot

http://youtu.be/Hlpk0rtmHZo

Nate, can you confirm you got mine please? Ta.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

when is the new deadline again?

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

Midday UK time, Wednesday the 15th.

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

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

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

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

fukkin love that song

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

;_; it couldn't find itself

DJP's #1 was "my computer"

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

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

i finishing this tonight...help me.

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

I haven't done mine yet.

plz put "Carnage Visors" at #1

I've got down to 86 songs.

I missed this one — are you still accepting ballots?

There is time! Vote.

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

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

Yeah voting is still open, til midday UK tomorrow.

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

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

Haha, that was my #2.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~Austin

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

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

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

Scatting, squealing vocals Bob at his best.

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

;_;

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

says the guy who just heard subdivisions

sorry <3

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

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

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

34 ballots received. In your face, Paul Simon!

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

When're you doing the countdown?

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

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

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

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

rad.

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

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

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

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