Songs / Artists that sound like The Cure but are in no way related to them.

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CCFX - The one to wait

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFBQA-jU9Bg

I swear I was playing a spotify playlist of mine a couple of days ago while cooking and kept trying to remember which Cure song this was. The other songs in the EP also sounds like The Cure btw in a good way.

Studio - West Coast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po8e8nftgqI

Vocals and guitars are very reminiscent of The Cure. Think Balearic Cure.

Metro Station - Shake It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wjFahULCK8

Yes I know... but this huge hit kept reminding me of the Cure whenever I heard it. The music doesn't sound like them (Well, maybe at their giddiest like Mint Car?) but the vocals sound so much like "Robert Smith" to my ears... it has the same sort of drawl and hiccupy style of singing (specially in the pre-chorus and chorus). Maybe I'm alone on this one...

Shout out louds - Impossible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX9Oha6GXO0

I don't know enough songs from this band but the vocals seem very influenced by Robert Smith's style.

Musically it also sounds like the poppier side of the cure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jEmJww2dQ

I agree with your picks so far. There seems to have been a lot of them in the last 15 years. Never heard CCFX before, it sounds a lot like the "Pictures Of You" remix on Mixed Up.

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOV6I4fYnvQ

I don't know their other songs, but this one has the guitar, the synths and the vocals.

Oh yes that is a good one I had forgotten existed and it's definitely taking notes from the Cure at their mainstream peak.

This is basically "A Forest" sung by a woman.

Blouse - Time Travel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfF6wA-vgwE

The Katatonia one is also a good comparison. The lyrics are very Robert Smith tbh specially the lines

"Your smile has decayed
It will never be the same
I never thought I would laugh again
I should be knowing this, it used to be me"

I can easily picture RS singing those

Very early, I used to think this was The Cure back then, then never heard it again until more recently

https://youtu.be/Y3IYJTMl2ik

That's a band called Soul, song called Tribes..

New Order / All the Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IYJTMl2ik

Could be a lost single from The Top or The Head On The Door:

Hot Hot Heat - Bandages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_K36y-iLUk

Could've been on Faith:

The Rapture - 'Olio'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ti1y7BbYyI

I did not know about that New Order song, I kept waiting for the synth of Just Like Heaven to start.

I remember in the early 00s Rapture, Hot Hot Heat, AFI and Interpol got compared to The Cure but I’m not hearing it much. There’s even an ilm thread on the HHH Comparison:

Hot Hot Heat sound nothing like the Cure

iirc the Just Like Heaven thing in All The Way was intentional as payback for The Cure ripping off Blue Monday for The Walk a few years earlier.

There was a Dutch band in the 1980s called The Essence that was basically in the business of ripping off every aspect of The Cure

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3utlsSbVSzs

They reformed and did some shows in 2015! Not heard the album though, so can't tell if they're still xeroxing the Cure.

The Legends' album Public Radio has a few fantastic "A Forest" tribute-y things ("Today" and "Air" especially). the vocals aren't really robert smith-y though

Think Balearic Cure.

lol, this exists, "lullaby" is a bonafide balearic classic

This is basically "A Forest" sung by a woman.

― LeRooLeRoo, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 2:07 AM (fifteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same applies to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5kBLkYFlc

The Legends' album Public Radio has a few fantastic "A Forest" tribute-y things ("Today" and "Air" especially). the vocals aren't really robert smith-y though

― brimstead, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:13 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was just about to say this!

wilco - pot kettle black

Also, this borrows very heavily from All The Way/Just Like Heaven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atYivCbPV9Y

^also from Public Radio

I get the 'A Forest' / 'Daniel' comparison but it's still kind of tenuous tbh.

You're right, I think it's mostly the just baseline. Also the tempo in Daniel is significantly slower. But I always have them linked in my head.

That Essence track falls right in the middle between The Cure and Joy Division.

Same applies to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5kBLkYFlc

― daavid

Is this slowed down? Haven’t heard it in years but I remembered it way faster.

"here comes the sun" is good. the verses always remind me of Lush

It’s on spotify and it sounds faster but the length is the same. Wtf is this sorcery.

Ah wait forget it! My youtube was slowed down to 0.75

The Legends and Essence sound much like The Cure they should fill a lawsuit!

for their first year or two (1988-1989), The Smashing Pumpkins were a total Cure ripoff, down to the clothes & hair & thin guitar sound & everything being drenched in chorus/flange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcoS9JnClLc

On the topic of Swedish Cure-alikes, there's also The Mary Onettes' "Hit the Waves" LP which is rife with Cureisms... perhaps encouraged by Dan Lissvik, who produced it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4JACgpWrLI

I still think the Mary Onettes are more in the lineage of post-Cure bands like Comsat Angels and The Chameleons, but it's a large tent.

I'd never heard that Mary Onettes tune before. I quite like it. I feel like despite all the commonplace references, their music stands because the songwriting is so solid.

essence was the band i was thinking of when I clicked this thread and hoped someone had referenced since I couldn't remember their name. that got some airplay back when it came out in the bay area simply because it sounded so much like the cure.

I picked up that Mary Onettes album pretty cheap. It's enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xntt9w8JbA

Shit there is a video for the song I just posted, they have the look in it and the sound is better too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIMpluULCtk

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

always thought these guys had a bit of an early cure thing going on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGrmX3IQdTg

short romans - black day

Specifically Lol Tolhurst's drumming from Faith/ Pornography/ 17 Seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTG2wM-r-g

drumming and drum sound that should be.

From the same album for the same reason:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBLagwi_m2c

There’s a band called 2:54 that remind of The Cure sometimes:

https://youtu.be/F9blpg5NknU

Comment section says it sounds like Curve/Garbage so maybe it’s only me.

Conor Oberst's voice always made me think of a less stable caricature of Robert Smith

lol otm

Remembered that in Sing Street they adopt a Cure inspired song and look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAX_QV00v_0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiDyNgmE22g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5tBerJEfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d2xLdwoLUs

I have a few of The Essence albums. I can confirm they're pretty much a rip off, even down to the album titles. 'Purity', 'A Monument of Trust', 'Nothing Lasts Forever' etc. The singer even had a Curehead hairstyle for a while early on. Think they went Top 10 in Spain with one of their earlier singles.

Specifically Lol Tolhurst's drumming from Faith/ Pornography/ 17 Seconds:

― Doran, Thursday, January 18, 2018 2:57 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

drumming and drum sound that should be.

― Doran, Thursday, January 18, 2018 2:57 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

From the same album for the same reason:

― Doran, Thursday, January 18, 2018 2:59 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also from LCD Soundsystem's American Dream, the vocals toward the end of tonight really remind me of Disintegration. At about 3:55 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqq3BtGrpU8

A while back, I heard Intro by The XX in the background of some video clip and I was wracking my brain for a day or two like "What CURE song is this?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFq6nnw7xg0

"Tribes" by Soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE7QGknIRxs

Bigtime!

I was in a clothing store yesterday and shazamed this one. Turns out it’s Metronomy. The whole thing sounds very Cure-esque pop but it gets really similar when the female vocals enter and she sings in a very Robert Smith half-asleep and heartbroken sort of way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16FpzGQq9JA

One of the top comments has made the connection too so there’s dozens of us who hear it!

She starts singing until 2:00 if you’re getting impatient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3ZdQ5iUsyo

https://louse1.bandcamp.com/album/passions-like-tar

I like. Also more subtle, but Desperate Journalist seems to have more Cure in their latest.

https://desperatejournalist.bandcamp.com/album/no-hero