Pick Only One: Most Heart-rending song by the Cure

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Oh sure, there's loads to choose from (hence the challenge). Personally speaking, my heart still breaks when I hear the live version of "Pictures of You" (from Entreat), specifically the line...

If only I'd thought of the right words, I could've held onto your heart/If only I'd thought of the right words, I wouldn't be breaking apart all my pictures of you

The way you can hear Robert's voice echo around the enormodome suddenly transforms a cold, impersonal arena into an intimate confessional.

This is followed closely by "A Letter to Elise," which is just so damn sad.

There are scores of others, of course. Your pick?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 7 May 2005 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

The other day i was listening to the 'Pornography' reissue and reading 'Wuthering Heights', a set text for an exam i'm taking next month and it was at a particularly harrowing part in the novel (where heathcliff visits catchy for the last time) and 'Cold' came on. It was the most dramatic reading experience i've ever had.

Heart-rending indeed.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Saturday, 7 May 2005 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Is there realy a difference between "most heart-rending" song by The Cure and best song by the cure?

Saying no, I choose "Just Like Heaven".

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 7 May 2005 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess i'm going right out on a limb here, but "cut here" absolutely slays me. so simple, so heartfelt, so unbearably sad.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 7 May 2005 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

"High"

― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 7 May 2005 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"Prayers for Rain"

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Saturday, 7 May 2005 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I second “Pictures Of You” live because of a personal experience that particular night going to Dodger Stadium to see them. I won’t get into it here though.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Saturday, 7 May 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

"2 Late"

― jergins (jergins), Saturday, 7 May 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

~~a chain of flowers~~ plainsong

― kephm (kephm), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I would say some of the "Faith" stuff. Probably going for "Other Voices" although "The Funeral Party" is quite heart-rending too.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Is there realy a difference between "most heart-rending" song by The Cure and best song by the cure?

When Robert Smith decides to write a happy song, the song is, indeed, very happy. Your choice is an example of that, along with "Friday I'm In Love", "Let's Go To Bed" and "Mint Car" among others.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Anybody who defends The Cure from now on sides with Geir.

― TV's Mr Noodle Vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

When Robert Smith decides to write a happy song, the song is, indeed, very happy. Your choice is an example of that, along with "Friday I'm In Love", "Let's Go To Bed" and "Mint Car" among others.

so we're defining "heart-rending" as "sad," not "emotionally moving"?

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"Trust," for extremely personal reasons. I couldn't listen to it for about six years.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Judging fromo Alex's initial post, I'm taking it to mean "sad", yes.

The line Alex culled from "Pictures of You" has a profound effect on me too, as well as just about every line in "Just Like Heaven".

Lyrics-aside, the first two-odd minutes "Plainsong" is the best intro they've ever done and might be the most heart-rending piece of music they ever wrote.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 8 May 2005 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Pictures Of You, definitely. In retrospect, probably not the wisest choice of song to put on the stereo after a break up...salt in wounds, etc.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"Funeral Party" is indeed quite sad, yes...achingly so,....but sort've in a different way (to my mind) than most of the other Cure songs. The mere placement of the word "funeral" in the title pretty much dictates why the song is so tragic. "A Letter to Elise" and "Pictures of You", meanwhile, deal in more everyday terms (funeral grief isn't really everyday, unless of course, you're a mortician). Invariably everyone one grapple with the sensations accompanying the death of a loved one, but the rigors of a love gone sour or infidelity seem to be a sadness of another level. You cannot prevent death, yet love lost due to personal weakness is an ache of an entirely different sort.

I walked up Sixth avenue this week at one point on my way to work, tracking the entirety of Disintegration (to my mind their last consistent record), and it's amazing how much of a consistency of mood and tone that record maintains, and how lyrically spot-on Robert can be. The sonic equivalent of standing alone in a soaking downpour and barely noticing, consumed with the emotional tumult within.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

One word: Lament

― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Leave Ultravoxx out of this!

(kidding!)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Friday I'm In Love, duh.

― On one hand I've got myself to blame (Lynskey), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't get past Lullaby, though I can't decide if that's because it kept popping up in the most heart-string places of the soundtrack to life with a former Ms Stet - on a deserted bridge over the Mississippi for one, in the airport flying away for the last time, another - or because of the song itself. Actually, probably the latter. it's much too late to get away, or turn on the light

― stet (stet), Sunday, 8 May 2005 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

All Cats Are Grey:

No shapes sail on the dark deep lakes
And no flags wave me home

Perfect.

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Sunday, 8 May 2005 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Catch...sounds happy on the outside, sad on the inside.

― biznotic, Sunday, 8 May 2005 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"trust" has the most beautiful piano line.

― fatbob, Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd second All Cats Are Grey, that oddly unnaffected and plaintive vocal melody gets me.

Sinking, especially a good live version.

― mzui (mzui), Sunday, 8 May 2005 09:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"plainsong" also a very good call.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 8 May 2005 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, "Sinking" is great. But I'll choose "Push" from that same record, as the spiralling guitars and Robert's inscrutable anguish still persist in giving me chest pains.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 8 May 2005 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"Apart" from Wish.

― Vic Funk, Sunday, 8 May 2005 10:37 (twenty-one years ago)

It's all about "Killing An Arab" for me. Mind, the source text isn't bad ;)

― TV's Mr Noodle Vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 8 May 2005 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"A Forest"

"The girl was never there/ It's always the same. . . ."

― driving instructions, Sunday, 8 May 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I just bought Disintegration this week. I'd never owned any Cure records and only knew them by "Just Like Heaven" and "Friday I'm In Love" -- I'd never heard anything else by them (at least not frequently).

By the sixth song ("Lullaby" I believe) I was convinced it was one of the greatest albums I'd ever heard....and this was only a few days ago.

Don't you love that feeling? I don't know when last I'd felt it -- maybe A Storm In Heaven by the Verve.

Why isn't Disintegration listed more often with the best albums?

― PB, Sunday, 8 May 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

PLAINSONG by far. An absolutely perfect, beautiful, epic sadscape.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 8 May 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

(PB: Disintegration is easily my favorite Cure album; I think some Cure fans are wary of it because it's The Big Cure Album For Non-Fans and it's very different from their other canonical albums like Seventeen Seconds.)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 8 May 2005 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Anybody who defends The Cure from now on sides with Geir.

D'oh!

― giboyeux (skowly), Sunday, 8 May 2005 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Why isn't Disintegration listed more often with the best albums?
it seems to be widely considered their best album by everyone I know, so that's weird. I've never seen it not listed as such, really.

I pick "to wish impossible things" or "homesick."

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 8 May 2005 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I second 'All Cats,' though 'Pictures of You' is pretty rough stuff when you're 16 at your first major breakup.

― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 8 May 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I'll take The Head On The Door or Wish over Disintegration.

Most of my favorite Cure songs are on THOTD. I'll pick just two: "Sinking" and "A Night Like This."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 8 May 2005 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

the head on the door needs the remaster + bonus tracks treatment stat.

i am going to pick "out of this world".

― tricky (disco stu), Sunday, 8 May 2005 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

though 'Pictures of You' is pretty rough stuff when you're 16 at your first major breakup.

I remember breaking up with a girl (or, rather, her breaking up with me) my second semester of senior year of college, and immediately after graduating, a bunch of my friends and I spent a week or two at a friend's place out in Cape Cod. Still reeling from the breakup, I listened to Disintegration (which had just come out) non-stop. I especially remember one early evening, literally STANDING ON A BEACH (geddit?) under a lighthouse in the early evening mist, listening to "Pictures of You" on ye olde walkman and wallowing in self-pity. That song is forever linked to that memory.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 8 May 2005 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"One More Time" has for some reason made me cry every time I've listened to it ever since I was little.

Lately, though, because of a recent event, it would be "The Funeral Party". I need to acquire the Faith reissue this Friday (the soonest I can do so). That song's going to be pretty relevant for a while.

― That's not cocaine! It's Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 8 May 2005 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"Siamese Twins", no contest.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 8 May 2005 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Why isn't Disintegration listed more often with the best albums?

it seems to be widely considered their best album by everyone I know, so that's weird. I've never seen it not listed as such, really.

you misunderstood me; i meant why isn't it often listed among the best albums ever, not just among Cure albums.

By the way, I began to love the Cure even more when i heard Robert Smith say where the band's name came from.

― PB, Sunday, 8 May 2005 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea", for me. Not my favourite song, but there's just something about the desperation in his voice near the end, and the scene he's painting that just hits me just right. (wrong?)

Disintegration is easily my favourite Cure album...when it first came out I think it was my favourite album of all time, period, but it's slipped quite a bit since then. Still in my top twenty somewhere.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 8 May 2005 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Siamese Twins"
followed by "Homesick", "Last Dance" and "New Day"

― Baaderonixxxorzh (Fabfunk), Monday, 9 May 2005 06:28 (twenty-one years ago)

if were looking for the song that throws you into the deepest pit ill go with "carnage visors"..with most of faith or "your house" (hell is that the name?--gotta get those re-issues)as dead good runners-up.

but if we wanna talk fits of tears, i think the later matierial with less oblique lyrics wins out. "plainsong" or "same deep water as you" are pretty stabbing.

― b b, Monday, 9 May 2005 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex, you can't pick just one...

to wish impossible things: i have NEVER cried over a girl like i cried with this song. she was moving to japan as we were both turning 14 and i never got the chance to tell her how i felt before she left. then one night in my adolescent bed this song comes on my discman and proceeds to completely shatter me with violins.

edge of the deep green sea: Robert has said that this song is about ecstacy, but it represents every drug problem ive ever had.

but the song that kills them all, that rips my heart out every time and will make me cry in the fetal posistion: A Thousand Hours...

How much longer can i how into this wind?
how much longer can i cry like this?

― JD from CDepot, Monday, 9 May 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Disintegration the song. Especially off Entreat. It's the very definition of heart-rending for me.

― matt2 (matt2), Monday, 9 May 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I think a lot of mid-late 80's Cure was heavy-handed rather than heart-rending. The big delivery worked better on the pop (e.g KM,KM,KM) rather than the long overcoat songs. So my pick has to be from the early years and I'd go for the title track from Faith ('I went away alone/there's nothing left but faith'). I've been listening to this a lot recently (on vinyl) sort of in prep for getting the De-Luxe set, which won't be long...

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 9 May 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

For me, "Fascination Street," though I couldn't articulate why.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 9 May 2005 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I immediately thought of "Pictures Of You" when I saw the title of the thread but I'd also like to mention "Sinking", "Breathe", and "This Twilight Garden".

― Seb (Seb), Monday, 9 May 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

For me, "Fascination Street," though I couldn't articulate why.

The line in that which always gets me is the "..So let's move to the beat like we know that it's OVER!..."

The whole record (Disintegration, once again) is just steeped in tremulous emotional turmoil.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 May 2005 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

From 'A Strange Day'
held for one moment i remember a song
an impression of sound
then everything is gone
forever

More hopeless than heart rending but it works for me, especially when the guitar kicks in.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Monday, 9 May 2005 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

La Ment.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"A Strange Day" is so fucking gorgeous even if it gets pwned by "Cold" and "Siamese Twins" in the heart-rending stakes.

Most heart-rending song that everyone forgets about: "The Top".

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

"You just imagined it all..."

― Baaderonixxxorzh (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

'Sugar Girl' at the moment but only cos I'm kind of seeing this girl that I've not really got much chance with (she's moving away and everything) and it seems to have taken on an eerie relevence.

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, there's something about the plaintive ennui of "Another Day" that slays me every single time.

A "recent" song that's heart-rending in a positive way: "Home". It's kind of staggering to me how much better Wild Mood Swings would have been had they place pretty much every B-side except maybe "A Pink Dream" on it and bumped the weaker tracks (IMO, "Club America", "Mint Car", "Strange Attraction", "Return"; it really isn't a good sign when two of your album's singles rank among the worst songs of your career).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:40 (twenty-one years ago)

A Pink Dream rules! Should have been an A-side. All the others, eg. Home and Ocean, always struck me as a bit corny.

― Baaderonixxxorzh (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha meanwhile "Home" and "Ocean" are my two favorite b-sides from that time period! (The fact that they are both well within my vocal range may be influencing my opinion.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

The most heartrending moment in the history of the Cure was when Ray Lowry reviewed Faith in the NME and spent the entire review talking about Hank Williams' suit made out of musical notes.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, and I can't believe I forgot about "Play"!!!!! Devastating.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, 'Play' is just so bleak and desolate.

― Baaderonixxxorzh (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

eight months pass...

One Last Cry.......

― Makinmelaf, Monday, 30 January 2006 02:44 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

The last day of summer, prayers for rain and desintegration...

― rikardo, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:27 (nineteen years ago)

My favourite songs by The Cure are "Let's Go To Bed" and "Friday I'm In Love", but as neither of those could possibly be described as heart-rending in any way, I guess I'll go for "Other Voices" instead.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:27 (nineteen years ago)

Still "Sinking."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:35 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

Reading through this thread I was surprised that no one mentioned 'The Same Deep Water As You'. I've always found it to be the most sad and heart rending Cure song. Otherwise 'Faith', but it's more despairing.

― AnotherDeadHero, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 21:24 (fourteen years ago)

I don't know about heart-rending, but something about Six Different Ways tugs at my heartstrings. Siamese Twins rips them out though.

― Mule, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 22:07 (fourteen years ago)

Figurehead. With Charlotte Sometimes a close second

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 22:34 (fourteen years ago)

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