The Smiths vs. The Cure

The Cure

also I want people to explain why they're wrong, not just say 'the cure'

The internet is hard. I quit.

explain why they're wrong?

this is sort of a stumper, really. i think i like more cure songs and albums, but my favorite smiths stuff i like more than my favorite cure stuff. hmm.

the cure

smiths

Sorry Morrissey, I love you but the Cure are my favorite band so fuck you.

smiths

these are my reasons:

the cure were a great singles band but the smiths are a better one.

the only non-comp smiths album i listen to is the first one, whereas there are quite a few non-comp cure albums i enjoy (none as much as the first smiths album, though).

smiths have better lyrics and vocals too

i think i like more cure songs and albums, but my favorite smiths stuff i like more than my favorite cure stuff.

yah, ^this

i'd prefer smiths instrumentals to cure instrumentals

i prefer morrissey to that other bloke

I Liked the smiths more, but I wouldn't go back to the world I knew.

The Cure, now.

(possible bonus point for Morrissey obsessive: What's that a ref to, above?)

Tough one ... favorite band at age 16 vs. favorite band at age 17.

Tempted to vote for the Smiths because they quit while they were ahead, or at least never deteriorated to the point of recording the equivalent of "Friday I'm in Love."

Now I like Morrissey more than I used in the past, but its still the Cure.
Better songs, better albums, better attitude.

x post: Friday I'm In Love is exactly one of the reasons The Cure are better than the Smiths. :)

The Cure; mostly for eclectic reasons, and The Smiths, while fantastic, never managed to create pop like The Cure did.

the cure because i've never enjoyed morrissey's voice

The quality of the Smiths' work doesn't seem as flawless now as it did ten or fifteen years ago.

The Cure are still making very good records.

The Cure, because they recorded A Few Hours After This, and The Smiths didn't.

The Smith ;-)

I'm kind of leaning towards The Smiths because they had the sense to break up before they ever started to suck, or had any dodgy periods. (Especially considering the solo careers involved!)

However, some of The Cure's dodgier periods did produce some amazing stuff.

This is, kinda like the Beatles vs. Stones of our generation, isn't it?

Bah not really, I feel "Cure vs DM" would be more similar

See, that would be easy - the Cure in a heartbeat. But *this* is really troubling me and I can't decide.

i dunno....the cure made some groovy records for sure but the smiths are about a million times more interesting to read, write and think about. they seem pivotal in a way that the cure just aren't. maybe those are kind of bullshit reasons to vote for them though so it's just as well that the smiths also rock way harder and have basically no bad songs and are much much funnier.

I read that one up two as "Curve vs DM"

in what ways do these two compare, other than both being from the same era?

I'd say The Cure vs. XTC would be far more apt, if only because they were the two big bands of my youth, the two ever-evolving, ever-arresting post-punk monoliths my 9 year-old self clung to like a limpet. Vastly different, music-wise, but there's a lot to be said for a direct comparison (although granted I am biased by deeply ingrained habit).

in what ways do these two compare, other than both being from the same era?

also, I have rarely met someone who liked one but not the other.

*raises hand sharply*

in what ways do these two compare, other than both being from the same era?

They are both awful?

Two 'important' bands I've never had a huge interest in. The Smiths irritate me a bit. The Cure I don't mind at all. I think the latter seem more accessible to 'outsiders'. I've always got the impression that with the Smiths, it's devotion or nothing.

The Cure threatens my masculinity less.

For real though: I've never been able to get into the Smiths, based on whatever's been on the radio. Their singles have always seemed more just like pop-songs, whereas the Cure's songs always seemed more artistic to me. The Smiths seem less emotionally involved too.

I don't know about same era, the Cure had 6 or so years on the Smiths and a lot happened in those years to separate where the Smiths came from vs where the Cure came from, musically. I mean it's unlikely anyone will ever lump the Smiths in with new wave or post-punk although the Cure easily fit into either. I think they're easier to compare on a singles basis than an albums basis though, largely because a lot of Cure singles are way poppier than what's on the albums.

Anyway that still doesn't stop me from getting into the Cure vs Smiths discussion a lot, though. And I always go with the Cure — I don't hugely dislike the Smiths but I never got into them as much.

The Smiths.

The Cure are too mopey and are too fond of 80's style synth sounds. Also, the Smiths have better songs.

I went with the Smiths because of personal history but I am listening to the Cure a lot more recently due to picking up most of the recent remasters in the last month (couldn't make myself pull the trigger on The Top). I see the comparison in a social sense, in that in h/s the same people were into both bands. Musically I don't see lots of similarities besides lol england.

lol tolhurst.

Their singles have always seemed more just like pop-songs, whereas the Cure's songs always seemed more artistic to me.

What I think I mean here is that Robert Smith seemed like he had probably eaten quite a lot of acid, wheras that doesn't really seem like a place where Morrissey was coming from.

Pretty hard to choose between my favorite bands during mopey adolescence but I'll vote for The Smiths purely on the basis of Robert Smith saying he liked The Smiths whereas Morrissey wanted nothing to do with Fat Bob.

^^^this is surely a reason to vote the other way

I would have considered choosing The Cure if they had stopped at Disintegration but have to give it to The Smiths for having a perfect catalogue.

^^^really don't like this way of thinking

Are any Smiths albums as good as Disintegration? xp

^seriously curious

...but then I'm extremely biased on this thread and I'm gonna scarper before I get nabisco'd

I will never, ever, ever get how people can claim The Smiths have a perfect catalog when half of their fans hate Meat is Murder and the other half hates Strangeways, Here We Come.

the smiths because they knew when to stop

Cut to the chase, get Pornography and The Top

You're missing the point, LJ. If he's coming at the Cure from a pop/singles perspective then those albums will have no immediate appeal. To check out the more accessible albums first, though, and move into, say, Pornography makes more sense.

Come to think of it, I'd really try to hear Seventeen Seconds before Faith, and Faith before Pornography.

Revive so people can vote for The Smiths.

Also, I agree with ilxor's progression of albums, except that Faith may be an even more essential Cure album to own than Disintegration, and yikes, that's saying something isn't it?

neither one is more essential than the other in the grand scheme of things
but both are utterly essential

I thought you were talking about the cure/the smiths the first 3 times I read that

I love both of these bands for such vastly different reasons that a vote either way would be completely arbitrary.

And in the road before us
Stood a weary greyish man
Who held a child upon his back
A small boy by the hand
The three of them were dressed in rags
And thinner than the air
And all six eyes stared fixedly on you

The father's eyes said "Beautiful!
How beautiful you are!"
The boy's eyes said
"How beautiful!
She shimmers like a star!"
The child's eyes uttered nothing
But a mute and utter joy
And filled my heart with shame for us
At the way we are

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

DAY OF RECKONING AWAITS

The Cure have plenty of good songs, but the Smiths only have three songs that are not totally brilliant.

obvious Sade is better than both.

Oh, here is a Cure thread to say this:

Lady Sovereign's new single samples (and uses lyrics from) "Close to me", t'was on "Freshly Squeezed" C4 this morn.

Interviewer: "So, you like The Cure then?"
LS: "Oh yeah, all their stuff is dead catchy, like"

........

so she'll be sampling hanging garden then

every track on Pornography is EXTREMELY catchy!

(title-track debatable but that four-note riff was pretty much seared onto my brain from the first time I heard it)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

:(

closer than I expected

wrong, IMO.

YOU HAD YOUR VOTE

Right!

LJ OTM

This just doesn't fit with my highschool worldview of like 20 motherfuckres who love the Cure and then three girls in AP English who love the Smiths.

I am yet to work out why The Smiths are so loved...it's certainly not the music*. I really ought to pay more attention to lyrics.

*lol I'm playin'...seriously though it really isn't my thing and for it to become my thing would require some serious alterations in my headspace

what the fuck is wrong with you people

this is that belle and sebastien ILX origin story showing its ugly head again isnt it

picking at a few of its acne scabs and then retiring to its camus novel

xposts. to LJ. It certainly is the music! I care little for lyrics in general but Johnny Marr was a great and forward thinking guitarist. There's like 15 tracks of guitar on this charming man, including acoustic guitar, backwards guitar and dropping knives randomly on an openly tuned guitar.

and i have acne and camus is one of my favourite authors, fo!

whoa mindmeld

OKOKOKOK I'll listen to The Smiths and give them a proper appraisal but it ain't gonna be overnight folks

still love to trot out the line that Marr's self-evaluated best performance was for The The

using Camus as a Smiths diss seems sorta poorly thought out

these results are otm -- the Smiths are 30.23% better than the Cure.

86 people prefer The Cure to The Smiths??
Whatta world.

There's something to be said for leaving the world a perfect or near-perfect catalogue. The only band I think was as unfuckable with as The Smiths in that regard was the Cocteau Twins. That kind of brilliance is extremely rare. And yeah, hell with Moz for a moment, let's give some props to Johnny, too.

That said, I've finally decided to give Pornography a re-listen right now, first time since 1985.

camus is better than the cure for what it's worth

I am reading 'la peste' and it's kinda boring

+ been breaking out lately

I suppose smiths fans are pretty stereotypical at the end of the day

sblj

the myth of sisyphus totally rocks.

There's something to be said for leaving the world a perfect or near-perfect catalogue

Is Vicar in a Tutu part of this near perfect catalog?

where does Louder than Bombs fit in that flawless catalogue?

Near or at the top.

Oh sorry, were you aiming for sarcasm?

sarcasm only works when you're right

sorry

it's okay

in any case, I find most of the stuff on LTB pretty average, esp the awful Panic and Ask

"Ask" is a bit Smiths by numbers, but "Panic" was one of their best singles IMO.

hard to think of a smiths single as jubilant as "why can't i be you?" but maybe that's a bad thing

and there's um more than a few smiths rave-ups that completely fleece "jumping someone else's train," released what, two, three years before the smiths even got together. not that that really matters

Both pretty good singles bands - though I haven't listened to a full album by either in ages. Morrissey's mordant wit beats Robert Smith's melodrama for me though - so The Smiths.