The Cure's finest album

DJP is going to jack the poll so Wild Mood Swings wins by a mile. He will then hunt me down.

dude

we did this before and Disintegration won by a mile

it will win this by a mile, but the important thing is that Pornography is actually the best one. tempted to give The Top a vote this time for being hideously underrated, but the more important effort is to show that Pornography is the best one

imago OTM

Best Cure Album (Poll Closes May 25)

The correct answer is Disintegration

The Cure poll results, ILM artist poll #23

against all grains and because i love its sequencing, 17 secs

Probably voted 17" last time, The Top is ace, but the songs on it worked so much better live.

not that my opinion is worth anything but Disintegration is soft-rock next to the searing psychedelic nightmare of Pornography (and, to a less-intense degree, The Top)

but given Kaputt and all, maybe ILM wants soft-rock

as always, voting for the top

Other poll before my time here. Disintegration is no way the best anything.

you should start a poll about tipping

XP - Yea, I know people really see a lot in that record, but it's just so *long*.

Maybe this poll will be more enlightened

A poll about tapdancing would be good

u shd start a poll about 80s alt music

Cocteau Twins would win that

can it be one of those 'you have 200 points to play with' polls so I can lump the lot on Foetus - Hole

or The Seaside

jeez man they can have 100 each then

What album was detachable penis on?

Wild Mood Swings

Oh

that's no way to talk about Club America

XP - old Cardiacs session was on Gideon Coe tonight

MaresNest I didn't see you follow-up my reaction to the fine news from Glasgow

...do so!

Ah that is true! Kinda don't believe it, but the bits I've heard are amazing.

mid-period is really amazing but hard to decide between KMKMKM and Disintegration. they do pretty different things but are both so great.

just gimme the two singles comps and carnage visors

oh and the song at the end of Marie antoinette

There must be a few 90s post-rock records that sound just like Carnage Visors

I always go with KMKMKM because it has all their different sides done well. Plus all those amazing B-Sides!

I'll vote only because I want to knock Disintegration way down the list.

No Boys Don't Cry, no credibility.

Its a compilation

A very good one I'll grant you

Anything with last dance and lovesong on it deserves to be way down the list

Wot no Mixed Up?

Think I'm gonna vote for wish.

I always go with KMKMKM because it has all their different sides done well. Plus all those amazing B-Sides!

only on the orange vinyl, doesn't count

Sorry just preparing my poll on fly-tipping

None of you said Faith so all of you are wrong.

i was about to say faith

but now i'm just going to vote faith

Three Imaginary Boys.

Then Disintegration. The Top is the worst.

Got no issue with "Disintegration," but these days I'd vote "Seventeen Seconds." Or "Head on the Door," for Boris-era.

A very long time ago, it would've been Disintegration.

Over 20 years later, it is Robert Smith's favourite album: Seventeen Seconds.

It is the one that sounds the most 'timeless' to me. Disintegration dates itself for some reason with the use of keys and strings, mind you I still like the sound of them.

But Seventeen Seconds. It is the one that Bob said was The Cure's Pink Floyd moment, and I can see that. And I really like it.

Faith is a close second, but it is so dark, I have trouble listening to it; I really have to be in the mood for it.

i really want to vote for Wish but that is impossible as there is Pornography, Head on the Door and Disintegration.

Pornography is the one.

I do appreciate some Bloodflowers, though. It's a very good background album. Just lacks the immediacy and hooks of its predecessors (in the trilogy).

I like Disintegration fine now, but didn't care of the production at the time. Now it's aged into its digital sheen a bit, and I can take it better.

Would you say that the production on Disintegration is ahead of its time?

No. I think it already sounded digital and dated when it came out. But now that's almost charming.

but it sounds calculated/Disintegration-by-numbers to me

OTM - I guess I was jaded enough in 2000 that I found that the whole "trilogy" talk and Disintegration nostalgia-fest coming from RS when Bloodflowers was released sounded incredibly forced. So obviously my impression of the album itself is pretty tainted by that. To me the whole thing sounds like insincere pastiche, even though some bits are obviously well executed and I get a Pavlov reaction from hearing old classic Cure tricks and the 6 string bass.

For me I find that's the main thing RS has lost over the years. For a guy who in the 80's was always praised for his idiosyncracies and for following his muse to wherever it took him, hardcore fans be damned - in the last 15 years he's seemed to always second guess what fans were expecting. As lousy as most of WMS was - it was probably the last time he sounded genuinely and carelessly inspired.

The last thing I heard from him was the track on the "Alice In Wonderland" album

my top 8 at the moment:

Head on the Door
Three Imaginary Boys
Pornography
The Top
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Seventeen Seconds
Faith
Disintegration

I've never heard any of the albums past Wish so am interested how people rate them now. If I'm honest I've been largely put off by the cover art.

I'm wondering how many people would vote Japanese Whispers if it were included?

I've never heard any of the albums past Wish so am interested how people rate them now. If I'm honest I've been largely put off by the cover art.

WMS is actively terrible. Bloodflowers is enjoyable comfort food. The Cure has a couple of fantastic songs surrounded by a bunch of competent ones; most of the best material comes from the b-sides/extras on the Japanese import. 4:13 Dream is the best album they've done since Wish.

Bloodflowers has Watching Me Fall and 39 on it so it wins. The Cure has Labyrinth and The Promise so it comes 2nd. WMS has Want so it's 3rd. 4:13 Dream I possibly need to rescreen as I dismissed it pretty quickly

you could make a very good album from the four, though, of course

Pictures of You sounds particularly great.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

BORE-nography morelike

Justice at last, OutdoorFish validated

lol @ 7 protest votes

OutdoorFish now welcome to start a new Cure albums poll thread and say that the Q model is being followed.

i can't listen to the last two cure albums, they are screechy awful noises. bloodflowers was just boring but sometimes some of the songs pop in my head for some weird reason.

I liked Wish.

Head On The Door always gets robbed in these things.

lol who voted WMS, fess up

lol @ 7 protest votes

Quite amazed by those results

Tbh what I really want The Cure to do is release an album full of songs like "Lost" and "The Scream" so awful screechiness is basically what I want from them right now

This is still my favorite Cure song. I wish I was at this show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tqK5BtEm5A

Really not sure what I would want a great new Cure album to sound like tbh.

Something good yet different would be nice

I will say that "Freakshhow" works much better than it should, especially live

I'm not trying to sound controversial here, but, honestly, I don't really care for a new Cure album.

Then again, I believe that most bands are only good for a few albums, if that. There are very, very, very few bands with extensive discographies that release great record after great record. Put another way, there are few bands who've produced 'timeless' records. Especially since 'greatness' is just so susceptible to shift from period to period/generation to generation.

The Cure is a good example. But maybe it's because I'm no longer a big fan of them as I was before.

Even if they did something like 17 Seconds, which is my favourite album by them, it would seem they'd be doing it to please a crowd instead of authentically producing music, which is something I favour.

After Wish, I became disconnected with the band's music. I only like a few songs post-1992.

I agree with you. I was being hypothetical.

I would never put it in my top 10 but I always say I would like them to release an album full of songs like Trap, ie non fussy guitar power pop

a post-Wish 'Best Tracks' poll is i'd something i'd like to see. i became very quickly disenchanted with them after their just-before Wild Mood Swings
set at Glastonbury 1995 which was the most turgid thing ever. have never bothered with them much since. once Porl was done with them, so was i.
am i missing much i wonder?

once Porl was done with them, so was i.

you didn't come back when Porl came back?

I was at the '95 show. Not good.

a post-Wish 'Best Tracks' poll is i'd something i'd like to see.

this!

My favorite post-Wish songs:

Lost
Labyrinth
Want
Trap
Numb
The 13th
Going Nowhere
Spilt Milk
This Morning
The Scream
It's Over
Underneath the Stars
Out of this World
The Loudest Sound
The Last Day of Summer
The Promise
Adonis
Ocean
It Used To Be Me
All Kinds Of Stuff
The Real Snow White
The Hungry Ghost
Sleep When I'm Dead
Fake
Treasure
Bare
39
Watching Me Fall

not really narrowing it down

here's a POV, in descending order of greatness

1) Watching Me Fall
2) 39
3) The Promise
4) Want
5) Labyrinth

I always wanted them to release an album of songs like 'It's Not You' and 'Doubt'.

Post-1992 songs that are okay:

Treasure
Bare
A Pink Dream
Maybe Someday
Bloodflowers (this one really doesn't do it for me, though)

Bloodflowers the album was one I almost got into, but did not stand the test of time. The WMS Robert Smith still seemed somewhat genuine (as genuine as Robert Smith could be in a theatrical kind of way), but by Bloodflowers, he was just a parody of his stereotypical self. I remember seeing his photos. Kind of felt sad for the man.

Shit I forgot Home

Here's the top 20 post-Wish tracks as voted in the ballot last year:

1. Burn
2. The 13th
3. Want
4. Watching Me Fall
5. (I Don't Know What's Going) On
6. The End Of The World
7. Mint Car
8. Lost
9. Before Three
10. Out of This World
11. Underneath The Stars
12. Jupiter Crash
13. Wrong Number
14. Cut Here
15. Gone!
16. 39
17. Labyrinth
18. Maybe Someday
19. Us or Them
20. The Promise

After Wish, I became disconnected with the band's music. I only like a few songs post-1992.

Have they done anything truly worthwhile at all since Wish? Wild Mood Swings BROKE. MY. HEART. and I didn't listen to anything of theirs since then.

I was such a massive, massive fan and I was thrilled that they were releasing something new and I'd get to see them live after not getting to see them touring for Wish (I would have been at one of the shows where Show was filmed) and then I heard WMS.... I tried to learn to love it, and if I got high enough, Mint Car was all right, but overall it was just embarrassing and demoralizing.

I still went to see them live twice for that tour b/c I wasn't going to give up on them without a fight. The show in Nashville was amazing (at an amphitheater - opened with Plainsong, closed with Killing an Arab - beautiful thunderstorm during the show - they were full of energy, and even WMS tunes were pretty engaging), but the show at George Mason University in DC was beyond boring. Robert Smith laid down on his back and sang for a while, and it felt like he was going, meh, fuck it, rather than being transgressive or cheeky.

It would be interesting now to check out post WMS stuff, maybe. Though when I tried to listen to 4:13 Dream once, I had to stop after a couple tracks b/c it just seemed so hollow and false.

I think I voted for The Top. Or Pornography, but pretty sure it was The Top. My first of their albums, and still one of my favorite records by any artist.

There were some good shows on the WMS tour -- there's a good Paris bootleg floating around -- but yeah that wasn't a high point for the band. The three albums since plus all the scattered rarities and one-offs have been better! Though if you're not liking 4:13 then...

thanks everyone for your (heh) post-wish lists... I will make a playlist and see what's the what! I never even gave Wish a serious listen, really.

Ned, I just listened to The Perfect Boy and really liked it!

Well, the remix, but still.

But now I'm listening to The Same Deep Water As You. Baby steps.

There are some good songs scattered here and there but I agree that stuff post WMS has always sounded pretty forced and inauthentic. I have the feeling that RS is ow incapable of coming up a song quickly and spontaneously anymore

oh.. porl came back? hm. i guess no then as i had no idea.

Wish has got this shoegazey feel/moments of loud wall-of-sound guitars, e.g., "Open", "Cut". They translated well live, e.g., the live album Show. But I always dug Play for Today's live versions that had the crowd chant 'ohhhh oh ohhhh oh ohhhh oh ohhh'