The Cure (2019)

One Liner:  It's The freaking Cure, dude.

Wikipedia Genre: Gothic rock, post-punk, alternative rock, new wave
Home: Crawley, England

Poster Position: 1

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: Interestingly enough, their last time at ACL was 2013, which is before I started doing this semi-psychotic and obsessive blog, so unfortunately I can't just go back and grab all of my old thoughts.  But it does mean that I can spend some good time diving back into what makes this band great.  And they are great.  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees.  Massive influence to all sorts of other bands.  Surprisingly few awards - no Grammys

Their show in 2013 was fantastic.  We ended up posting up very close to the stage (and sacrificing some other good music), about three people back.  Which meant that we were up close and personal for the weirdness of Robert Smith - he was hilarious, like at one point when he randomly "danced" a goofy jig as though he was reacting to the crowd noise and suddenly was a poorly controlled marionette, but otherwise he is just this frumpy schoolmarm with Joker cosplay thing - all wild hair and funky makeup.  From what I recall, there was little-to-no effects or action on stage, just the band doing their thing, but I remember loving it.

When I was a kid, I never really paid them any mind except for regular radio play and one song that was played repeatedly at my summer camp dances.  I have no clue who was so deeply in love with "Just Like Heaven," but I know that I have full-on boogied out to that track more times than I can count.  And I wouldn't even say it is the best dance song around, but you sure can air guitar the shit out of that opening solo and then air piano the shit out of that piano solo in the middle.  118.8 million streams, their third most popular track on Spotify.

Just a perfect little nugget of a pop song.  The combo of the synths with real piano, the constant strumming and base drumming, and then the great love song lyrics.  I freaking love it.

It wasn't until college that I really paid The Cure attention, and that, very strangely, was through this weird 1990 remix album called Mixed Up, which was either owned by my roommate or me, and we played the hell out of.  Which is so weird to think of now - why didn't we have Disintegration or Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, the two massively popular albums just before then?  Nope, we just had this weird remix album of hits.  I probably got it from that damn Columbia House CD of the Month club or something.  Anyhoo, although the tunes themselves are jacked up versions of the originals, it still made it so that I know some of their classic songs very well.  I will also note that this album did not make me enjoy "The Catapillar."  But it does cool stuff, like turning "Close to Me" into this kind of funky little hip-ho-ish stroller, or extending "Fascination Street" into a 9 minute track, or making "Inbetween Days" into a terrible thing that takes forever to finally end.

Then someone gave me their copy of Disintegration, which was their 1989 super album.  (and saying it was given to me might be a stretch, I have a vague memory of someone either letting me borrow it or leaving it in my car and then it just became mine).  I love it.  The whole album is a mood - I'm well aware of how pretentious that sounds, but it is true.  You have the mega hits from the album, like "Lovesong," "Fascination Street," "Lullaby," and "Pictures of You," each of which are freaking perfect songs, but even the non-hits have this lingering melancholy that makes the whole album feel like the good kind of bummer.  Not like the "my dog just died" type of bummer, but more like "I love that girl so much but she's dating my best friend and I'll never love again" sort of bummer that only seems real when you are a teenager.  I have this weird thing, in "Lullaby," where the guitar lick part just before the vocals come in at the start of the song, has always made me think of The Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon" and I want to mash them together so that I can scratch the itch of the two matching notes.  Interestingly, or at least maybe just to me, "Fascination Street" has significantly less streams than the other hits on here.  I'll give you "Lovesong," the streams winner at 67.3 million.

Such a great song - both lyrically and the tune itself, with instantly recognizable elements and catchy chorus.  Great love song.  I wonder what is required to make his hair do that?  Like, it doesn't even seem possible to make it happen without using actual thread covered in super glue.  Anyway, this is their best album by a mile.  The sound of the synths in this is what I will always associate with The Cure - that classic malaise-inducing sustained note sound.

Crazy thing that I did not realize?  They've been around since 1976 and put out their debut album in 1979.  Never would have pegged them as a 70's band - thought they popped out of a new wave womb sewn out of depression in 1986.  But, that means that they have a crapton of old albums that I have never heard before.  Originally called Easy Cure, Robert Smith wasn't even the frontman/vocalist for their first few years.

So, that very first album, Three Imaginary Boys, was released in 1979.  Weird thing, it doesn't feature either of their early hit singles - "Killing an Arab," which caused controversy because of the title, as people thought it was racist.  But Smith says that it was actually based on a novel by Albert Camus called The Stranger. Or "Boy's Don't Cry."  I'm very confused as to why either of those two initial singles wasn't on the album?  Weird.  Let's jam those tracks though.  First, "Killing an Arab," which is somehow not available to stream at all  on Spotify?  WTF is up with that?

This is similar to the other tunes on this first album - a little punk, a lot raw, kind of fun.  I mean, when you listen to those lyrics, and you don't know that The Stranger is a book, it surely does sound like he is advocating for shooting an Arab.  Then, also weird that "Boys Don't Cry," their second-most streamed tune on Spotify and most recognizable hits, didn't make the album either.  135.2 million streams.

That opening guitar is so rad.  Iconic start.  Also, fabulous lyrics: 
I would say I'm sorry
If I thought that it would change your mind
But I know that this time
I have said too much
Been too unkind
I tried to laugh about it
Cover it all up with lies
I tried to laugh about it
Hiding the tears in my eyes
'Cause boys don't cry

Classic stuff.  "Grinding Halt" kinda sounds like an R.E.M. tune with a yelping vocalist.  Interesting album - nothing I'd keep around in heavy rotation for future, but interesting to hear them at their start.

Their second album, 1980's Seventeen Seconds, leaves some of that punkiness behind and angles more into the goth phase of their sound.  Their keyboardist left the band around this point, saying that he "realized the group was heading towards suicidal, somber music."  Yikes.  "A Forest" is the only track on here I've heard before, the start of which now reminds me of Metallica's "One."

The tune has an awesome driving beat and groove to it - feels like it would work well as the soundtrack for running through a forest.  Not actually sure if I've ever heard this version, versus the more upbeat and glossy remix version.  Overall, I think I prefer the first album to this one.  

Next was 1981's Faith, which is more dark and dreary stuff.  No hits that I recognize on there.  But there is a song with a great title - "All Cats Are Grey," which is weird but awesome.  1982's Pornography kicks off with lyrics to make it extremely clear that happier times have not come to the Cure - "It doesn't matter if we all die."  Well shit, OK.  There we go.  And later in the song ("One Hundred Years") he repeats the line "waiting for the death blow" three times.  It's like the opposite of Pharell's song for Minions.  No hits on this one either.

1984's The Top is much more upbeat, musically, but it's kind of shit.  "Give Me It" just sounds like them all freaking out in the studio.  "The Caterpillar" is the only one I recognize, but I find that song annoying.  No thanks on this album.  Strangely, they did the thing with the random singles again in here, releasing three hits in a row with "Let's Go to Bed," "The Walk," and "The Lovecats" to success on the charts.  "Lovecats" has always kind of annoyed me because I knew someone annoying who loved that song, so it's bugged me ever since.  So I'll give you "Let's Go to Bed," instead.

SO MUCH BETTER than anything on those early albums - funky, catchy, sneaky - I like it.  "The Walk" is also a fun party of a track, more like New Order than the old mopey Cure stuff from the early 80's.

And now, the great part of their run begins, with 1985's The Head on the Door.  This one starts with the excellent "In Between Days," but also includes the classic "Close to Me" (which ends in a sudden and funny way that I did not remember).  That last one has 97.9 million streams.

The claps.  Those claps are perfect, and then the synth line and electronic xylophone thing - so freaking good.  (FYI, if you are trying to make sense of that video, do not, I think those are random scenes from other Cure videos mashed up for the background of this song).  "Push" sounds like a blueprint for 85 mid-90's radio rock bands like Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind.  This album was the first time they charted in America.

Next is 1987's Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, their first true hit album - certified platinum in the US, top ten charting in several countries, and included hits "Just Like Heaven," "Hot Hot Hot !!!," and "Why Can't I Be You?"  Being a double album, it had some duds as well, like the super weird second song, "Catch," which shows them determining that some doobiedoobiedoo type scatting made sense.  That being said, in a seriously strange confluence of events, "Catch" was inspired by "Rocky 2," which led to Smith writing the theme song for Judge Dredd.  I wish I was making that up.  But it also has "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep," which isn't a big hit but I think it is a cool song with that (making a guess here) sitar and flute combining for an ominous sound that isn't just the usual downcast guitar and synth.  Anyway, I'm giving you the raucous "Why Can't I Be You," because it rules.

Wait, was that a guy in blackface miming playing a trumpet?  WTF?  I mean, I know it was the 80's and all, but damn, that is a little unexpected.  Only 13.2 million streams for that song, so maybe the rest of the world doesn't love it.  I think it's fun.  "How Beautiful You Are" is also a good one, although it sounds a lot like other songs on this disc.

Next was Disintegration, which we already discussed up above.  Something I didn't realize until researching for this, is that Smith is the only member of The Cure who has been in the band the whole time.  They add and drop members faster than Trump's cabinet.  One guy from the band, who apparently was fired over alcohol issues, sued over the name of the band, but Smith won the case.

The next album (1992's Wish) was probably their most commercially successful, but I'm jaded against it because "Friday I'm in Love" is annoying as crap to me.  Feels like a toss off song that they would have written to get the label off their back for a hit, and of course it is their biggest streaming song by far.  192.7 million streams.

Catchy as hell, easy to sing along to, but just such a gimmick song with the naming of each day and all.  I won't say this is a bad album, but in comparison to Disintegration, its very weak.  "High" is the only other hit, and probably my favorite tune on the album.

After that, as far as I know, they just crawled back up into their dark attic full of scarves and fancy cats and wrote poetry on the rafters by themselves in sparkly silver paint.  Yes, they then released two live albums (1993's Paris and 1993's Show), then 1996's Wild Mood Swings, 2000's Bloodflowers, 2004's The Cure, 2008's 4:13 Dream, and another 2011 live album, but did any of those make even a ripple on the public consciousness?  No track from any of those albums is in their top ten on Spotify.  Only one song of the 40 or so on those four studio albums has more than 5 million streams, and that one only has 6.2 (and sounds kinda like they were hoping for it to be the new Friends theme).  "Mint Car."

Meh.  Nothing from any of these albums appeared to chart or do anything, its like the band just disappeared once The Wallflowers came into existence.  Has anyone ever seen Robert Smith and Jakob Dylan in the same room?

So, no new music since 2008 - more than 11 years - not even a throwaway single on Spotify.  Although they have apparently teased new music, with this quote on their Wikipedia page: "In a 30 March interview with Rolling Stone, Smith commented on the band's next album saying, "For the first time in 20 years, we went into a studio—we actually went into the studio where they (Queen) did 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. The songs are like 10 minutes, 12 minutes long. We recorded 19 songs. So I have no idea what to do now. The others are saying, 'Triple album!' I'm saying, no let's not. I'll pick six or maybe eight songs and do like a single album. But I think it will delight our hardcore fans. And probably really, really infuriate everyone else. At my age, I'm still doom and gloom. We'll finish it before we start in the summer, and it'll be mixed through the summer. And then so release date, I don't know, October? Halloween! Come on!" In an interview published on July 5 in NME, he noted that the band would be re-recording 3 or 4 songs in August 2019 but that, "I feel intent on it being a 2019 release and would be extremely bitter if it isn’t.""  Sooooo, hopefully they can't get it finished and we don't have to hear any 12 minute long super goth track.

The question then is what are we going to hear in Zilker Park in October?  They have just recently played two festival sets, and those appear to be the same, so it looks like we will be getting a greatest hits package (thank God!) with 7 songs from Disintegration, 4 from The Head on the Door, 3 from Wish, 2 from Kiss Me, Seventeen Seconds, and The Top, and then some random singles.  But you get just about everything you'll want unless you are one of those old school goth weirdos who still wants to hear Lovecats.

I'm in.