I Think I'm Getting Into The Cure - What's Their Best Stuff?

[Mykesbass]

Bit of a curve ball for me as I'm more soul and groove oriented music, but keep hearing Cure tracks on 6 Music and the more I hear them the more I like them. Any particular album recommendations from any fans out there please?

[PaulThePlug]

I'd stay away from Mixed Up... quite messed about with.  

 

[tegs07]

2 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

I'd stay away from Mixed Up... quite messed about with.  

 

Personally speaking anything up to and including Disintegration. 

I never really got into anything after that with the possible exception of Bloodflowers. Agree Mixed up was woeful.

Edited December 8, 2022 by tegs07

[PaulThePlug]

Another one if those bands where the good stuff isn't always the single release or greatest hits...

[40hz]

Disintegration is, IMO, the best album ever written. Start there! Head on the Door is more accessible and poppy, as is Kiss me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Wish. Faith and Pornography are dark and dingy (in a good way).

 

Basically they're all excellent up until Wish. Apart from Mixed up, as others have said, it's crap.

[Mykesbass]

11 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Another one if those bands where the good stuff isn't always the single release or greatest hits...

It was a single, In Between Days that really caught my ear the other day.

[tegs07]

2 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

It was a single, In Between Days that really caught my ear the other day.

Possibly start with “Head on the door”then.

[paul_5]

Disintegration gets my vote.

[2elliot]

Staring at the Sea: The Singles will give you a good overview of the evolution of the band from young post punk type oddballs to miserable alternative bleakness and beyond to weirdo popstars... and that's just the earlier stuff.

 

I love 'em in all variations.

 

[Maude]

I'm going to go curve ball and say try their B sides. 

The B side of the earlier cassette singles collection, 'Standing On A Beach' (Staring At The Sea was the CD version without the B sides, or was it the other way round?) is fantastic, but hard to find now. Luckily you can buy a four disc CD compilation of B sides and rarities called Join The Dots, disc one is essentially the B side of Staring At The Sea with some extras thrown in. 

Confused? I am, 😄. In short Join The Dots, disc one, is most of their B sides up to around 85ish, and it's great. Throwing away songs on a B side that most bands could only dream of writing and releasing as a single. 

They quite often marry up sonically with the corresponding single. 

As Inbetween Days caught your ear  here's the B side, The Exploding Boy, with some fantastic drumming from Boris Williams. 

 

 

[TheGreek]

Most of the better known stuff is on "Standing on a beach"...as others have suggested,  start there.

[fleabag]

If you liked  Inbetween Days, you'll probably like Close To Me , both of which are on The Head On The Door album

 

I love Lullaby too,  on Disintegration album

 

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by fleabag

[T-Bay]

Wish for me, apart from the sad single fodder that is Friday I’m in love, it just rolls from start to finish in an almost hypnotic way. Just brilliant

[Mykesbass]

1 minute ago, T-Bay said:

Wish for me, apart from the sad single fodder that is Friday I’m in love, it just rolls from start to finish in an almost hypnotic way. Just brilliant

I think Friday is one of those unfortunate songs that has become a victim of its own success. A very cleverly crafted piece that just gets played way too often (but then I've made no excuses for being a fan of our and out pop music).

[Cato]

This is one of my favourites, written for the film 'The Crow' I'm not sure it was ever on a Cure album.

 

[Cat Burrito]

14 minutes ago, Cato said:

This is one of my favourites, written for the film 'The Crow' I'm not sure it was ever on a Cure album.

It was a standalone track.

[T-Bay]

15 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

I think Friday is one of those unfortunate songs that has become a victim of its own success. A very cleverly crafted piece that just gets played way too often (but then I've made no excuses for being a fan of our and out pop music).

It is just so out of place on the album and is just very clearly there as a single release option. I would have thought they were big enough by then to have full control over output but it seems like a classic record company pressure thing to do. If you listen to wish without it, the whole experience is so much better, it just kills the mood and flow. I don’t actively dislike it, but would never choose to listen to it. It lacks the fun and quirkiness of earlier poppier output like love cats and is very meh to me.

[Cat Burrito]

The first album (almost more Buzzcocks / Elvis Costello-y) has great busy bass from Michael Dempsey. I like the gothic trilogy of albums 2, 3 and 4, probably favouring Faith. I think they have always been consistant and agree re the compilation Staring at the Sea is as good a place to start as anywhere.

 

Seeing them on Sunday.

[BigRedX]

The Cure are a difficult band to pin down because there are so many different versions that have covered different musical styles. And while I'd agree that there are a lot of great songs that weren't singles there also a lot of filler on nearly all the albums.

 

So rather than go and buy any particular album(s) stick their entire back catalogue on shuffle on Spotify and see what you like.

Edited December 9, 2022 by BigRedX

[Maude]

23 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

The first album (almost more Buzzcocks / Elvis Costello-y) has great busy bass from Michael Dempsey. I like the gothic trilogy of albums 2, 3 and 4, probably favouring Faith. I think they have always been consistant and agree re the compilation Staring at the Sea is as good a place to start as anywhere.

 

Seeing them on Sunday.

I love Grinding Halt from the first album. 

The first track that really caught me was Charlotte Sometimes. Being born in '73 I was too young to know them from the start, and had only heard pop tracks like The Love cats that would've been played on the radio, I swapped Little Creatures by Talking Heads for Standing On A Beach (cassettes) with a mate and as it was halfway through, the first track that played was Charlotte Sometimes. I was amazed at what I was hearing. 

There started a life long love of The Cure. 

There are so many phases to explore, the punky beginnings, the gothic trilogy, the electro poppy rebellion against their record company (not sure I totally believe those stories), the jangly mid eighties pop, the list goes on. 

Their singles and albums cover such a range of styles but still completely 'The cure'. 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by Maude
Adding link

[miles'tone]

Agree with what's been suggested already. 

The Cure have a sound but there are so many different sides to them that there is always a Cure album for however you're feeling. Love them.

[Crusoe]

The live album "Show" is great.

[NancyJohnson]

My wife likes them, I find them a bit hard going, somewhat up and down.  I like most of the singles, although this is more about familiarity than anything else, plus a clutch of album tracks.

 

It worries me when someone says they're interested in getting into <insert band name here>, more so where a band like The Cure are concerned, their back catalogue is just vast - despite there only being 13 studio albums in over 40 years (which isn't a spectacular return, albeit the last one coming out 15 years ago, so 25 years), you'd also have to factor in stuff like Join The Dots (70 tracks), the live albums and the reissues (which contain 150+ extra tracks/versions).

 

Good luck!

[Mykesbass]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

My wife likes them, I find them a bit hard going, somewhat up and down.  I like most of the singles, although this is more about familiarity than anything else, plus a clutch of album tracks.

 

It worries me when someone says they're interested in getting into <insert band name here>, more so where a band like The Cure are concerned, their back catalogue is just vast - despite there only being 13 studio albums in over 40 years (which isn't a spectacular return, albeit the last one coming out 15 years ago, so 25 years), you'd also have to factor in stuff like Join The Dots (70 tracks), the live albums and the reissues (which contain 150+ extra tracks/versions).

 

Good luck!

Don't worry! I think my phrase getting into is possibly not quite as hardcore as it could be for some. I've just been hearing something more in what they have been playing on the radio than I've heard before and I like it.

[SteveXFR]

They're one of those bands who whenever I hear them I think "this is awesome" and then I never get around to really exploring their rather extensive catalogue. 

A Forest, Burn and Just Like Heaven. Dinosaur Jr do a great cover of Just Like Heaven