NiTeWriNi

[tetsab]

(That stands for Nice Tea Writing Night. The current Nice Tea is a honey-ginger black but before I actually started writing I had a vanilla bean black. It's pretty funny I've opted to do NiTeWriNi as my usual policy is to not have tea after 4pm as I don't want it to keep me up. Ha).

Fully expect since it's 10 to 12 as I start this that I'll just write this one thing and call it a Ni. Was, of course, going to do the traditional life-y things catch-up but that's too boring for my one single post so instead I'm going to talk about The Cure 'cause of their album launch yesterday.

I came -> this close <- to not watching that 'cause based on what I'd heard about their new album in bits and pieces, here and there, I knew it was going to be more of what enraged me 20 years ago when 'The Cure' came out. Being enraged was not a good follow-up to being Annoyed As Heck 4 years prior to that with the release of (hate the name of the album to this day) 'Bloodflowers'. After that experience the Cure mentally ended for me in 1996 with the quite shaky but still had some good tracks 'Wild Mood Swings'. I've not listened to either album since those very negative first listens (though I was super tempted to go try digging them out after yesterday's show just for the sake of comparison) and I've never listened to 4:13 Dream.

The only reason I did watch is someone pointed out it was still going on hours after I got home from work so I pulled a "oh what the hell' opened it, dragged the bar back to the start, and let it go. I made a conscious decision as I did so to Try To Not Be Too Annoyed and it kinda (but not completely) worked.

The historical reason I was annoyed, then enraged, then anticipated I'd be annoyed again, was that as far as I'm concerned the Cure has been singing the same not very good song for 25 or so years now and I can hardly take that when the reason I first loved them is because I found what they did all so very different.

I think I'm more uniquely intensely annoyed by this than most but I'm certainly not the only one to notice. Just for the heck of it, right now I searched for 'Cure word cloud' fully expecting to get results and at the very least got 'Wordflowers' and I also pulled up the tracklisting of the last four albums just to see how many dreams, and nevers, and losts, and ends, and nothings I'd find and just in the titles and spotted A Bunch. I actually think part of the reason I was able to be less annoyed is that the day before I happened to hear DJ Christabel play the Vandal Moon's heavy pastiche 'Robert Smith (I Love You Since I Was Six)' and it did what music should do and made me feel less alone in my frustration (even if I think the Vandal Moon ain't actually that frustrated based on the song title).

The method I used to try to be less annoyed was to lean real hard into "pretend you've never heard a Cure album since Disintegration". It had to be since Disintegration as I feel like it was actually Wish that became the template for the unending Cure song (which also makes Wild Mood Swings an extra odd anomaly for its time in failing to fully follow said template). If I'd never heard a Cure album since then I think my general feeling about this one in this first listen is that it didn't seem half bad. I couldn't wholly suspend disbelief, though, eventually after a barrage of those keywords (and especially after learning the name of the last track) I'd be gritting my teeth but then trying to wave my way back with pretend-pretend-pretend.

There is a whole lot I still love about the Cure (I'll never not love most of what comes from before the Dead To Me era), I love that Robert hates Ticketmaster about as much as I do (and actually has some power to do something with that hate), and that if I look at the comments on that video, that the band still brings joy more than annoyance in general to most folks. :)

Comments

[greylock]

My dear young (now old) friend, I just can't agree with your opinions.
If we ignore the remix album, and our reverence for Disintegration, then Wish is a masterpiece.

I will agree, everything from Wild Mood Swings is at best a The Top.

It was a band TRYING to do new things from a world that wanted the old stuff. And it is increasingly musical wank. BUT I have purchased each album and, I do periodically listen.

NO album will ever hit as hard as Disintegration to me (and I assume you), but there is good stuff in there (I suggest listening to the singles). They sneak up on you. I ended buying all the LPs.
And, yeah, I will get the new album when it is cheap.

[sabotabby]

I'll have to give it a listen. I haven't heard tons of their new stuff, other than what they played at the show.

[the_siobhan]

I am somewhat amused that the Cure has managed to pop out of history and start people arguing all over the goth scene again. A+ Mr Smith, excellent work.

[houseof9cats]

Nice to see this post, hello GTSY! I also had a nice tea on Friday. Re: The Cure: I'm a Disintegration and Wish fan, so this has been ALL RIGHT with me. If I look at the trajectory with an art historian's eye, IMO it's not any different from any other artist or group having 'periods' in their work. That said, I agree on other points here. I feel like the new album is as much a market research production as it is an artistic production. Disintegration is the 'mainstream' consensus masterpiece, and the entire team on board went WAY out of their way to emphasize the connection. "I'm wearing my Disintegration shirt," RS said, plus they played Plainsong right after playing the new songs, etc. Because I'm in the marketing and design space, I can appreciate a tour de force of this kind, gotta be honest (the marketing and production design is SO GOOD and an art form in its own right), but if people are looking for punk rock DIY this isn't going to be it. I also noticed the redundant lyrics, and that's a weakness. I think the songs fly fine without relying too heavily on the poetics. Project Pitchfork is another one whose lyrics don't grab me if I listen too hard, and, you know, that's fine.

[houseof9cats]

Also, thanks for 'Robert Smith (I Love You Since I Was Six)'. I hadn't seen this either. Memes that started in my bedroom in 1995 LOL. :D

Edited to change '94 to '95 because who the hell remembers what year it was at this point. :D

[tetsab]

It was a band TRYING to do new things from a world that wanted the old stuff.

I'm really not sure about the first half of this sentence from the way every time any of the albums from the 2000s on were to come out there'd be some sort of advanced quote from Robert about it being like Disintegration or Pornography in some way and that eventually became the flag for me that I probably ain't going to like it (even though Pornography and then Disintegration are my two favourite albums by them so I should, in theory, be the target market for such quotes!).

I might try dipping my toe back into the singles from some of the Dead To Me albums, like you suggest, and see how it goes. A couple of times since posting this I've almost taken out 'the Cure' again (I literally just went and peered at it on my racks right now) but then I balk. Ha.

[tetsab]

Yup. It is surely worth the listen for anyone with an interest in the band. :)

[tetsab]

The eternal mop is clearly a lightning rod. ;)

[tetsab]

GTSY

*laugh* yeah, someday I'm figure out how to consistently be here (you'd think it would be easy since I do actually like it!).

IMO it's not any different from any other artist or group having 'periods' in their work

I think it's surely fair to think of this as a period but I wonder if it's different because of the length. 25 years of this in a pop group feels... strikingly long.

The marketing commentary is very interesting because of just how anathema it would have been to say anything positive about the marketing side of art 20+ years ago, even though it *is* worth appraising as its own thing.

I can't be mad at them for trying to do what is loved from either a marketing or an 'is it so bad to give people what they want?' perspective (in the end are those one and the same?) :) but from my very particular perspective what they're doing now isn't at all what I want based on what made me love them in the first place.

Much of what made me love them was how many of their tracks delighted me with surprise and the surprise is almost wholly gone (best surprise I ever got from them was their playing 100 Years at Ontario Place ~20 years ago on what would have been the Bloodflowers tour. I even got a little bit of surprise in this show when they did the 17 Seconds focus, which I wasn't at all expecting since I didn't twig at all on the anniversary side of that).

In the end, take what you can get or (as I've more usually done) don't take anymore and stick with what you have and still love.

[greylock]

I know what you mean about the "Disintegration" thing, I have the Trilogy DVD and I don't hear it.
WMS sounds like a natural extension to Wish. From Bloodflowers on they're been the aural equivalent of Robert's look or later Rolling Stones album (I heard one, once...).

Bloodflowers on are.... there. But they're fine in small doses.
If I were to list them they'd be low in the list.

[greylock]

There are a BBC2 and BBC6 live sessions on YouTube that are only an hour long or so. I didn't pay enough attention, but I assume they are mixed up* set lists.

(*pun intended)

[greylock]

I am watching the release concert now and.... all of the bland and bad are bland,
but for some reason Drone/NoDrone... rocks?
Maybe it's just me being impressed that people 20+ years older than me can rock with Excellent Finger Dexterity?

That one song was lifted by the live performance. It is not the "pop banger" I was told it was by the G.

I have listened to the album 12 times or so and... I'll get it cheap.

[greylock]

Also, thanks for 'Robert Smith (I Love You Since I Was Six)'. I hadn't seen this either

I guess, this is a pastiche? But a welcome one.

Edited to change '94 to '95 because who the hell remembers what year it was at this point. :D

Oh, I REMEMBER.