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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
At this stage in their career, the Cure really have no right sounding as good as they do on this, their self-titled 14th album. But from the opening, off-kilter chords of "Lost", where singer Robert Smith cries "I can't find myself" with all the miserablism that's become their trademark, the Cure sound most definitely on-form. "Before Three" bursts forth with an exuberant yelp, but then becomes tainted with melancholy (why is it that Smith was only happy in the past tense?), while "Us or Them" has a driving, dirty bassline that's become their other trademark.
True, The Cure doesn't have any immediately accessible pop moments, but they were always a great album band who only periodically stumbled across a radio-friendly tune--after all, even their classic Disintegration only boasted one obvious pop tune in "Lovesong". And while it's true that The Cure isn't as good as Disintegration (few albums are), it's still the best album they've recorded since then. Producer Ross Robinson, best known as the man behind the dials for metal acts such as Slipknot, seems to have inspired Smith and the boys to do that which they do best, i.e., sound like the Cure. It's good to have them back. --Robert Burrow
Album Description
They've been around since the early 1980s, but The Cure have lost none of their potency. Their self-titled album is the first new material they've recorded since they returned from the wilderness with 2000's Bloodflowers, and it ranks alongside their best work.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Welcome New Direction,
By
This review is from: The Cure (Audio CD)
I want to give this four and a half but i cant so ill just give it five. There are lots of arguments out there as to why this isnt a good album, but one that seems to stand out for me is that "it doesnt sound like the cure", thats reasonable but honestly if they had done another album that sounds just like the cure 15 or twenty years ago i would have hated it. The purpose of Bloodflowers and Join the Dots was to tie up all the loose ends and leave the door open for new things and Robert certainly delivers. The passion on this album is unlike any cure album before, each of them have passion in their own way but not like this. Roberts voice is the best its been in years and the band sounds great. The first five tracks are wonderful and my only complaint about Us or Them is that robert has obviously stolen a riff from himself but this incarnation of Watching Me Fall sounds much more refreshing. After Us or Them is a section of your typical qwirky Cure pop. I Don't Know Whats Going On is an excellent if a bit repitative number. Taking Off is reminicent of Just Like Heaven and features a nice piano part like Cut Here. Never is an intersting song, one could have mixed thoughts on it, this is the only track on the ablum that sounds like The cure playing like bands who want to be the cure if you understand what i'm saying. The album finishes off with The Promise, this is probably the best track on the album along with Lost the anthematic opener. Rober himself has said he wrote this after performing The Kiss at the Trilogy shows and it shows, like The Kiss this track is very intense and features some of Roberts best guitar playing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Looking forward with some help from the past,
By
This review is from: The Cure (Audio CD)
Introducing new material to fans and critics alike poses inevitable problems for the Cure, over a quarter of a century into their vast career. Comparisons between new songs and the recurring nostalgic benchmarks of greatness embodied in established and accepted classics will inevitably be made (and I'll be making them again here). And through a combination of media hype and the band's recent re-entry into the arena of credibility (after namechecks from, amongst others, Interpol and the Rapture) the rumour is that 'The Cure' represents the group's best work since the heady days of 'Disintegration'. So this album's got a lot to live up to. And you might be left wanting if you're expecting the material that makes up 'The Cure' to reach the majestic heights of, say, the breathtaking 'Faith', 'Catch' or 'Plainsong' (to name but three). It doesn't. However I think this process of comparison is a tad unfair and unproductive because 'The Cure' is undoubtedly the freshest and most pleasing material from the band in over ten years. Whatever the nostalgics and harsher critics may tell you, there is plenty of evidence here to illustrate just what a good offering 'The Cure' actually is. The album initiates a re-captured confidence from the start through the slowly aggressive opener 'Lost' and the eastern groove of the distorted 'Labyrinth' which follows. Similarly, the gorgeous and dreamlike 'Truth Goodness and Beauty', and the unravelling menace of 'The Promise', wouldn't be out of place on 'Wish', the Cure's last truly decent LP. To a large extent this new found vitality is down to co-producer (with Robert Smith) Ross Robinson who got the band to play these songs live and collectively in the studio - giving each track a real looseness and edgy spontaniety never achieved before, separating them from the lifeless and stodgy songs that made up the worst of 'Wild Mood Swings' and 'Bloodflowers'. Other highs can be found in 'Anniversary' - whose opening re-calls Joy Division's 'Decades' and returns the band to the 'Faith' era, the charming single 'The End of the World', and 'alt.end' which simultaneously manages to re-visit 'In Your House' while also bizarrely bringing to mind the Happy Monday's 'Kinky Afro'. Trust me, this is a good thing and marks the track out as the sensible choice for a second single (far better than the forced and dull 'Taking Off' which tries to match 'Just Like Heaven' but falls short). And stunning closing track 'Going Nowhere' provides a brief but moving conclusion to proceedings. There are flaws with 'The Cure' - such as Robert Smith's occasionally irritating and exaggerated shriek which begins to grate on otherwise enjoyable tracks such as 'Before Three'. Also, lyrically 'The Cure' offers nothing exciting or particularly affecting aside from the angry anti-racist monlogue that engulfes the scruffy but impressive 'Us or Them'. It's obvious we're not dealing with the next 'Distintegration' here, or even the next 'Head on the Door' come to that. But, ignoring the hype, 'The Cure' restores the quality that's been missing in the band's output over the last decade. When you buy this album (which I urge you to do) enjoy and celebrate 'The Cure' for what it is - a welcome return to form from a truly great band.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An album excellent in patches,
By
This review is from: The Cure (Audio CD)
Music critics that state this is the best Cure album in years, are sadly mistaken, as it is clearly inferior to Bloodflowers. Those who make swipes at that album, do not truly understand Robert Smith or the Cure. Hardcore fans understand just how important the Bloodflowers album is. This new album is far less important, though perhaps more immediate. It may have greater vitality, greater energy and sharpness, but it lacks the soul and melancholy of Bloodflowers, which were also the two key elements of the insurpassable Distintegration. It's important to underline the harshness and violence present on the new album, the harshest and most violent since Pornography. There is sadly very little room for beauty and melancholy on this album, which is its main failing. It does have certain other virtues though. The first three tracks - Lost, Labyrinth and Before Three - are a pretty stunning opening to the album, and establish the visceral nature of the content. These three gems are followed by two decent efforts, Truth Goodness And Beauty and The End Of The World, then a melancholic song, Anniversary, which could have been much better, if Robert had come up with a memorable melody, instead of a mediocre one. This is followed by an angry assault of a song, Us or Them, which isn't completely convincing in its rage, and is too reminiscent of The Kiss and Shiver and Shake. The album then kind of loses it focus with some attempts at hard-edged pop songs, which aren't bad, but lack the intensity of the opening salvo. It only regains its focus with the long and powerful The Promise, which is certainly one of the main highlights of the album. The closer, Going Nowhere, features Robert's familiar weariness, but it doesn't have the beauty of his best efforts. It's not appropriate to compare it with Homesick or Untitled; it's not in the same league. And to compare this album with Disintegration is very misleading, as it has almost nothing in common with that album. It is more accurate to imagine a slightly uncomfortable hybrid of Pornography and Head On The Door. Dark howls of anguish set off by occasional pop touches. I will give some credit to the producer, even if he has been involved with such wretched nu-metal acts. The sound balances rawness and polish to good effect. Overall, I found the album unfulfilling. Just wish there was space for the familiar chiming Cure guitar lines and elegiac piano lines. It's a shame that they, along with strings, are all but absent from the rough rock arrangements. Most long-term Cure fans will appreciate the vitality and edge present in some of the music, but at the same time, they will mourn the absence of Robert's ravishing poetic melancholy, which is conspicuous by its absence.
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