Match-Cut Band Consensus - The Cure

[D_Davis]

The Rules of the Game:

How to post selections:

- Assign a rating to each album based on a scale of 1-10
- Half points may be used
- It is not necessary to rank the albums. Instead, please post all lists in chronological order, starting with the earliest album.

For an album to be eligible for the band's overall rating, it must have at least four (4) votes. Otherwise, there isn't a sufficient amount of votes to make the rating as objective or effective as an album that has received twenty (20) votes. If an album is mentioned only once or twice, I will still post that album's average (quite easy if only mentioned once) but I will separate it from the albums that factor into the band's overall rating.


The Cure - Discography

Three Imaginary Boys
Boys Don't Cry (US debut)
Seventeen Seconds
Faith
Pornography
Concert: The Cure Live
The Top
The Head on the Door
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Disintegration
Entreat (Live)
Wish
Show (Live)
Paris (Live)
Wild Mood Swings
Blood Flowers
The Cure
4:13 Dream

[D_Davis]

The Cure - Discography

Three Imaginary Boys - 5
Boys Don't Cry (US debut) - 6
Seventeen Seconds - 8
Faith - 7
Pornography - 8
The Top - 6

The Head on the Door - 10 (among the most perfect albums ever recorded. Short, concise, and every song a masterpiece. Minute for minute, song for song, it might be one of the strongest albums of all time)

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - 8
Disintegration - 10
Entreat (Live) - 10
Wish - 8
Wild Mood Swings - 6
Blood Flowers - 8
The Cure - 8

[Winston*]

For the ease of tabulation, could people please format their ratings this way:

album - number

And try to use the same album title as other people e.g. with or without 'the' at the start. Not a big deal, but makes spreadsheeting a bit quicker.

[ContinentalOp]

Pornography - 7
The Head on the Door - 8
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - 8
Disintegration - 8.5
Bloodflowers - 7

Going on a Cure-spree for the next couple days. It's been too long for a lot of their stuff and for some reason I have only heard a small portion of their discography even though I like all I've heard. Will rectify.

Edit: Added Pornography 11/17/14. "A Strange Day" is fantastic, a new favorite Cure Song.
Added Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me 11/19/14. Great vocals on this album. Like the upbeat tone. "Catch" is one I haven't heard in a long time. A top five Cure song.
Added Bloodflowers 11/22/14. Only gave it one spin with no single track getting enough traction for another go. Can see it growing on me, so feel a little hesitant to include it at this point. Last track, the title track, is sort of worming its way into my brain, in a good way.

[D_Davis]

Pornography - 7
The Head on the Door - 8
Disintegration - 8.5

Going on a Cure-spree for the next couple days. It's been too long for a lot of their stuff and for some reason I have only heard a small portion of their discography even though I like all I've heard. Will rectify.

Edit: Added Pornography 11/17/14. "A Strange Day" is fantastic, a new favorite Cure Song.

The whole trilogy is great - Pornography, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers.

[MadMan]

I haven't listened to any of their albums. Should check them out sometime.

[Thirdmango]

Before today Galore was the only thing I had heard and I didn't realize it was a best of. So this week is the cure week.

[Spinal]

Been trying to listen to an album a day. I'm finding that I really like the music, but I'm not crazy about Smith's vocals.

[ContinentalOp]

The whole trilogy is great - Pornography, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers.

Bloodflowers is next. Curious about how they are related. Will hit Wikipedia.

[Thirdmango]

Done two so far. One was amazing one wasn't. Let's see how more fare!

[D_Davis]

Been trying to listen to an album a day. I'm finding that I really like the music, but I'm not crazy about Smith's vocals.

He's got one of those Dylanesque voices. It might grow on you, but chances are you'll either love it or hate it. It's unique, and that's one of the reasons I love it. He also balances theatrics and sincerity perfectly.

[Spinal]

He's got one of those Dylanesque voices. It might grow on you, but chances are you'll either love it or hate it. It's unique, and that's one of the reasons I love it. He also balances theatrics and sincerity perfectly.

It's challenging because Smith is so tied in my mind to a particular cultural movement from my youth that I meet with instant suspicion. This is what I like about these threads. They force me to try to work around my biases and just respond directly to the music. Head on the Door really helped me to start to see their appeal. There's some really fun sounds they're working with there.

[dreamdead]

The Head on the Door - 7 (a little too schizo on tone for me, though I suspect that's why others like it)
Disintegration - 10

Will get to Pornography as well before this is done and update.

Disintegration has one of the single best bass tones in all of rock music. So shimmery, so liquid-y. Few things have brought as much joy as hearing Isis replicate that sound on their final album.

[D_Davis]

It's challenging because Smith is so tied in my mind to a particular cultural movement from my youth that I meet with instant suspicion. This is what I like about these threads. They force me to try to work around my biases and just respond directly to the music. Head on the Door really helped me to start to see their appeal. There's some really fun sounds they're working with there.

I was full-on into that culture. My first crushes as a youngster were on older girls wearing Cure T-shirts.

Luckily, The Cure's music stands apart from the goth culture, and has survived that particular fashion trend in a way that most of the other associate bands has not.

Head on the Door is a tremendous album. A few musician friends and I always bring it up while discussing the possibilities of a perfect album.

[D_Davis]

Bloodflowers is next. Curious about how they are related. Will hit Wikipedia.

I highly recommend the concert film of the trilogy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure:_Trilogy

[Russ]

Seventeen Seconds - 8
Faith - 7.5

Should've listened to more.

[D_Davis]

I'm really, really surprised by how few people here have listened to many Cure albums.

I always thought they were one of the biggest, most popular bands in the world. Shows how warped our world view can get when we hang out with certain people. Everyone I hung out with for like 15 years loved The Cure. My core group of musicians in Fresno would sit around for hours listening to one Cure album after another. Figured that was typical! :) When we'd go out skating, we'd bring tapes full of the Bunnymen, Smiths, and The Cure.

[Thirdmango]

They force me to try to work around my biases and just respond directly to the music.

Agreed completely with this. I doubt I ever would have listened to any of U2's albums had we not done the consensus. And The Cure is so much different then I expected considering I only knew their radio hits.

[D_Davis]

So far there are only like 3 albums that have enough votes to count.

I have a feeling we might run into this problem with a lot of bands on this project.

[Spinal]

I'm saving my vote until the end of the week. Although I've probably so far listened to the most popular albums.

[Thirdmango]

Same as spinal. I'm saving my votes until I've listened to all the albums I want to. I have the same feeling though on certain bands. I listened to 3 Brian Eno albums (the first three) and after that I don't think I can listen to anymore so I'm fairly certain next week might be even harder.

[DSNT]

The tough thing about The Cure is their two best albums get better over time .. Pornography & Disintegration.

Boys Don't Cry (US debut) - 7
Seventeen Seconds - 6
Pornography - 9
The Head on the Door - 8
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - 8
Disintegration - 10
Wish - 5
Wild Mood Swings - 4
Blood Flowers - 8
The Cure - 6

[transmogrifier]

So far there are only like 3 albums that have enough votes to count.

I have a feeling we might run into this problem with a lot of bands on this project.

For me, rating albums is so much harder than movies, which are basically one and done. A lot of my favorite albums did not start out as favorites first listen, but grew into it over time.

Add to that the fact that music genres are a lot more polarizing and differentiated than movie genres (I'll watch romantic comedies, but couldn't care less about getting into country, R&B or house, for example) and the fact that a particular musical artist's sound/style is usually cohesive across multiple releases, so that a negative reaction to one aspect of that sound/style basically means that it is highly unlikely that you can appreciate the relative qualities of those releases.....well, you'll get a very spotty return for many artists in an undertaking like this. Still interesting though.

I didn't bother with U2 because I don't feel like the energy spent on trying to appreciate particular albums is worth it considering I have such a strong general distaste for their overall music. The Cure, on the other hand, is a band I could see myself being interested in, but I wouldn't have much to say in just a week, having not listened to any of their albums in full except Pornography and Disintegration.

Or maybe I'm just lazy :)

[Thirdmango]

For me, rating albums is so much harder than movies, which are basically one and done. A lot of my favorite albums did not start out as favorites first listen, but grew into it over time.

I do agree that a lot of albums get better with time, but I've gotten to a point where I really understand my own styles and what I'm willing to give chances to and such that with one listen through I'm pretty well able to give it a rating that will be close to my same rating a couple years down the line. But then I listen to music probably around 10x more then my time watching movies.

[transmogrifier]

I do agree that a lot of albums get better with time, but I've gotten to a point where I really understand my own styles and what I'm willing to give chances to and such that with one listen through I'm pretty well able to give it a rating that will be close to my same rating a couple years down the line. But then I listen to music probably around 10x more then my time watching movies.

Oh, I spend so much more time listening to music as well. But I have so much music that I may listen to a album for the first time one day (like The Misfits, Static Age today) and think oh that was pretty good, and then not listen to it again for a couple of months as I cycle through other stuff.

[Thirdmango]

Oh, I spend so much more time listening to music as well. But I have so much music that I may listen to a album for the first time one day (like The Misfits, Static Age today) and think oh that was pretty good, and then not listen to it again for a couple of months as I cycle through other stuff.

Oh yes so do I. I actually started a spreadsheet of all my albums and have a spot for the last time I listened to an album and a tally for how many times I've listened to a particular album. Of course since I only started it last year only albums I hadn't heard before I can really do a tally of. What I tend to like about these is it forces me to listen to a lot of new music and like with how much Cure I've been listening to, I'm probably going to add about 10-15 songs into my regular rotation as well. It's just a way to add more "new" stuff into my rotations.

Obviously my rating and such isn't going to be as valued as an album I've listened to over 10 times but I like making ratings like that. And on my master if something is say a 9-10 but has only been listened to once that just means I oughta give it a couple more listens before it's Top 100 material. :D

[Spinal]

Boys Don't Cry - 5
The Head on the Door - 8
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - 6
Disintegration - 6.5

I may or may not get to more over the weekend.

[Melville]

Boys Don't Cry (US debut) - 5.5
Faith - 6.5
Pornography - 7.5
The Head on the Door - 6.5
Disintegration - 8.5

Edited to include Faith.

[Spinal]

Adding:

Faith - 5.5
Wish - 4

I should probably stop now.

[Pop Trash]

I know it doesn't count since it's a compilation but Standing on a Beach: The Singles was one of the seminal albums of my youth (and by youth I mean I was 8 or 9 when I first had it on tape). I associate it with playing 8-bit Nintendo esp. Zelda. I had a cool New Wave babysitter who got me into them. I would give that album a 10/10, but aside from that I only know Disintegration really well.


Disintegration - 9

[Thirdmango]

Okay, I'm still listening to Disintegration and might get a couple more in tomorrow if I have time but I gotta go to bed, so I'll finish it mid-day tomorrow. But in case the votes are counted before I get that vote in, here's what I have so far.

Three Imaginary Boys - 4
Seventeen Seconds - 8
Pornography - 6
The Top - 8
The Head on the Door - 9
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - 8
Wish - 9

[Thirdmango]

Disintegration - 8

[D_Davis]

Looks like you've enjoyed The Cure quite a bit.


Anyhow, Winston, please work your math magic.

Thanks!

[Winston*]

Low turnout for this one.

Disintegration (7 votes) - 8.6
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (4 votes) - 7.5
The Head on the Door (5 votes) - 7.7

Grand Total (16 votes) - 8.06

Others

Blood Flowers (2 votes) - 7.5
Boys Don't Cry (US debut) (2 votes) - 5.5
Entreat (Live) (1 votes) - 10
Faith (3 votes) - 6.5
Pornography (3 votes) - 6.8
Seventeen Seconds (2 votes) - 8
The Cure (1 votes) - 8
The Top (1 votes) - 8
Three Imaginary Boys (1 votes) - 4
Wild Mood Swings (1 votes) - 6
Wish (3 votes) - 7

[Winston*]

Realised I included albums with less than 4 votes in the U2 total. But it wouldn't have changed things much, since unlike The Cure only 2 of their albums were under the threshold.

[DSNT]

I'm surprised by the Pornography ambivalence. That's the one I usually think of as being the most artistic and critically acclaimed, although probably not the most accessible.

[D_Davis]

I think it's just overshadowed by The Head on the Door and Disintegration. For me, it's hard to beat those two albums. I like Pornography (but it is my least favorite of the trilogy), but I think The Head on the Door is a perfect album that I'd pit against the best from any band out there. It's an album to be studied, a masterclass of modern rock.

[D_Davis]

edit: wrong thread