![[shiny grey monotone]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipd6KiHDAbQRs8CrRmxCtqbg5yoSbtwAR2w4FDFERXJfP-Wgf3Cz4jKCnaAK371bePkk6lKYG-xjoKhUdF7yW1blhH6YjV-KoEofpS4GD9XwZyDKQbxxbHb3Q5NFTmvea6ecFdMdVZWqoj/s854-r/1.jpg)
Label: Fiction
Year: 1979
It's raining where I am, so I must assume it's also raining where you are, as I don't, and don't want to, understand the intricacies of modern meteorology, which in my mind is tantamount to black magick and parlor tricks. No thanks. Not interested David Copperfield.
Point being, if it's raining, and I'm working...well...it's go time for some mauldin post punk pop, and you can't get no better than The Cure. Straight up.
So, here's their debut album in all it's twitchy, gothy, creepy glory. Complete with what you would think would have been a super ill-advised choice to cover Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady', but turns out is a fun Bauhaus-y rave up. We should all learn to trust The Cure more. Aside from sneaker choices, has Robert Smith really lead us astray?
This version is the debut album, plus bonus tracks 'Boys Don't Cry', 'Killing An Arab', 'Jumping Someone Else's Train', 'Plastic Passion', and 'World War', which I'm not sure why they are there. Those songs aren't on the original release, and aren't on the way later re-releases that have all kinds of demos and shit, and they aren't the "Boys Don't Cry" album (which was their official North American debut that culled tracks from "Three Imaginary Boys" plus others), so I'm baffled. But, those are all certified jams, so they stay.
DL
I wore out Boys Don't Cry (the 1980 US LP), and it does have all of those bonus songs (in place of "Foxy Lady", "Meathook", "So What?", "It's Not You" and "The Weedy Burton" from Three Imaginary Boys.) They were on the first Cure singles, with the exception of "World War". Like you say, those singles were great songs, and I think the label must have figured that US audiences didn't know them. I didn't hear the other songs from Three Imaginary Boys until years later, and I was surprised that they did a credible job on "Foxy Lady".
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wish that the Cure had continued in this vein as a guitar-based trio rather than bringing in the synths, but it obviously worked out very well for them, so what do I know!