Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. We are here for a very special
episode today.
Speaker 2: We are joined by.
Speaker 1: Our super fan, not just a fan, but a super
fan and Patreon.
Speaker 2: Members Amanda Jenic. How are you doing, Amanda?
Speaker 3: I'm good. How about you, guys?
Speaker 2: We are doing great? Thank you doing awesome? Is my
lipstick red enough? Is my lascara on the right way?
Do I look the part?
Speaker 3: Look the part?
Speaker 2: I look like Edward scissarsans? How's my hair?
Speaker 3: My good.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: We are here today to talk about The Cure and
more specifically their album from nineteen eighty nine, Disintegration. We
are doing this well because Amanda bought us out.
Speaker 2: Hey Amanda, you came on in June. I looked back
on Facebook and you had created a little sign that said, hey, everybody,
go listen to the Shirley Camp Be Serious podcast. Oh
and by the way, beg Dean Jason to cover The
Cure versus depeesch Mode. Yes, I did, and you won
our hearts at that moment.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: It was absolutely awesome. To be honest, this is a
little bit uncharted for de and I. This is not
our sweet spot, and that's why we brought you on
and why we're gonna lean on you today to help
us out with the Cure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm ready, I'm gonna sit down. You just tell
us what happened. Okay, we're here to talk about the Cure.
But the Cure is a band of copious, voluminous members,
but the only constant throughout the history of the band
a brilliant musician. There's no other man in the world
that I would rather buy a vo five hot oil
gift basket for mister Robert Smith. Jason, you said it.
This is not only I'm gonna be honest here. I
know that I've got some people who are Cure fans
who are tuning in. I've had some of our regular
fans go I can't wait to hear what you've got
to say about this. I'm gonna tell you the truth.
I'm gonna be completely honest at this point. I'm glad
we have a super fan on because The Cure is
one of the few bands in my life that when
people are like, oh, I'm like, I don't like them,
I do not like But having gone through this process,
having listened to this album, having listened to some of
their other music. I can say at this point my
mind has been changed.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're kind of showing your hand early.
Speaker 3: Aren't you.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we've got we've got another group that
we're going to compare this to. We're going to talk
about depeche Mode later on. And they also were not
in there in my wheelhouse, but they are definitely more
in my wheelhouse than The Cure.
Speaker 2: Ever was right.
Speaker 1: But my experience with The Cure was seeing Robert Smith
and his weird tarantula hair and eyeliner in the late
eighties and early nineties when they were becoming big on MTV,
and it wasn't a turn on for me at all.
I was just like, this is just weird. We call
them emos back then. The songs that I heard, we're
not songs that I like. But this is an absolutely
true story. When we got with our last episode and
it was time to finally start focusing on The Cure,
I put this album on. I started driving home and
literally within the first two minutes of the first song,
I was calling up Jason, going, I actually really like this,
this is actually really good. So thank you, Amanda, You've
turned me and so I have to say thank you.
I have really enjoyed this album and I can't wait
to talk to you guys in detail about the band
and of course this epic, epic album.
Speaker 3: That's fantastic. Another win for me because my husband was
exactly the same. He did not like The Cure at all,
but all he really knew was the radio stuff like
you know on Friday, I'm in Love. That man hates
that song. And once I started playing more of the
catalog for him and stop, like his mind was changed.
And then we just saw The Cure live this summer
when I did the sign in June. And he's a
musician and he plays bass and stop, he is now
a big, big, big fan.
Speaker 2: Can we settle something real quick before we go any further.
Are we calling him the Cure or the Cure? Are
you making fun of my pronounciation saying we bring on
Miss Wisconsin and you're the one pronouncing it funny? It's
the cure? Okay, there we go.
Speaker 1: It's the Cure, the Cure, Cure, Cure, I don't know, Okay,
it's nuclear. Okay, So let's jump in. Let's start talking
about the band. This is a band that basically you
could say was the origin of gothrock. I was in
love with the movie The Crow back in nineteen ninety four,
I think is when it came out, and James Obarr
had a specific reference to the cure and joy division
getting him through this difficult spot in his life. That
was what The Crow was based on, and so I
understood the concept back then. But even then, other than
that song, I do enjoy the song in the movie
The Crow that they have, which is one where he's
like punching the mirror and putting on the makeup for
the first time. Uh yeah, I love it. I love
that song. But it's always been Robert Smith's voice that
I was just kind of mah about, especially with their
more popular songs. So Robert was born back in nineteen
fifty nine in Blackpool, England. We all probably remember what
it was like to turn twenty nine and realize that
in a year you would be thirty and so if
you were a brilliant musician and you tried to put
those feelings to music while also taking copious amounts of LSD, well,
this is the album you get, and that's called Disintegration.
Speaker 2: Initially we were going to do kiss Me kiss Me,
kiss Me, which is their album from nineteen eighty seven.
But Amanda is like, uh, maybe now, guys, the Cintegration
is the album we want to do because it's better
and it matches up better with Depeche Modes Violator that.
Speaker 3: Yep, it's a far superior album. Even though Kissy Kissy
kiss Me is my second favorite.
Speaker 2: Robert Smith considers it his masterpiece.
Speaker 3: Yep, this is his magnum opus.
Speaker 2: Fantastic.
Speaker 1: Okay, So when he was a little kid, his parents
were musicians and he and his younger sister, Janet I
received piano lessons and Janet apparently was an absolute prodigy,
and so because Robert was jealous and had sibling rivalry,
he decided, well, if she's going to be great at
the piano, I'm going to be great at the guitar
because she can't fit her hand around the guitar, and
so I know that she can't get better than me
at it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I heard that his first guitar was a Christmas
gift from his brother, but his brother said he had
confiscated it from me anyway, so I gave it to
him as a Christmas gift.
Speaker 1: But either way, he was going to have it. So
Robert had started taking lessons from a student of John Williams. No,
not that John Williams. There are two famous John Williams musicians.
One of them is the composer that we know from
Star Wars and Superman and all the others. The other
is John Williams, a classical guitarist, and he is one
of the most famous classical guitarists of all time. I
had a John Williams music book growing up. I absolutely did,
Yes Wow. But he figured out eventually that it just
wasn't interesting to him to learn that type of guitar,
and so he started really teaching himself.
Speaker 2: After that.
Speaker 1: He started a band when he was about fourteen years old,
right after he officially got the guitar. We've got the band,
Brolly Goat Band. They also called themselves the obelisk YEP,
and with the Obelisk that was really that core group
that started. You had Robert Smith, obviously, you had Mark
Sicagno on guitar, Michael Dempsey on guitar, Alan Hill on bass,
and Lowell Tollhurst on percussion. And Lowell's history with the band.
Speaker 2: Is in oh.
Speaker 3: I did want to share something interesting with you. Guys.
His childhood idol was Jimmy Hendricks really yeah, yeah, Jimmy Hendrix.
And he had tickets to go to the concert, but
his brother Samon, who gave him the guitar, locked him
in a tent and he couldn't get out of the tent.
He missed the concert. Jimmy Hendrix passed away like two
weeks later or something.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, no, that's terrible. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Literally, I was bouncing ideas off of James Buckley on
the way over here today and he literally sent me
this songs. So this is the Cure covering Purple Haze
by Jimmy Hendrix, and it's fantastic. I mean, it's all cure,
it's all Jimmy Hendrix.
Speaker 2: I love it. I will tell you this. I called
James Buckley last night. I called him. I'm like, dude,
help me out with the cure. And he loves the cure.
And he's a rock guy, he's a rock drummer. He goes, well,
I'll tell you what you need to talk to my
lead singer, lead singer of the world famous Hidden tracks
Hidden Track. So he gives me he works number, who
is the singer of Hidden Tracks. He said, this guy
loves the Cure. He's got tons of stuff. Calling twice
didn't get ahold of the stuff. So go see Hidden
Tracks if you're in the Louisiana area. Thanks James Buckley
for trying to make that happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I got some good info from James Buckley
because I was asking him specifically about Boris Williams, the
drummer on this album. Okay, so but I'll get into
that a little bit later, and we start going in
track by track. Okay, So these guys had this band
in high school, he said. In high school they just
called him the group because they were the only guys
together as a group as a band, So that was
not terribly creative, but easy to identify. And then by
nineteen seventy seven they had finally come up with their
real name, Easy Cure.
Speaker 2: So throughout this process they have all these different singers.
All these guys come in, they all sing, I think,
loll saying. At some point and Robert Smith's back, They're
going playing guitar, going. These guys all suck. I hate
all their voices. Now I hate my own boys, Yeah,
but I hate my voice about as much as I
hate their voice, so I might as well sing, and
so that's how he ends up seeing But.
Speaker 3: If we're gonna have a sucky singer, it might as
well be me.
Speaker 1: So back when they were still Malice, he got kicked
out of his high school. He got expelled from high
school because they considered him an undesirable influence after I
guess they had done a provocative performance as Malice just
before Christmas nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I heard that he wore addressed to school one
day and the Catholics didn't really enjoy that either.
Speaker 1: Well, he said it was pretty open minded school, and
so they were just like, yeah, Okay, it's a phase
he's going through or whatever. But I think he may
have inspired others to be even weirder. And his claim
was that he got beat up after that that day.
So anyway, he gets expelled from school. He lives on
social Security for eight or nine months, and then when
the money stopped, he thought, well, I guess we better
make that demo tape.
Speaker 3: This is going to be a common scene through the
whole podcast. Robert never wanted a job ever, Like he's
like my boy Jimmy Buffett, don't work a day in
your life like you know, but yeah, make the demo
because he didn't want to get a job.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, I was impressed when I went through
the history of Robert Smith. The Cure was opening for
Susie and the Banchees, and then right before one of
their concerts, I guess their guitar player something happened to him.
He couldn't go, so whit he quits.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the guitarist and the drummer of the Susie and
the Banchees quit three days into the tour.
Speaker 2: So Robert Smith's like, I'll play guitar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're like yeah, right, And so they went
through several other guitarists and then they came back and
they're like, Okay, do you really think that you can
do this? Yes, and you can do your own show.
Of course I can do it. And he did it.
Speaker 2: He said, I'll do it as long as the Cure
can still open for Susie in the Banchees.
Speaker 1: Yeah, save the opening band by saving the lead band, right.
Speaker 2: That's it. I think it's cool. They talked about how
that experience taught him how to be a true front man. Yeah.
At some point he said, can I borrow your lipstick.
Is that right? Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: Susie's look, not just her performance, but her look were
what inspired what we now know as the Robert Smith look.
Speaker 2: Okay, before we get off the early days of The Cure,
I have to go back to a time when The
Cure was opening for the band Generation X. Does that
ring a bell for you? The band Generation X? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Because Generation X is where Billy Idol came from.
Speaker 2: That's right. So while they're on tour with Generation X, huh,
Lowell goes into the bathroom to relieve himself and in
the cull he finds Billy Idol having sex with a groupie,
and since he cannot be bothered, Lowell just peas on
Billy Idol's leg while with a groupie drunk.
Speaker 1: Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
Speaker 2: That got them kicked off the tour way to go.
Billy wasn't apply happy by that. It was a distraction.
I'm doing something, dude, don't be on my legs. Tell
me it's training.
Speaker 1: So we're talking talking about how awesome a guitarist Robert
Smith is. When the Banshees were trying to figure out
who they were going to have replaced like nobody could
come up and just do it. And when they said, Robert,
let's see what you can do, he knew their songs already.
He was able to crank it out. He really, truly
is a brilliant musician, and he's well known for having
in his first several albums. Has this Woolworth's Top twenty guitar,
which is just a cheap, not particularly great guitar that
he managed to crank out some amazing ethereal sounds from.
He bought it for twenty pounds in nineteen seventy eight.
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Speaker 1: So by seventy eight seventy nine they condensed their name
from Easy Cure down to Just the Cure, and Smith
ends up composing and recording demo versions of some of
their definitive early songs. He plays it on his sisters
Ham and Organ with built in tape recorder, including the
song ten to fifteen Saturday Night.
Speaker 3: It Was Boys Don't Cry Firing Cairo ten to fifteen
on a Saturday night and it's not you were their
four songs on their demo and he was sixteen years old. Wow, sixteen.
Something else to mention about when they you know, these
early years or whatever. Mary Pool, She's going to come
up a lot. But he met her when he was
fourteen years old and they got married in eighty eight
and they are still together. He met her when he
was fourteen. The rumor on the street is their first
date was going to see the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Speaker 2: I saw a quote in regards to their family they've
never had children, and I guess somebody asked him and sad,
why haven't you guys had kids. He's like, well, I
don't like living enough to have choice. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like a deep philosophy with him. Yeah, he feels
like that becoming a parent is an act of tyranny,
like you're forcing someone to be born who didn't ask
to be born.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks mom.
Speaker 1: So they end their tour with Susie and the Banshees
and he goes back to recording with Strictly the Cure.
He ends up writing and composing most of the music
for the album seventeen Seconds, using the Hammond that we mentioned,
and a drum machine and that top twenty worldworth guitar
that we talked about. He wrote most of the lyrics
in one night in Newcastle for that album One night, Yeah.
Speaker 3: When he was drunk, And that's also a common theme.
Speaker 2: You know, you and I were talking before we started recording, Amanda.
The interesting thing about a lot of these songs, maybe
the whole album is it's not verse verse, fridge chorus verse.
It's almost poetry with layers of synth and guitar and melody.
Speaker 1: M h.
Speaker 2: It's very different than what I'm used to. But I
was swept away in it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's like a circus of the mind. Like I
told you before, you think a song's going to end,
and then all of a sudden, Nope, it just gets
bigger that and all of a sudden, ni crescendo is
even higher that.
Speaker 2: The first time I was listening to this, I was like, Okay, great,
this is an instrumental Nope, just takes four minutes for
him to start singing.
Speaker 3: Yah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So for the first four albums, the entire band was
given songwriting credits.
Speaker 2: First four albums are Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith,
and pornography, and.
Speaker 1: So that was basically every year, right seventy nine, eighty
eighty one, eighty two, yep. It was another couple of
years before they came out with the next album, which
was called The Top nineteen eighty four yep. And then
later on that year, Andy Anderson, who was their drummer,
got into a racially motivated incident with a security guard
and then destroyed a hotel room because of it, and
so they fired him, okay, And that is when they
hired Boris Williams, who was the drummer that would be
on their next couple of albums and the album that
we're here to talk about today. So the next couple
in the mix, we've got the Head on the Door.
Speaker 2: Yep. And then we've got kiss Me, kiss Me, kiss Me.
Speaker 1: Now, there's another album that's out there called Japanese Whispers,
and this is their This is like their B sides
and some of their other stuff. And this was the
album that I sent to you guys, and I said,
this is like happy little pop music by the Cure.
I listened to several of his songs. I'm like, this
is actually kind of fun. I like like the happy
Robert Smith.
Speaker 3: The way we walk, the.
Speaker 2: Way wait talk, way we stalk.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, he he's a funny guy. He's got a reputation.
He's a funny bloke if I may, But he's got
that reputation of just being a goofball. You know, you
watch the interviews and stuff too. They're mind blowing. They're
just they're so fun to watch because he's just funny.
He's cracking jokes, he's making fun of people, makes fun
of himself like, he's got a great sense of humor.
Speaker 1: I just got to give credit to him that after
this many years. I mean, I don't remember when he
adopted the look for sure, but we're talking about late seventies,
probably he has not given up the mask era, the
lipstick or the crazy hair. Like Eddie Van Halen cut
his hair, David Lee Roth cut his hair, the guys
from Metallica all cut their hair. Even Lane Staley cut
his hair. Robert Smith, No, he is, he did.
Speaker 3: He did at one point. I mean, let you guys,
I'm just gonna say this. He is hot, Okay, He's
just a beautiful, beautiful man. And there was a time
when he got sick of everybody talking about his hair
because like people would show up to shows and stuff,
and nothing irritated him more than when you go to
a show and see all these people dressed like him,
their hair like him, everything. So he did he'd completely
cut his hair or whatever, and he hated that even
more so he just grew it back. But that's probably
Earl mid eighties maybe. But if you see the pictures
and stuff, it doesn't look like the same person Smith.
Speaker 2: I saw that picture and actually James Buckley sent it
to me. He sent me a comparison. Here's Robert Smith
in nineteen eighty six, clean cut, collared shirt and a
picture of Ben Affleck right next to him. It looked
like twins.
Speaker 1: Wow, I can see it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but interesting note you were talking about, you know,
their first couple albums and stuff. I don't know if
you guys read about this at all, but stef teen Seconds,
Faith and Pornography. They're considered the Suicide trilogy because it's
three records together that are the most depressing records you
will ever listen to in your life, especially Faith. Like
I tell people, don't listen to the Faith album, not
George Michael's Faith, but their Faith. Don't listen to that.
If you're not in the right mindset, because if you're
depressed already or whatever, that thing's going to put you
over the edge. That trilogy of albums is They're amazing.
They are gifts to you know, gifts to the world.
But they're heavy.
Speaker 1: I'm getting very close to ready to jump in track
by track yep.
Speaker 2: But I feel like Amanda that I need to ask
you tell me about the Forest.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you that is the song that flipped
my husband from being a cure hater to a cure lover.
He's my husband plays bass. He's not in a band
or anything right now, but he's very judgmental. I guess
about music and if you know musicians are talented, or
if they're male it in or if it's all synthesizers,
you know that whatever. And I played The Forest for
him one night and he lost his mind. It's so
good the last minute and a half of that song.
Will god see I just get speechless, you guys. But
watch the video. Sometimes it's an eighties nightmare, but it's
a song from the seventies, but it's like neon vomit
all over your screen. It's yellows and greens and pinks,
and everything, But that song is widely considered one of
the favorites by the die hard Cure face outside of
the radio heavy stuff and everything, because it's deep, it's brilliant,
it's just it's amazing. I think it's important to mention
you guys with their music, all their albums and stuff too,
they purposely, well Robert specifically went out of their way
to make music that they didn't think people would want
to hear, because as they started getting more popular and stuff,
and they realized all of a sudden, they were turning
into those enough boys and stuff, and that's never what
they wanted. Robert Smith never ever wanted fame. He doesn't
care about the money, and a lot of artists say that,
you gotta believe this dude was like he lives in
like a monk, you know, like money does not matter
to him. But they would specifically write songs that they
didn't think people would like or that the label would hate.
Speaker 2: That leads us right into what I was getting ready
to say about this album. He sits down. He was
not pleased with the popularity that they had achieved from
kiss Me, kiss Me, kiss Me. They were MTV darlings,
you know, just like Heaven is a great little pop song.
The album was super well received, they became popular, and
because of that, they became successful, and therefore he became depressed.
Speaker 3: He was always depressed a factor.
Speaker 2: That's true. You know, It's like we're saying when Wilt
Chamberlain was tall, exactly exactly, Well, nothing pisses me off
more than success and money and you know, having it all.
But so he's twenty nine, on the edge of thirty.
He looks around, I'm mister popularity. The record company wants
me to make a sequel to kiss Me, kiss Me,
kiss Me. I don't really want to do that. I'm
going to make my magnum opus because I want to
put my stamp on the world before I'm thirty years old.
And so I'm going to do what I want to do.
And so when he finished Disintegration, he sat back and thought,
this is the best I'm ever going to do. This
is my magnum opus. This is awesome. I've outdone myself.
And he brought it to the record executives. So when
he plays it for them, it's sort of like, hmm,
They're all kind of cross armed and like, and so
they after listening to it very lukewarm reception. They tell
him you're being willfully obscure. He thought it was a masterpiece,
and they thought it was a pile of crap, very
similar to what we had discussed earlier on the Unexcess
Kick album. When they brought it to the record executives,
those guys offered him a million bucks to start over.
Speaker 3: I feel like you're stament about it being a lukewarm reception,
maybe a little generous because they actually called the album
commercial suicide.
Speaker 1: That's not very lukewarm, right, Yeah, And it turns out
they were exactly right because when the album was released,
it was the best selling album they had ever had.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've got something for you before we get started
on the track by track. I found this fascinating. So
when they were recording the album, they recorded it at
hook End Manor, which I guess was David Gilmour's old house,
David Gilmore from Pink Floyd. And so they're recording this
between November of eighty eight and February of eighty nine.
During this time, a fire broke out in Robert Smith's
living quarters due to a like an electrical heater. The
electrical heater that he had in his room, catches his
room on fire. Does he care about his belongings? No?
Does he care that his room is on fire? No,
but he does have a satchel of lyrics for the
album Disintegration pre recording, and so he said, they all
joined hands, like made a chain with towels around their
head so they wouldn't burn. And he had to go
in because he was the only one who knew where
that statue where the lyrics were, and so they literally
risked their lives to save the lyrics to this album.
And when he found it, of course there's fire and
smoke and all this stuff. They put out the fire.
The fireman actually yelled at him them collectively and they said,
you guys, your lives are way more important than a
stupid bag full of papers. And Robert Smith's like, you
guys don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't know who you're talking to.
Speaker 2: Yep. I found that very interesting.
Speaker 3: That is that is interesting. So you know, Two, it's
worth noting he's on record talking about when they were
recording this album that he went into what he called
a monk state where he refused to talk to people,
and he wanted to make recording the album as uncomfortable
as possible to enhance the vibe of the album awesome.
Speaker 2: One more thing, I thought this was interesting. In the
liner notes, there's a sentence that says, this music has
been made to be played loud, so turn it up.
Speaker 3: Well, every time I sent you guys want im like
headphones on volume up?
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's jump in track by track. First song on
the album is called plain song. Okay, So as the
album starts off, I got to crank up the volume
because I'm like, did I put did it hit?
Speaker 2: Play? What happened did I get? Oh?
Speaker 1: Oh, It's like I'm listening to the wind chimes at
Nana's house. This is so nice, This makes me feel
so good. And then boom, slam in my face. You
get this orchestra of amazing sound.
Speaker 3: Mm hm, you get book three minutes of that until
anything else kicks in. So it's just it's gorgeous. It's
absolutely gorgeous. Their last two are not this one, but
the one previous. I believe it was twenty eighteen. They
did a concert at Hyde Park in England and that
was their opening song for the concert. Talk about setting
a mood like you know what you're in for. The
opening lyrics, I think it's dark and it looks like rain,
you said. And the wind is blowing like it's the
end of the world, you said. First lyrics on this CD,
that repetition of that you said. It just hits, man,
it just hits like you said. You think you're in
for this nice, peaceful, you know, orchestra song. And then
it's like, oh, no, I know what you're doing here, Robert,
I got your number.
Speaker 2: So I think this is the perfect intro song for
a concert for me. I envision, you know, a little backlit.
They're actually taking the stage. You see them picking up
the instruments as this is getting going, and once again
the first totally instrumental, and then you think, okay, this
is a great grand entrance. And then he starts singing
halfway through and then.
Speaker 3: Continues with lyrics like and it's so cold, it's like
the cold if you were dead. Then you smiled for
a second. Sometimes you make me feel like I'm living
at the edge of the world. It's just the way
I smile. You side.
Speaker 2: The feel is hopeful, in melodic and grand, and the
lyrics are about bad weather and.
Speaker 3: Death, right, and that's what the cure is. Though, they'll
they'll flip those emotions on their heads. You know where
you've got this. You know some of these songs, these
really upbeat, cheery melodies with these gloom and doom lyrics,
and then other songs you've got where it almost sounds
dark and haunting and demented and everything. But then those
they're the most beautiful lyrics. They flip those emotions on
their head.
Speaker 2: I love it. This is a great way to start
the album. I was hooked in from the beginning. I
thought it was beautiful. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Three minutes into the song and I'm calling I'm Jason
doing I've totally flipped. I've done a one to eighty
on this.
Speaker 2: This is amazing.
Speaker 3: You love to hear it all right.
Speaker 2: Next song on the album is a song called Pictures
of You.
Speaker 1: So it was at this point in the album that
I really started tuning in to Boris Williams drums.
Speaker 2: His drums are unique, they're powerful, they're epic.
Speaker 1: I think they speak in each and every one of
the songs on this album, but he does it in
a masterful way where he's not overpowering the rest of
the music. He is accentuating the rest of the music, which,
again this is a perfect example of what they do,
builds layer by layer by layer as you're going through here.
Pictures of You was based on an essay by Myra
Paleo called The Dark Power of Ritual Pictures. After Robert
Smith read, he decided to destroy all of his old
photos and home videos as a way to erase his past,
and then he regretted afterwords.
Speaker 2: The mansel savage see, I heard a completely different story
on this song. And the interesting thing like in interviews
he'll give different accounts that clash, so you don't really
know what's the truth. But I heard that the inspiration
for this song is from that fire where they were
saving the lyrics or whatever, and he was sifting through
the fire damaged remains and he came across a picture
of his wife, and supposedly that picture is on the
cover of the single.
Speaker 3: He tells different accounts of everything, like constantly contradicts himself
and stuff yes on their toes.
Speaker 2: He's not afraid to lie, that's for sure. So this
was the fourth single released March nineteenth of nineteen ninety. Now,
the interesting thing the video The music video was shot
in Scotland and was a week before this big snow
that hit there and according to Robert Smith filming that video,
he has never been colder in his life.
Speaker 3: That I almost love my.
Speaker 2: I think this is the best song on the album
Bike the Football early best song the album Wow. You
know who else kind of agrees with me. Rolling Stone
marked this as the two hundred and eighty third out
of the five hundred Greatest Songs of All Time.
Speaker 3: It's a good song.
Speaker 2: You're not with me? I can tell you're not with me.
Speaker 3: I love them all.
Speaker 1: The first several songs on this are all bangers.
Speaker 2: Side one is strong.
Speaker 3: This is just that you know it's it has that
more upbeat tone to it. This is where I feel
like Simon Galp just shines on that face. The first
couple of minutes of this song, or You are just unbelievable,
keys front and center there, totally love and anguish. But
it's painful also somehow uplifting. It's funny because about five
minutes forty five seconds into the song or so, you
can feel that something's about to change. Minute six on
the dot, he hits you in the face. Was with
there was nothing in the world that I ever wanted
more than it feel you deep in my heart. There
was nothing in the world I ever wanted more than
to never feel the breaking of art my pictures of you.
I'm done. I can't. It slays me in every way.
But just minute six on the dot, he's like, I'm
not done.
Speaker 2: Well, oh no, I'm not done. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: This one, like You Said, was the last single that
they released, at number seventy one on the Billboard Hot
one hundred, number nineteen on alternative airplay. I'm definitely putting
it as a top finisher on the album.
Speaker 3: Every time I hear this song, though, I think about
Junior High. That was the crush song. That's the song
that you play in your head when you were just
staring at Bryan.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, is Brian your husband's name?
Speaker 3: No, that was my crush.
Speaker 1: That was crush.
Speaker 3: Open.
Speaker 2: There you go, Brian. If you're listening podcast, we want
to hear from you right.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Sorry for those looks across the room that might
have made you uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: That's actually a good question. How did you get introduced
to the band in the first place?
Speaker 2: Do you remember?
Speaker 3: Okay, you guys this is while Okay, I was not
a Cure fan until ten years ago. Like, I liked
some of their stuff, but I don't know, something ten
years ago started listening to it more and more, more
of the deep cuts and stuff, really paying attention to
the lyrics and stuff, and they just spoke to me.
You know, Before that it was just so I like
the radio stuff. But and now just unapologetic about it.
I couldn't even tell you the first time that I
was like, oh, you know, the first song I heard
or whatever, but about yeah, about ten years ago. So,
but my music tastes are very eclectic. They're all over
the map. When you're ranking out bands that I love,
you know, my tops are the Cure, Allison Chains, the
Doombie Brothers, Steely Dance.
Speaker 1: That is a varied mix right there. That is a
very varied mix right there.
Speaker 3: They've all got something to say and they're saying it
beautifully nice.
Speaker 2: You know who the old drummer to Steely Dan was
Chevy Chase. No, it's truth, that's.
Speaker 1: The truth before they became the Steely Dan.
Speaker 2: Steely Dan that we know today.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have things now. I know what. I'm gonna
read a book.
Speaker 2: All right, we ready to move on.
Speaker 1: The third song is another song where they take two
words that are separate words and stick them together and
make them one word songs called closed Down, time Out.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 1: I'm ready for Mike to kiss eleven for the first time.
This is eighties gold right here, absolute eighties synth gold.
Speaker 3: The drums are what get me on that song that
very Yeah.
Speaker 2: The drums sound like when you go see like the
Broadway show of the Lion King. You know, it's like.
Speaker 3: Tribal.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Boris Williams is going after the toms at the beginning
of this, and like I said, it absolutely fits.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: You've got you've got this build and then it comes
in with the synthesizer.
Speaker 2: It's just beautiful. Yeah. I mean you start with the drums,
you bring in that synth that raises it, and then
you have the guitar, bass and the vocals. It's just
a they build it from the ground up before you're
very tears.
Speaker 3: It's and that's a theme with all their songs. It
keeps building in and you're waiting for that pressure at lease,
but he doesn't give it to us.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It feels like it's building but you listen in the
beginning in the end, and they're pretty much the same
level all the way through, but it feels like it's building.
Speaker 1: There are literally seven lines of lyrics in this entire song.
Seven lines of lyrics. But this one goes back to
the inspiration for the album, the twenty ninth birthday.
Speaker 2: We're about to reach the.
Speaker 1: End of youth. Nobody's making good music after they turn thirty.
And so what's the first lyric of the song. I'm
running out of time, I'm out of step and closing down.
Speaker 3: And then he ends with if only I could fill
my heart with love.
Speaker 2: Here's what he said on that.
Speaker 1: He said several of the tracks on this album he
is thinking about the feeling of being washed up.
Speaker 2: And this is his quote. The biggest frustration.
Speaker 1: Of getting older is not being able to feel strong
emotions anymore.
Speaker 2: He says.
Speaker 1: Cynicism enters your world and you get numb. I cannot
agree with you more, friend, I wish I could feel
the way I felt when I was twenty nine years old.
Speaker 3: Again, you've got that juxtaposition of that happy, more upbeat
sound to it, but those depressing lyrics. It messles with
the mind again.
Speaker 2: Well, I think we're about to cure that with the
next song. I feel, pardon the pun. There fourth song
on the album, which is the third single, is called
love Song.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to try not to say too much
about my feelings on the song because I don't want
to upset Amanda.
Speaker 3: Well, you're fine, hey, like this one.
Speaker 1: This is one of their popular songs that I was
familiar with that I was just like, Eh, this doesn't
It's just it doesn't appeal to me.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I know that he wrote it as a wedding present
for his wife, and that's beautiful and sweet and all,
but the sound voice on this one, it's not my
cup of tea, and it's that I'm in the minority, right.
It's like one of their biggest hits of all time.
Speaker 2: It reached number two on the Hot one hundred, number two. Amanda,
what do you think I love this song?
Speaker 3: I do. I love it. It's not my favorite though.
I mean, it doesn't super surprise me that you said that,
because honestly, it's not one of my super favorites either.
I love the fact that he tried to write like
just a simple love song, you know, but in true
Robert Fashion. Even he couldn't do that. It's still had
to be haunting, you know. But it is their only
song in the catalog. Really, that's truly about love.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're both crazy. This is a great song. This
is radio friendly hit. This is what would play on
MTV always on the top forty is radio friendly hit.
I don't know why you don't like it. Listen to
this top five from October twenty first, nineteen eighty nine.
I'm a big nineteen eighty nine guy. Listen this top five.
Number five you have Mixed Emotions by the Rolling Stones,
the Return of the Rolling Stones. Number four, You've got
Listened to your Heart by rock Set Eighties gold, number
three Sowing the Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears
maybe their best song ever and an ode to the Beatles.
Absolute gold. Number two you have a love Song by
The Cure, maybe their most radio friendly hit. And then
number one, You've Got Miss You Much by Janet Jackson.
Awesome eighties song. That's a power Top five right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you were doing which of these things is
not like the other? In this one, I have no
doubt that love song is to not like the other.
Speaker 2: It is not like the other, that's for sure. I
like this one. I think it's great.
Speaker 3: It is it's a great song.
Speaker 1: Can I be honest about this. I hate to say
this to hit I hate to say. Have you guys
heard the three eleven tober of this song?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: I love love and cover the song so good.
Speaker 3: It's so good. You should put a snip of that.
Speaker 1: Okay, we should listen to We should listen to that.
Speaker 2: Okay, that three eleven version. It's like reggae. I love it.
It's yeah, it's reggae, but it's still very true to
the song. It is so true to the song. And
I did that. Guy's voice is not the Robert Smith
voice that I don't like. Okay, d pop quiz Yeah,
quick poll ready love song by Cure, A song by
Tesla Ready Go absurd, absurd, same time period. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's literally how the conversation started. When I said
to Jason, which album are we doing? And he said Disintegration,
and like, what's the big song off of that one?
And he's like a love song and like love songs
like Tesla.
Speaker 2: I love that. This is mostly one of my favorite
Tesla songs.
Speaker 1: Well, once again they've slammed those words together. And whereas
with Tesla you have love song, this one is love song.
I do think it's cool that was written as a
wedding present. You kind of glost over that, but that's
a really cool thing. Again to Mary Pool is longtime
love from his early teenage days. I heard a guy
talking about love song and how it's uplifting.
Speaker 2: And sort of loving and light for this album. He said,
it's like love song is the lamp to help you
illumine the dark corners of this album because.
Speaker 3: You need a break from everything that's going on.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I completely your wrists.
Speaker 3: Fun fact about Mary Pool though, too, she doesn't even
like The Cure. She doesn't like most of their music.
Speaker 2: What we gotta be kidding what she said?
Speaker 3: Mary Pool? Yeah, his wife doesn't even like most of
The Cure's music.
Speaker 2: That does not surprise me at all. I do to
be kidding me.
Speaker 1: I do not think my wife has listened to a
single podcast that we've ever done. She never came to
a Sunday school class when I was teaching, like.
Speaker 2: Literally nothing, that's crazy though, I mean it bought our
house and puts food on her table nuts. Well there,
she's honest lipstick on her husband's face every night.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Other fun fact about this song though, Robert Smith says
it's the weakest song on the album Wow Wow, and
he wrote it for his wife, but he considers it
the weakest song on the album.
Speaker 2: That ingrad who doesn't like my music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's thinking, she's not gonna listen to this anyways.
Get this done that way, I've at least satisfied the
I wrote a song for you, honey, I get flowers.
Speaker 3: I want a song written about me.
Speaker 1: Exactly right, Okay, Jason, Before we keep going, there is
a podcast that you and I just discovered which is
fan freakantastic that I wanted to tell everybody about.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's called Famous and Gravy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A couple of guys very much like ourselves, same generation.
They have that kind of same talking back and forth
with chemistry. Michael Osborne and am At Kapoor. They have
this really awesome format and it just keeps you engaged
in the podcast the whole freaking time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So they talk about a person who is dead
and whether or not you would want to have their life.
It's kind of a cool thing. They're inspirational They're very positive,
thought provoking. I enjoy this.
Speaker 1: They break it up into like ten or eleven different categories.
First one is the obituary of this person, right, and
then the last one is the James Vanderbet category of.
Speaker 2: I Don't want your life and it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: And they've got a Malcovich category in there, which is
my absolute favorite. But you guys should totally go check
these guys out. They cover athletes, they cover rock stars,
just I mean anybody and everybody.
Speaker 2: I mean, they've covered any money. Luke Perry, I forgot
he died, Brad Willard, Gene Wilder, Bill Paxton, Hank Aaron,
Alan Rickman.
Speaker 1: You told me you found a Bill Paxton nugget in
one of their podcasts.
Speaker 2: From them, according to their podcast, I learned this stuff. Yeah,
Bill Paxon, do you know the song fish Heads fish
Heads fish Headish Yeah. Bill Paxton was the director of
that music video.
Speaker 1: Shut up, Yes, dude. I love these guys. They are
fantastic guys. If you have not checked out the Famous
and Gravy podcast, definitely go check that out.
Speaker 2: Definitely. Okay, moving on to the next song on the album.
This song is called Last Dance son, turn that off.
Speaker 3: Also a banger.
Speaker 2: It is a banger.
Speaker 4: Okay, sorry, let's go back to the cure.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what I've got on this one is that
this is the feeling that you have when you meet
someone that you haven't seen for a long time and
you used to have very strong feelings for them and
you don't anymore, and you suddenly realize it's horrible sensation.
Speaker 2: This is the one song on the album that I
would mark down as a skipper. Oh my, oh my god,
this one doesn't do anything for me.
Speaker 3: I think this song is brilliant really to be my
second favorite on the album.
Speaker 2: What yeah, okay, well help me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's a musical circus again. You know, you think
you're going in one direction, you go in a completely
the other direction. It sounds very pointed, you know, like
he's talking about a woman. What else could it be?
I mean, he says it written the lyrics you know
where a girl, you know where a woman is, where
a girl once stood. But in listening to the lyrics
and stuff and thinking about what was happening at the
time with Lowell getting ousted from the band that broke him,
that broke Robert. Okay, childhood best friends. The rest of
the band wanted to get rid of him for a
long time, and he kept him in there and it
broke him when he had to. He wrote him a
letter you guys to kick him out of the band
and said, just please don't come back. Don't try and
change my mind. You know this is nothing against you, basically,
it's not you, it's me. But if you listen to
the lyrics, knowing that all that was going on, all
the alcohol abviews that was taking place at the time
and stuff, and then you hear lyrics like to see
how we're ending this last dance together? This is the
last album that Loue was involved in, and he knew
he was going to have to kick him out. Christmas
falls late, flatter and colder and never as bright as
when we used to fall. We were good back in
the day, look at us now type thing. And I
really believe that this was forever. Honestly think that this
song not necessarily was written about that situation, but reflects
what was going on in the time and played a
big part in the lyrics of this song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna agree with Amanda, You're wrong on this one.
This was a banger for me, This is not a skipper.
This is the first one that I was like, Okay,
I got to make a note on this song because
I like some of these things that are going on
so much. I think the guitar playing in this is
absolutely beautiful. And then when he sings this is the
song that I love Robert Smith's voice on. I mean,
this is the song that I'm like, oh my gosh,
this is like a pink Floyd's.
Speaker 3: It's the best voice for this song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so far, to me, we've had banger banger banger
on this. They've all been fantastic. I don't see a
definite end insight. I didn't like love song that was
the skipper for me. But jumping back in on Last Dance,
we start a ride up a roller coaster and there's
no stopping it.
Speaker 2: Moving on to the next song on the album, this
song is called Lullaby.
Speaker 1: This one is another great song. So I mentioned earlier
that his parents were musicians. His dad was a singer
and he would sing lullabies to Robert whenever he was
a little kid.
Speaker 2: But he would do the.
Speaker 1: Same thing that you get when you've got rock by
a baby, where the bow breaks and the cradle falls
and down comes baby and all, and we're like.
Speaker 2: That's a terrible that sucks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So he said his dad would do the same
thing and the song would end with something like sleep now,
pretty baby, or you won't wake up at all, and
so he'd go to sleep and he'd have nightmares about
getting eaten by spiders. And so that is the impetus
for him writing this song.
Speaker 2: Okay, Amanda the Florgers, what do you think?
Speaker 3: Okay, this was the first single that was released from
this album in the UK. In the UK, yep in
the UK. So we're looking back at a time. Okay,
we didn't have Spotify and we didn't have anything. All
you knew is what you heard on the radio. So
this is what they chose to release because then you
hear that song and that's what got people in on
the record songs, right, so you have to release a
good one. But at this time the music scene is
also changing. You see that girl creeping into this song.
We're still too early for grunge, but the alternative is
making a shift going toward the grunge movement and everything,
and I think we've got a free grunge era song.
Here right, you guys, between these lyrics, the stripped down
nature of this song, just the simplicity with these horrifying,
desperate lyrics. At this time, we've got faith no more,
We've got Nirvana bleached just came out. Hair bands are fading. Sorry, guys,
I know, at the sad time for you, but the
hair bands were fading out. It's head, you know. So
here we've got the cure again, pivoting to a little bit,
you know, of a music style that they see becoming
a little bit more popular, but still making it cure style.
I can't help but think like if Els and Chaine
back in the day did a stripped down version of
this song, Like what that would sound like? I feel
like Laane Staley is rolling over in his grave, but
he didn't write these lyrics. Everything about it is grunge.
It's heavy, it's scary, it's frightening. But it's a beautiful song. Again, circus,
it's a circus. But I see the elements of grudging
this song.
Speaker 2: You know who did cover this song, Jimmy Page and
Robert Plant. Wow. Yeah, it's phenomenal. A led Zeppelin version
of this song. So I've seen this as a metaphor
for addiction, depression, even sexual assault. To me, we've already
established that Robert Smith was using hallucinatory drugs while he's
writing and preparing for this album. This sounds like a
trip to me.
Speaker 3: It's an acid trip.
Speaker 2: It's an acid trip where he's thinking they're spiders all
over the place and they're out to get him and
eat him for dinner. He's talking about the spider Man
who's at the foot of the bed. Spider Man's going
to have him for dinner tonight.
Speaker 3: And I feel like I'm being eaten by a thousand
million shivering holes. And I know that in the morning
I will wake up in the shivering cold.
Speaker 1: So have you guys seen the video for this. He's
trying to fall asleep. They were supposed to put a
real spider on him and he was like, I get nope, no,
I can do that.
Speaker 2: Not happening. This is the highest charting Cure single in
the UK, topped out at number five. This seems very
Alice in Wonderland to me. So you and I were
talking earlier. This was the first single released in the
UK reached number five. It only hits number seventy four
in the US. It was the third single in the
US because the record guys around over here were like,
this is not a great radio song, this is not
a great lead single. We're not releasing it. We're releasing
the next song, the next song instead. And what's the
next song, Jason? The next song is called Fascination Street.
Speaker 1: I'm digging it, driving drum track, a song about getting
drunk in New Orleans.
Speaker 2: What else do you need?
Speaker 3: Filler baselines?
Speaker 2: Okay, have you guys seen the movie Lost Angels? No, Okay,
Lost Angels starring Donald Sutherland, at least in nineteen eighty nine.
We've already talked about how I'm a big nineteen eighty
nine guy. Go back to our best years in the
eighties movies, right, Yeah, I have not seen this movie.
But apparently they released Fascination Street as the first single
in the US because it was featured in the movie
Lost Angels. Okay, Apparently they're trying to capitalize on the
success of Los Angeles and I've never heard.
Speaker 1: Of this movie. Well, the song did better than the
movie did. Apparently, Yeah, I mean, because I guess the
US executives were not too far off base. It did
very well at this time Billboard had just come out
with this modern rock tracks, which is now called alternative airplay,
but back then brand new. This song, it's number one
and stays on the top of the short for the
next seven weeks.
Speaker 2: On that churp.
Speaker 3: It's so good. This is the song that I danced
in my kitchen too. Just a great beat, something you
would have heard, like in the club, almost for it.
I'll got really super clubby music, you know, just a
great rock song.
Speaker 2: It's moody, but it's uppy happy.
Speaker 3: I meanippy Robert, you know, he's got to add that vibe.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: Let's move to the beat, like we know that it's
over if you slip going under, slip over my shoulder.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now we've used this metaphor a lot, but this
is cracking and tubs driving on the streets. They're after
somebody and they're they're deep in thought and then they're
bummed out because the hooker got killed or something. So
this one belongs on Miami Vice. Well it's a great song. Yeah,
I like, Well, it's a great song.
Speaker 1: And the extended intro for the longer version longer mix,
it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: I get some long intros on this album, man, I'm
telling you yeah, all right, hits off on your tape player,
Kick it out, flip it over for side to first
song on side two is called Prayer for Rain.
Speaker 1: I love this built. This is such a driving song.
I said before Last Dance made me think of Pink Floyd.
Speaker 2: This one.
Speaker 1: I'm getting all kinds of the Doors writers on the Storm,
which I mean tie it in with Prayers for Rain.
It is that steady, almost like a Western style riff,
but with their synth pop sound. I mean, it's just
it is too good. I kind of wish that Johnny
cashould cover the song because I feel like just that
roughness belungs in the song. But what they do with
it is amazing. I love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 3: Good stuff. You know you got. It just came off
of Fascinations Street, which is, you know, a little bit
more upbeat sounding, more rock, you know, sound to it
or whatever, and then they just slip right back into
that moods Understormy kind of moved this one. He opens
up with you shelter me, your grip on me, a
hold on me, so doll it kills.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I like beginning the piano sounds that it's the
chords of the piano that are like ringing, and it's
like it's like the beginning of Rio. If you remember
we talked about how Nick Rhodes would bang his piano chords.
So interesting powerful song.
Speaker 1: This I think is probably my, if not my favorite,
it's my second favorite on the album, this one, and
the first song on the album playing song top two
contenders for me.
Speaker 3: Good choices, all right.
Speaker 2: Next song on the album is called Same deep Water
As You.
Speaker 1: So this is probably the biggest soundscape of the album.
This is all about your feel, your emotion, putting you
in that vibe, whatever that vibe.
Speaker 2: Might be for you. I dig it a lot.
Speaker 1: It is, and it's the longer song on the album
by far too.
Speaker 2: This is another one of those where I was like, oh,
this is an instrumental Nope, it just takes four minutes
to get going. I can imagine in concert he's just
walking around and the crowds just like, go to the mic, dude,
go to the mic.
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. I can talk about the consert theater.
Speaker 1: No tell us about it now. Because you're thinking he's
walking around on stage. I'm thinking he's like, Okay, guys,
I gotta go pee.
Speaker 2: I need to grab a beer.
Speaker 1: You guys, go ahead, I'll be back in about seven minutes.
Speaker 2: Good Bye to Literary.
Speaker 3: Just pacing the stage and he does all this, He's
done it since the beginning of the band. When he
sings and stuff, he gets so intuity, puts his whole
heartbund body, soul into it. But he'll walk around and
he does these weird things with his hands and he'll
just stare. It's like he's looking at every single person
in that arena, like into your soul. He's been quoted
many times about how even though his music is depressing
and sends a message and everything, he's very humbled by
the fact that people want to listen to what he
has to say.
Speaker 1: Obviously, we know that he's not a big you know,
he's not doing ants numbers up there. You might walk around.
Speaker 3: There's no choreography, yeah choo.
Speaker 1: But you do you have something going on, like in
a screen behind them, like.
Speaker 2: Are they doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the typical stuff that you'd almost expect, you know,
obscure images and birds and you know, when you first
walk into the arena, it's just sounds of thunderstorms, which
is exactly what you'd expect.
Speaker 2: This is a deep, dark and beautiful return to the
sadness right here.
Speaker 3: I can listen to this song a lot because I
get a lot of loss in my life. You know,
I've lost my mom when I was pregnant, We've lost
my dad in twenty twenty, Ant's uncles, everything. I mean,
I've had a lot of loss in my life, and
this is the song that gets me with it. It
makes me feel all those things that you feel like
over the years you're grappling with, you're dealing with better
at everything. And it's not necessary that the lyrics so much.
I mean, there's some killer lyrics in here too, but
it's just more that mood, that ride that you're on
during this song, that profound sadness. It's what I have
to skip. Sometimes it's not skipper, but I have to
skip it for my own mental health. I can't listen
to it a lot.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's great. That's the best story on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Right Genuinely, those songs that you have that mean so
much to you that sometimes you just can't listen to them,
those are special.
Speaker 2: Awesome Thanks for sharing. Okay. Next song on the album
is called disintegration.
Speaker 1: So this song is much more straightforward than every other
song on the album. You have this really aggressive drum
beat that's going on in this baseline that is killer,
but it's repetitive. It's the same thing over and over
throughout the song. This is the one that if you're
going to focus on the lyrics and the singing, this
is the song that you're doing that on, because as
good as the music is, it's the same thing over.
Speaker 2: And over and over again. As he starts singing to me,
this is the closest pop sounding song on the album.
It's got it energy. It's a little bit rock issue again.
Eight minutes and twenty seconds long.
Speaker 3: So back in there, Spike the football. Best song on
the album, Eh, there we go? All right? The way
it starts at a high like all the other songs
kind of you know, they build, they build up to something.
This one just starts at the top and doesn't let
go for the entire song. It just grips you. There's
no release, there's nothing. It's you're going to feel this.
He's grabbing you by your collar. You're going to hear
what I have to say now that I know that
I'm breaking to pieces. I'll pull out my heart and
I'll feed it to anyone crying for comfort. Crocodile's cry
for the love of the crowd, and the three cheers
from everyone dropping through the sky, the glass of the roof,
through the roof of your mouth, through the mouth of
your eye, through the eye of the needle. It's easier
for me to get closer to Heaven than to ever
feel whole again. He's a poet.
Speaker 2: I love it balls.
Speaker 3: When he gets to that part of the song, and
I don't even think he dreads while he's singing that.
It never lets up the top three of all hero
songs for me.
Speaker 2: I show okay coming strong. Yeah, that's awesome. The next
song on the album is called Homesick. This is a
new sound. You've got the piano in there, which is this.
I mean, it's a genuine, real like grand piano sound
to it, not any synth going on there, and it's
really lovely. It's just lovely.
Speaker 1: But then this guitar comes in with like a phaser
effect on there, and it takes you back to that
place that you've been before of the soundscape style of
the music. But the piano continues through the song given
this beautiful mixture of class, cool and modern.
Speaker 2: I dig the song a lot.
Speaker 3: It's good. It's a good one. I don't think there's
any skippers on this album. But out of the entire album,
this is the one I listened to the least. It's
just a little slow for me. It's just one I
don't listen to as much. And I don't. I don't
know why. I mean, I've already felt so much during
listening to this album throughout, you know, all these songs
or whatever, and then you get here and it's extra
deep again, you know, and it's emotional and it's driven,
and it's by the time I get to this point
in the album, I'm already having all the feels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, yeah, yeah, exactly. Maybe it's because Lowell
Tolhurst is the guy who composed this one interesting to him. Well,
according to Roger O'Donnell, who is his replacement, that he
was the guy who initially came up with the composition
and the piano for this one. Now they took it
and ran with it. And there's a good chance that
Ball isn't on any of this album at all, but
that he initially came up with the composition for this
one okay, last song on the album. This song is
called untitled Okay respectfully, the beginning of this song sounds
like weird Ow's attempt at a cure song because you
have the accordion. Okay. But with that said, this is
my second favorite song in the entire album. All Right,
I love it. I love it so it's beautiful, it's melodic,
the accordion works for me. I don't care. I think
that's great, still passionate and sadly beautiful at the end
of this album. I love it.
Speaker 3: I think it's a perfect way to end this album.
I don't think they could have made a better choice
on how to close out this roller coaster because it's beautiful.
It's sad everything, but there's almost a sense of optimism
in the music. It's a little bit more uplifting and
stuff like Robert's like I'm not going to send you
away to go hang yourself, like after this whole album,
Like it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. I don't have a lot
I note because it's one of those that I don't
think about a lot. It just sits with me.
Speaker 2: It seems like a perfect book into plain song Drift.
Speaker 3: I Ghost Downs, Yes.
Speaker 2: I love it. Uh.
Speaker 1: The accordion or pipe organ or whatever the intro riff
is being played on this made me think of Pink
Floyd the.
Speaker 2: Wall not Out.
Speaker 1: But then, sure enough, once they've kind of given you
a different taste, they've they've cleaned your palate from all
of the stuff that you've just listened to with this
little bit, and they come back in with the beautiful,
ethereal music that you've loved every second of as you've.
Speaker 2: Gone through this album. They bring me in gently. They
do all this stuff with drugs and spiders, and then
they place you gently on your pillow at the end
of the night.
Speaker 3: Yes, I like it all right.
Speaker 2: Well, that seems like the perfect ending to a great album. Amanda.
We thank you for bringing this to us, dragging this
across the finish line like you did, and bringing us
along with you. We are now fans of this album.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, just excites me so much. You guys,
you have no idea, just happy to share it. You know,
the people on the internet, they just love to pick
pick pick, keyboard Warriors whatever. And I don't even know
what post I was replying to or something, but I
had said something about the cure and this guy whoever
he was, came back and said, well, why are you
even talking about a one hit one dar. I was like,
oh God, this guy has no clue what he's talking about,
Like none, But I feel like that's the perception a
lot of people have the Key Cure. It's like just
the stuff you hear on the radio. You go and
they don't realize this catalog of music, thirteen albums, and
every single album they've had big things to say. So
when people start listening, yeah, like, Okay, maybe you don't
like the radio stop. My husband perfect example, and if
you can open your minds and hearts to it, it'll
affect you.
Speaker 2: Ay man, I'm a convert. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I genuinely appreciate you dragging me across the finish line.
Speaker 2: As Jason put it.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that I got to explore this album.
Speaker 2: Not only did you bring this to us, but I mean,
we've got thousands of listeners out there that might be
hearing this for the first time.
Speaker 3: Really, so yeah, I'm so excited to see what some
of the feedback is and stuff. So it's worth mentioning
that they were inducted in the Hall of Fame Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame and back in twenty nineteen
by none other than Trent Reznor. Okay of nine Inch
Nails my number five favorite group in the entire world,
and he summed it up perfectly in his speech. Trent
Reznor says they've sold the best part of who gives
a how many million records and been an essential touchstone
in the genres of post rock, new way of goth
all tnative, shoegaze, and post rock. They've been in and
out of fashion so many times in the last four
decades that they ended up transcending fashion itself. He also
says the Cure one of the most unique, most brilliant,
most heartbreakingly excellent rock bands the world has ever known.
My husband and I just visited the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, you guys, I was in heaven. We
just were there in lie i want to say. And
they have their little plaque and everything you know that
all the inductees get, but absolutely zero memorabilia was donated
by the Cure. So the Hall of Fame nothing, because
you know, Robert's like a minimalist. He's like, I only
have these things. You know, I can't give them up.
Speaker 2: So my satchel got the lyrics and that's it, and
my wife that's right, we'll work guitar. That's it. Amanda.
Speaker 1: We could not have picked a better guest host for
this album than you. You've been fantastic. Your emotional connection
and love for this band came through very clearly.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you so much for coming and joining
us for this.
Speaker 3: Thank you, guys.
Speaker 2: We'll come back next week as we dive into Depeche
Modes Violator as recommended by Amanda. We're going to have
Genie Alexander come on and she's going to talk about
it with us, and we'll get your final judgment. We'll
make a final judgment. We'll get Genie's final judgment, and
we'll see where we land next week the Cure versus
Depeche Mode. Come back then, Thanks Amanda.
Speaker 3: I love it. Thanks so much you guys. This is
so fun.
Speaker 2: See you guys next week.
Speaker 3: And I did have one other fun thing for you guys.
Here's my best list. Okay, see if you can figure
out what I'm throwing down here. Okay, for you thriller
only because off the Wall wasn't an option. Airplane, Van Hager,
Back to the Future, Pyromania, Gladiator Never Saw but Russell
Crow always slaps, trading places, never mind Major League Superman, Synchronicity, Jaws,
Back in Black, Cannonball Run, Faith, George Michael is always
going to be the King, Bill and Ted's excellent Adventure,
Doctor Feel Good, Fright Night, Sign of the Times because
I'm the only person in the world who despises you too.
Die Heard New Jersey, Dumb and Dummer, Get a Grip,
Happy Gilmore, Huey, Lewis and the News, Sports, Ghostbusters, Footloose, Aliens, Terminator,
Silends of the Lambs, American Werewolf in London, Young Guns,
Easty Boys, Christmas Story, Batman eighty nine, Toto Always Toto,
Dirty Dancing, the Thing, White Snake, RoboCop, Alison Chains, Christmas Vacation,
Groundhog Day, Outsiders, and Innocent Man, Big Lebowski. I hate
both Big and Twins, Living Colors.
Speaker 5: Vivid Vacation, Vacation, Although Jason is dead wrong about the
Great Outdoors, Cinerolla's Long Cold Winter, and the theme songs
seventy nine to or seventy five to seventy nine tie
between Three's Company in Dallas, eighty to eighty four, Love
Vote eighty five to eighty nine, Fulhouse ninety to ninety four,
Saved by the Bell ninety five to ninety nine, South
for Boom.
Speaker 3: In case you were wondering.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's great. That was fantastic,