Diamond in the rough!
5
By Zuggystar
Wow wow wow – quite possibly the best album by The Cure in a long, long time. This album has the power and energy not heard since 1987’s ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’ and 1989’s ‘Disintegration’. The album has powerful, energetic vocals, guitar hooks, and tight drums throughout. You will hear familiar undertones and subliminal sounds, but no doom & gloom. With ‘Underneath the Stars’, think of chimes from ‘Disintegration’. ‘The Only One’ is like an acoustical watered down version of ‘Just Like Heaven’. ‘The Reasons Why’ has some New Order-ish guitar hooks, while ‘Freakshow’ has a B-52’s-ish beat. ‘The Real Snow White’ – OMG!! Best vocals, ever. And the ending is incredible with a segue into ‘The Hungry Ghost’ that sends a shiver down my spine, which I haven’t felt in years from The Cure. There are powerful high-energy songs such as ‘Switch’ and ‘It’s Over’ - listen to those drums!. ‘The Perfect Boy’ – sequel to ‘The Perfect Girl’ from ‘Kiss me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’? In ‘This. Here & Now. With You’, you will hear the familiar ‘ch-ch’ sound from ‘Let’s Go to Bed’ along with guitar gyros a la ‘100 Years’. ‘Sleep When I’m Dead’ is my motto. It sounds like something out of a movie soundtrack with hints of ‘The Walk’. ‘The Scream’ is a load of mass confusion that lands into the longest scream ever by Robert Smith at the 2:07 mark.
After the disappointing ‘Bloodflowers’ in 2000 and their self-named album in 2004, I practically gave up on them. Why am I writing this review now? In 2008, when this album came out, the financial crisis hit and I forgot all about music. Now in 2020 with the coronavirus crisis, I turned towards music for solace. I wanted to see if The Cure came out with anything new and came across ‘4:13Dream’, which I thought I had in my collection, but did not. If you long for The Cure of days gone past, this album is it and you won’t be disappointed!
