Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me on The Top of The Head On The Door
If I may be permitted to break my six-month silence by gushing over the *three* new re-issues by The Cure which come out tomorrow (but I managed to get a hold of tonight) --
At the moment, I feel acid-drenched and open, careening in wildly slow motion from digitized flashbacks to former times. The Top album, from 1984, is sufficient to produce such schizophrenic responses in and of itself, but if you mix in the newly released tracks from that period on the bonus disc that comes with the reissue, you could reach even higher and lower extremes. At the moment I'm listening to "Sadicic", which is a varition of sorts on "Stop Dead", but at a slower, drug-soaked pace. Sound effects include an insect-like clicking, from which the song takes its name (at least, if you read it backwards). Other gems include the complete demo version of "Ariel", an unreleased song that has made the rounds on various bootlegs over the years, but never without the end of the song being abruptly cut off. "A Hand Inside My Mouth" suggests where the original lyrics of "A Man Inside My Mouth" may have come from, and I'm familiar with this live version of "Forever" for Le Zenith in Paris during this tour, but I don't think I've ever heard the other three live tracks (all from the Hammersmith Odeon). It appears that they are from the same tapes that the 1984 cd Concert was taken from, although the track listing refers to them as being from a "live bootleg". I never collected much in the way of the 1984 boots, since I already had the official live album (Concert) and a semi-official live video (Live in Japan), so I can't say for sure. This was my least favorite tour lineup, and the performances here remind me of why -- they're technically solid, but not emotionally captivating. For one thing, I think Robert was too worn out from both the chemical dependence, as well as being in two bands at once (he was also in Siouxie and the Banshees at this time), to give as much of himself as he usually does at shows; for another, The Top has several great songs, but there are also a few that just aren't that good in the studio, let alone live.
The rest of the disc consists of demos and alternate mixes for each of the songs from the original The Top album, the gem of which is (and always was, from the time I first bought the bootleg of demos ten years ago) a great demo for "Birdmad Girl" that surpasses the album version. Some of these I already had on The Top Studio Demos bootleg, but of course this official version features better sound quality.
The booklet has a few bits of (unintentionally?) hilarious commentary, such as the recounting of Robert stretched out on the floor for hours spinning a child's top, while our humble narrator and liner note writer (Johnny Black -- is this for really real?) generously refers to this in the next paragraph as "obsessive attention to detail". There are a few unpublished photos mixed in with a couple of more recognizable shots (recognizable at least to the never-die fans), as well as the full lyrics to the regular album (which, for those of you with the old domestic copies of The Top, will be good news, as only some of the "newer" (i.e., mid-to-late 90s) import versions of the record came with the lyrics). All in all, this is a fantasic package, and the bonus discs in this series have complemented the Join The Dots boxed set without duplicating any tracks, unlike some other recent catalog reissues (I'm looking at you, David Bowie!).
--a few hours after this--
So now I've just finished listening to the bonus disc of rarities for The Head On The Door album and it's really good, even better than The Top bonus disc. Mind you, there's nothing on any of these reissues that will change your mind about The Cure. If you didn't like the original album, you'll like these demos and unreleased songs even less. But for the average-to-fanatical Cure follower, these are great packages. This one featured a really cute home demo of "Inbetween Days", during the beginning of which you can hear a woman's voice (presumably Robert's now-wife, Mary) asking "are you taping it?". The demos (home and otherwise) of a lot of the proper album tracks are quite different, and you can hear Robert crafting the lyrics to what they would eventually become. It's impressive to see how much difference a few words here and there can make toward a finished song (case in point -- listen to the demo for "A Few Hours After This", then listen to the actual release). As for the unreleased instrumental demos, they're very good and true to the mood of the original release.
Overall, the mood is also noticeably lighter and healthier during these sessions than they were for The Top sessions. And just when I thought I may have judged the live performances from The Top tour unfairly, I came across the three live tracks on this bonus disc and I thought, "oh yeah, THAT'S how I remember The Cure sounding in concert". The crowd is noticeably more enthusiastic here than on the live tracks from the Hammersmith a year before (which any performer will tell you is a factor), and when the drums and bass kick in after the opening keyboard line on "The Baby Screams" it sounds like a booming trainwreck, albeit one in 4/4 time. Robert howls out the lines like he's he's overjoyed and angry all at the same time, and the audience is right there singing behind him. Hell, the recording isn't even a perfect 10 when it comes to sound (apparently it's from another bootleg, and the bass and keys are mixed loudly while the guitar is a bit low), but the aura and vibrancy is unstoppable. An excellent version of "The Blood" follows this, and the disc closes appropriately enough with an intense (and loudly mixed) version of "Sinking". Brilliant.
The KMKMKM review will have to wait until tomorrow, as I'm off to bed... aaand, now I'm back 24 hours later. Miss me? I'll tell you up front that Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is my favorite Cure album of all time (edging out even Disintegration), and the first thing that really pleases me about this reissue is that "Hey You!" has been returned to its rightful place in the tracklisting. It was always on the vinyl and tape versions, but when this disc first came out back when Tommy Edison harnessed electricity, compact discs at that time couldn't hold the 80 minutes that they do now, and so this track was dropped to fit it all onto one disc. So welcome back, old friend. You were considered as vapid and dispensible as a drunk blonde at a party, but like her you're easy and ever so much fun.
As for the bonus disc, wow, this is a lo-fi karaokeist's dream. The first nine songs on there are simply instrumental studio demos for songs from the album, so have at it if that's your thing. They're mildly interesting in their own way (the early incarnation of "The Kiss" is quite different, and there's an extra chord progression in "Shiver and Shake" that didn't make it to the final song), but not likely to find themselves in regular rotation on anyone's cd player except for that guy who dresses up like Rob and sings Cure songs to himself in the mirror. In spite of what you're thinking, it's not me.
Alternative versions of songs featuring full vocals show up next, though considering they're all labelled "studio alt mix", they're hissier than I would expect them to be, like when you pop in an old cassette without the Dolby B on. Apparently, not everything rates the top shelf space in the vault, but hey, they still sound good. Again, no earth-shattering variations appear here, unless you consider the fact that the point of view on both "A Thousand Hours" (which was apparently written from a second-person pov and then changed to first-person for the record) and "Icing Sugar" were originally different from the official versions to be manna from heaven. "Icing Sugar" is always great for setting an odd tribal/synth-psychedelic mood (it would have fit in well on The Top), so I like hearing any and all variations of that.
In keeping with all the other reissue sets, this one features a few live tracks as well. Actually, the disc is maxed out with six of these, perhaps to balance out the fact that instrumental demos you'll listen to once and then skip over forevermore take up the first half of this one. In any event, the live songs are all great versions, although having owned several bootlegs from this tour for years (including the shows that these songs are culled from) there's something to be said for having the full-concert experience from this tour. Also, I think they could have arranged the running order from this a bit more fluidly, but now I'm just being picky and hyper-critical (which I tend to be of things that I love, so take it as a compliment you guys!). Admittedly, "Fight" is my least favorite song on KMKMKM, and I would rather have had a live version of, say, "All I Want" or "Shiver And Shake", but it looks like they didn't want to duplicate any songs that were already on here in a demo form or exclude any tracks, so points to them for that. I like that they close the disc out with one of the extended live versions of "Why Can't I Be You", which Robert tended to add lyrics to from other artists' songs. This isn't the one that features lyrics from Hall and Oates' "Out Of Touch" (which is as funny as you're thinking, and yet still cool), but you can't go wrong with "Witchcraft". Ah, those swingin' Cure cats!
At the moment, I feel acid-drenched and open, careening in wildly slow motion from digitized flashbacks to former times. The Top album, from 1984, is sufficient to produce such schizophrenic responses in and of itself, but if you mix in the newly released tracks from that period on the bonus disc that comes with the reissue, you could reach even higher and lower extremes. At the moment I'm listening to "Sadicic", which is a varition of sorts on "Stop Dead", but at a slower, drug-soaked pace. Sound effects include an insect-like clicking, from which the song takes its name (at least, if you read it backwards). Other gems include the complete demo version of "Ariel", an unreleased song that has made the rounds on various bootlegs over the years, but never without the end of the song being abruptly cut off. "A Hand Inside My Mouth" suggests where the original lyrics of "A Man Inside My Mouth" may have come from, and I'm familiar with this live version of "Forever" for Le Zenith in Paris during this tour, but I don't think I've ever heard the other three live tracks (all from the Hammersmith Odeon). It appears that they are from the same tapes that the 1984 cd Concert was taken from, although the track listing refers to them as being from a "live bootleg". I never collected much in the way of the 1984 boots, since I already had the official live album (Concert) and a semi-official live video (Live in Japan), so I can't say for sure. This was my least favorite tour lineup, and the performances here remind me of why -- they're technically solid, but not emotionally captivating. For one thing, I think Robert was too worn out from both the chemical dependence, as well as being in two bands at once (he was also in Siouxie and the Banshees at this time), to give as much of himself as he usually does at shows; for another, The Top has several great songs, but there are also a few that just aren't that good in the studio, let alone live.
The rest of the disc consists of demos and alternate mixes for each of the songs from the original The Top album, the gem of which is (and always was, from the time I first bought the bootleg of demos ten years ago) a great demo for "Birdmad Girl" that surpasses the album version. Some of these I already had on The Top Studio Demos bootleg, but of course this official version features better sound quality.
The booklet has a few bits of (unintentionally?) hilarious commentary, such as the recounting of Robert stretched out on the floor for hours spinning a child's top, while our humble narrator and liner note writer (Johnny Black -- is this for really real?) generously refers to this in the next paragraph as "obsessive attention to detail". There are a few unpublished photos mixed in with a couple of more recognizable shots (recognizable at least to the never-die fans), as well as the full lyrics to the regular album (which, for those of you with the old domestic copies of The Top, will be good news, as only some of the "newer" (i.e., mid-to-late 90s) import versions of the record came with the lyrics). All in all, this is a fantasic package, and the bonus discs in this series have complemented the Join The Dots boxed set without duplicating any tracks, unlike some other recent catalog reissues (I'm looking at you, David Bowie!).
--a few hours after this--
So now I've just finished listening to the bonus disc of rarities for The Head On The Door album and it's really good, even better than The Top bonus disc. Mind you, there's nothing on any of these reissues that will change your mind about The Cure. If you didn't like the original album, you'll like these demos and unreleased songs even less. But for the average-to-fanatical Cure follower, these are great packages. This one featured a really cute home demo of "Inbetween Days", during the beginning of which you can hear a woman's voice (presumably Robert's now-wife, Mary) asking "are you taping it?". The demos (home and otherwise) of a lot of the proper album tracks are quite different, and you can hear Robert crafting the lyrics to what they would eventually become. It's impressive to see how much difference a few words here and there can make toward a finished song (case in point -- listen to the demo for "A Few Hours After This", then listen to the actual release). As for the unreleased instrumental demos, they're very good and true to the mood of the original release.
Overall, the mood is also noticeably lighter and healthier during these sessions than they were for The Top sessions. And just when I thought I may have judged the live performances from The Top tour unfairly, I came across the three live tracks on this bonus disc and I thought, "oh yeah, THAT'S how I remember The Cure sounding in concert". The crowd is noticeably more enthusiastic here than on the live tracks from the Hammersmith a year before (which any performer will tell you is a factor), and when the drums and bass kick in after the opening keyboard line on "The Baby Screams" it sounds like a booming trainwreck, albeit one in 4/4 time. Robert howls out the lines like he's he's overjoyed and angry all at the same time, and the audience is right there singing behind him. Hell, the recording isn't even a perfect 10 when it comes to sound (apparently it's from another bootleg, and the bass and keys are mixed loudly while the guitar is a bit low), but the aura and vibrancy is unstoppable. An excellent version of "The Blood" follows this, and the disc closes appropriately enough with an intense (and loudly mixed) version of "Sinking". Brilliant.
The KMKMKM review will have to wait until tomorrow, as I'm off to bed... aaand, now I'm back 24 hours later. Miss me? I'll tell you up front that Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is my favorite Cure album of all time (edging out even Disintegration), and the first thing that really pleases me about this reissue is that "Hey You!" has been returned to its rightful place in the tracklisting. It was always on the vinyl and tape versions, but when this disc first came out back when Tommy Edison harnessed electricity, compact discs at that time couldn't hold the 80 minutes that they do now, and so this track was dropped to fit it all onto one disc. So welcome back, old friend. You were considered as vapid and dispensible as a drunk blonde at a party, but like her you're easy and ever so much fun.
As for the bonus disc, wow, this is a lo-fi karaokeist's dream. The first nine songs on there are simply instrumental studio demos for songs from the album, so have at it if that's your thing. They're mildly interesting in their own way (the early incarnation of "The Kiss" is quite different, and there's an extra chord progression in "Shiver and Shake" that didn't make it to the final song), but not likely to find themselves in regular rotation on anyone's cd player except for that guy who dresses up like Rob and sings Cure songs to himself in the mirror. In spite of what you're thinking, it's not me.
Alternative versions of songs featuring full vocals show up next, though considering they're all labelled "studio alt mix", they're hissier than I would expect them to be, like when you pop in an old cassette without the Dolby B on. Apparently, not everything rates the top shelf space in the vault, but hey, they still sound good. Again, no earth-shattering variations appear here, unless you consider the fact that the point of view on both "A Thousand Hours" (which was apparently written from a second-person pov and then changed to first-person for the record) and "Icing Sugar" were originally different from the official versions to be manna from heaven. "Icing Sugar" is always great for setting an odd tribal/synth-psychedelic mood (it would have fit in well on The Top), so I like hearing any and all variations of that.
In keeping with all the other reissue sets, this one features a few live tracks as well. Actually, the disc is maxed out with six of these, perhaps to balance out the fact that instrumental demos you'll listen to once and then skip over forevermore take up the first half of this one. In any event, the live songs are all great versions, although having owned several bootlegs from this tour for years (including the shows that these songs are culled from) there's something to be said for having the full-concert experience from this tour. Also, I think they could have arranged the running order from this a bit more fluidly, but now I'm just being picky and hyper-critical (which I tend to be of things that I love, so take it as a compliment you guys!). Admittedly, "Fight" is my least favorite song on KMKMKM, and I would rather have had a live version of, say, "All I Want" or "Shiver And Shake", but it looks like they didn't want to duplicate any songs that were already on here in a demo form or exclude any tracks, so points to them for that. I like that they close the disc out with one of the extended live versions of "Why Can't I Be You", which Robert tended to add lyrics to from other artists' songs. This isn't the one that features lyrics from Hall and Oates' "Out Of Touch" (which is as funny as you're thinking, and yet still cool), but you can't go wrong with "Witchcraft". Ah, those swingin' Cure cats!