The Cure listening Club

Ok my friends! Let’s start the year off the way we started last year. Talking about Wish by the Cure.
We’ll be talking about the new remaster. As such we’ll only be voting on Friday for over all score.

Listening to the album on headphones really makes the changes in the mix stand out. Let’s go!

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Finally got around to ripping the cellophane off and playing Wish this evening.

The remastering sounds great. Or at least I’ve convinced myself it sounds great. I’m not going to go all Steve Hoffman and start comparing the remaster with the original. Well done Bob for finally getting this done!

I think I gave Wish a 7/10 and wouldn’t change that based on a remaster, but average tracks like Wendy Time now sound sort of… more interesting.

Here for the bonus discs though really and will write more after I’ve given them a chance.

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Try

Ok, so let’s start some chat. The demo version of Cut is so much more interesting than the Wah crazed version that made the final version. I mean, I can see why they went with the faster version, it must be fun to play as well. But the album version is a terrible song and just one of the reasons that Wish is a 7/10 album :smiley:

Listening to the remastered Wish and it sounds great. Unable to say how much of this is due to the remaster though. In 1992 i listened to it on an ancient Walkman through orange foam headphones so my real familiarity with the original mix is hardly audiophile.

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I assume you mean ‘Cut’?

Of course I mean Cut? What ever are you talking about? :stuck_out_tongue:

So I’ve just listened to the whole of the main album and a few of the demos on the remaster and i remain confident in my assertion that, even if Wish was just “From the Edge of The Deep Green Sea” and an hour of Robert Smith trying and falling to play the Neighbours theme tune on a plastic kazoo, that it would still be worth more than 7/10. To Wish Impossible Things! Letter to Elise! Come on Man!

Yeah, it’s the last great Cure album. 10/10. Love the remaster bit that could just be the huge gulf in headphone quality from when i was 14.

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Prefer it! Prefer it to the demo by a mile. Yeah the wah is a bit much but the over done intensity of the thing makes it sound way more urgent. The demo is a bit anemic, didn’t sound as close to the edge because he’s not howling through a maelstrom of wah!

Also i like that the demos are genuinely different and contain some ideas that have been changed and rewritten. Can’t see why some people release demos that are barely any different to the studio versions, looking at you Ms Harvey.

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Is Come On Man one of the bonus tracks? :grin:

You certainly bring the passion to the Cure Listening Club, Scagden, but you dish out your 10s as liberally as a Strictly judge!

There are at least four bang-average tunes on this album and, for me, that means it struggles to reach an 8…

…but I’ll keep on listening. I’ve always wanted to love Wish more than I do, after all!

From the bonus material I’ve only given the 1990 demos a go so far. One reason I’ve loved the reissues is that the demos show the bridges between adjacent albums. The Cut and Big Hand demos are just like Disintegration tracks. The Letter to Elise demo is lovely. The Wendy Time demo shows what a stinker of a tune it was in any style :nerd_face:

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Wendy Time is the only song I’d ditch. What else do you think is bang average?

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Normal disclaimer that this is just my opinion and I know Wish is well-liked here. I wouldn’t ditch them, but rate all of these as average:

Wendy Time
Doing the Unstuck
Friday I’m in Love
Cut

I’d rather talk about what I like though. Apart, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea and A Letter to Elise are fantastic and everything else is good to very good.

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Back from holidays. Got the Wish remaster for Christmas. Have listened once, but through the computer, whilst cooking dinner, so no surprise that I didn’t really notice any difference. Will give it a proper listen on way to work on Thurs and demos etc on Friday.

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We can take our time here, no rush on anything.

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Sometimes if I read the thread title too fast it’s The Culture Club

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There’s a couple of poor tracks imo (Wendy and Cut) but it’s a pretty long album and I’m more inclined to forgive 2 or 3 average tracks on an hour+ running time. Certainly at least an 8 in my book, maybe even a 9 if I’m feeling frisky

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I don’t want to repeat myself too much about Wish, it’s a 10/10 for me. Doesn’t mean I think the whole thing is perfect but that’s an impossible way to rate anything. I’m a bit humph on End as a closer but it’s actually grown on me over the years, as Open has. Wendy Time has always drawn a lot of scorn from fans but not from me. Wish just has a rare magic that really resonates with me, Rob says in the liner notes “there’s a side to the album that I’d kind of forgotten, a very gentle yearning thing which is quite beautiful”, that’s how I’ve always felt about it.

As for the remaster, I maybe hear it a bit clearer, bit brighter but short of doing a side by side comparison (and who cba with that?) I can’t really say. For folks who do think the difference is pronounced is there any particular track you think that with? For me I’d say High sounds a bit sprightlier

I think it’s the best reissue of the lot for bonus stuff, the demo’s are definitely more interesting than what we’ve had before, especially the first three on the second disc. I think that version of the Big Hand is as good as the b-side one, love the wobbly Rob backing vox. I’ve spoken about the Cut Demo up thread, it’s a proper worthwhile alt version (love the album version and the way it sounds like it wants to take a bite out of my face too). The Elise demo is interesting, really like how the lyrics are different. I was marvelling at the final version’s lyrics just last night, “the way the blue could pull me in”, “every prayer your hands can make”, lovely use of words. As for the instrumental stuff, it’s occasionally really pleasant, more often than not only vaguely interesting, a couple of times a bit wanky, overall worth having if you love the album.

Disc three is where the main lure is, finally i have Lost Wishes! :heart: Uyea sound, Cloudberry and and Off To Sleep are very dreamy, Three Sisters a bit more like something from the rocky end of Disintegration and for me the weakest of the bunch. A Wendy Band fits in quite nicely too. As for the extended mixes that round off the disc I like how respectful they are to the originals, nothing essential but I’m fond of the High (Higher Mix) and Friday I’m In Love (Strangelove Mix).

Overall, phew, thanks for finally pulling your finger out Rob.

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I think A Letter To Elise might be my favourite Cure song.

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It’s definitely up there for me too

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top 5 for sure, along with a dozen or so others.