This issue airs The Cure's latest album release -- self-titled
"The Cure". The North American release of this album
includes 11 tracks, and the date of release is June 29. This
is a record everyone has been watching for. Since the ending
theme of "Bloodflowers", strong rumors spread widely
about disintegration of the band and formal senility of the
40-year-old Robert Smith. Such rumors had not stopped until
The Cure officially announced new record deals. Since then,
people started to speculate on which direction the post-Bloodflowers
Cure will go. Guesses disagreed except one thing in common,
that the new album would be heavy, very heavy. This impression
might be partly due to Neometal and Hardcore producer Ross
Robinson. The first time the whole world heard new songs from
"The Cure" was at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
on April 30, when musical guest The Cure performed "The
End of the World". And two days later at Coachella Festival,
when over 60,000 fans finally saw Robert Smith and company
on stage, the band shocked everyone with the opening "Lost".
So much hardness, so much anger, and so much passion. Something
we have not heard from him for many years. Has he rediscovered
himself? Or is he really lost, as he sings, "I don't
know where I am ... I can't find myself. I got lost, in someone
else". Now we finally heard the full album, and my first
impression is some sort of a return to the eighties (until
the 1989 "Disintegration"). My overall feeling has
been the "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" glamour plus
the "Pornography" anger. There are also the early-eighties'
simplicity ("alt.end") and late-eighties' lightness
("Taking Off"). In general, however, "The Cure"
has been much less good than expected. For me, it has been
far less touching and penetrating than the two records Robert
Smith made when he felt really old: "Disintegration"
at 30 and "Bloodflowers" at 40. May he really got
lost, in time and himself... |
