The Cure "Seventeen Seconds;" "Faith" (Rhino)
By Ken Marcou
Thursday. Jun 30, 1:34 AM
Revisiting their growth spurt... with plenty of extra goodies thrown in.

As a new fan of The Cure, I approached these records with somewhat of a unique perspective. If reissues and long-awaited live shows are intended to breathe new life into old songs, they are having the desired effect. Their live show plays a considerable role in my current interest in these albums, after witnessing last summer's Curiosa Festival tour stop at the Tweeter Center outside of Boston. The old songs came across vibrantly, and they set up the listener well to take in these records, whether for the first time or revisitation.

Many of the songs on Seventeen Seconds don't come off as particularly well written, nor do I feel are they supposed to. Rather, they are expressionist works (although in some cases, like on "A Forest" and "Play For Today," it's with a decent dose of danciness). Predominantly, they do one thing and one thing only until the end. They lack considerable dynamics and intuitive melody. But the thing is, the progression they end up playing over and over again with little to no variation is so darkly catchy and appealing that, by the second time you listen to the record, you recognize each song by the third or fourth elapsed second and are excited for it. The mood is always dark and brooding and often slow, but this is the intent: to paint this mood, linger it in your psyche, and make it hang around almost too long. Maybe older fans will say I’m pointing out the obvious, since these are reissues and most converts are already familiar with them… however, since the initial release of these records, The Cure have shown that they are capable of moving into and out of pretty drastically different territory. They've shown that they know how to write songs (even pop rock songs! i.e. "Friday I'm in Love") as well as show deep moods through sound; conveying things that maybe can't be conveyed in concise communicative rock songs.

In deed, this was the goal with Seventeen Seconds. Robert Smith says in the liner notes that "I've always thought of Seventeen Seconds as our 'opening' album. It was the first record I felt was really The Cure." Smith says of the sessions, "we wanted to create something unique, something personal… I remember being… totally obsessed by what we were doing."

Oddly enough, the sound of Seventeen Seconds fit a growing underground new wave movement at the time, but it was never trendy. Mainly because what they did was never flashy enough. The morose sound itself could have been looked at as the trendy thing, but the fine line of honesty played a huge part. The Cure were making the music they felt they should be making.

Faith reached a higher level for The Cure in that it retained all of the essence of the struggle with eternity and beliefs – which was the driving force in creating the record – but also embodied more cohesiveness. Seventeen Seconds was a change for the band, but Faith was like a graduation in honing the colors they wanted to portray. There also seems to be more confidence in the delivery. The production is better, as if working with Mike Hedges producing again created the understanding required to even more effectively put forth an album like this.

Smith remarks that he wanted it to come off as more passionate. However, Smith also labored to be sure that his thoughts were structured and were able to convey a coherent message, which ultimately would be of fear of the realization that he lacked the belief in eternity which he noticed so many people in the religious community were chasing. This mix of a need for more passionate music and coherent structure of thoughts really translated into a better album overall.

"The Holy Hour" starts off with a bass-line-through-an-envelope-filter type effect, subtle synths, and jangly guitar chords. It sets up "Primary," an up-tempo, dance-y, new wave, more rocking song. The third song, "Other Voices," has some atmospheric delayed guitar in the beginning and other sounds under a great bass line and cadence floor tom/snare-type beat. This has a moderate tempo groove with catchy vocals and rounds out a solid beginning to the album.

Other songs are slower and synth-laden ("The Funeral Party") or closer to being meandering ("All Cats Are Grey"), but for the most part there is more rocking on here. "The Drowning Man," however, is the best song on the album. With its backdrop of multiple echo-y vocals, more piercing percussion in the forefront, and soaring guitar swells mixed with single note runs strewn throughout, it is an engaging piece.

At the end of the original album is “Carnage Visors: the Soundtrack,” on CD for the first time. “Carnage Visors…” was a soundtrack to a film made by bassist Simon Gallup's brother, Ric, and originally released on a double length cassette paired with Faith. It is a 27-minute apocalyptic march similar to something Godspeed You! Black Emperor would envisage. Very enthralling for the late night space out listener.

There are some goodies on the included “rarities” discs. The Seventeen Seconds rarities, in striking contrast to the original album, start off with a bouncy, quirky, punk rock sound, followed by ‘60s psychedelic, groovy rock that makes you go "how the hell did this happen!?” after listening to the original album. The first and second songs, "I’m a Cult Hero" and "I Dig You," are in fact not songs by The Cure but by Cult Hero, a side project of Smith's with Simon Gallup, who would go on to replace preceding bassist Michael Dempsey.

The Faith rarities disc has studio out-takes on it, which further emphasize my thinking of this being the better album of the two. Even the out-takes are good. There is a version of "Primary" which is more poppy, a lot slower and less rocking with super echoy vocals. The album version was the right version to use for the record, but it's interesting to hear the evolution of the song. "The Violin Song" is also a standout out-take.

Also included on both extra CDs are home demos, which should be of considerable interest to individuals with longstanding Cure fanaticism. To top it all off, there is a series of live performances of most of the songs on the albums. One notable selection is a version of the song “Seventeen Seconds” with different lyrics than those on the album. Many are indistinguishable. It leaves one wondering when the live show was recorded, and if maybe Mr. Smith was one of those singers who dared to venture out on stage without all the lyrics written!

These songs, coupled with the photographs and accounting of the eras in the booklets, are an interesting trip into a fabled band’s past. It serves the listener well, regardless of whether they're new school or old school Cure fans.
www.thecure.com
www.rhino.com

Click here to buy Seventeen Seconds on iTunes!

Click here to buy Faith on iTunes!

Click here to download the iTunes jukebox application for Macintosh or Windows!

Ken Marcou

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