4:13 Dream

It's great. I never gave it a listen, thought it would suck. Like Wild Mood Swings sucked. Like Bloodflowers sucked. Like The Cure The Cure sucked.It does not suck. It's inventive and full of energy. It's like The Top, but with the band from the Wish album. I love the Wish album. If you don't like the Wish album you're just a dope, or the band ain't your thing.4:13 Dream is dope. Never thought I'd say it. Thought it was over. Didn't even give it a listen till last week. But the old bistards have made a dope album. AgainThe production is fineIf you don't agree with me, maybe you're too oldenjoying a real Cure album for the first time in decades it is sweetHere's what's original about it: new rhythmic complexity (okay, I kind of agree that the Wish drummer was better, he made simple rhythms fascinating, but that wouldn't work so much with these songs anyway, the tighter style is better here, and I'm talking about the composed rhythms of the songs themselves here, lots of compositional syncopation and three beats against four among different instruments, and whut hav you), 1st time the "late Cure" band got serious about playing around a la Top or Head on the Door soo long a go (the "playfulness" on Wild mood swings was actually dull and lazy feeling--no offence band), this is only the second album with Porl Thompson's wah wah guitar, and his work makes this album, Robz lyrics are better, and vocal rhythms better suited to make his aging voice an interesting instrument, for the first time since Wish these songs sound like careful compositions, and it pays off. If you don't hear the difference in this album, you're just missing it.

Since the Cure have been around for a long time, it's understandable how it becomes more and more difficult to please everyone, especially the hardcore old-school fans. I became a Cure fan relatively late, sometime around when Bloodflowers came out, so I am somewhat disengaged from the chronology of their albums and have very little expectations for them to deliver "that particular album that I heard when I was sixteen." That being said, I think this is a fantastic album in that it makes a statement that the Cure are not interested in shoveling out the same-old same-old in an attempt to please a fan base with expectations that are all over the place and impossible to pinpoint to begin with. I know teenagers who are just discovering the Cure and are falling in love with them because of albums like "The Cure" and "4:13 Dream" because it genuine and relevant to the late 2000's. It's no longer the 80's and despite the fact that the Cure still hold certain stylistic elements to that particular era, it is important for them to create works in the here and now. The Cure will probably be around for a long time and I can't wait to see where else they go. Keep creating and changing and the love will be there.

I would categorize cure albums according to some general rubrics.Neo-Punk/Post-Punk - Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don't CryPost-Punk Gothic - Seventeen Seconds, Faith, PornographyDiverse Alternative - The Top, Head On The Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Wish, Wild Mood Swings, 4:13 DreamDarkwave Gothic - Disintigration, Blood FlowersCure Heavy/Post-Punk Revival - The CureNow the album reviewed falls into their largest and toughest category. The Cure are pretty much known within the music industry to be one of the most prominent `goth' bands we have had thus far, and the records they made in their post-punk gothic and darkwave gothic modes are generally their most liked. But Smith and his friends have always been capable of so much more than their signature gothic sounds, and done some incredibly diverse work, but it seems to always be hit or miss. Among their diverse works, Head on the Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and Wish are generally regarded as among their finest albums, while the Top and Wild Mood Swings are generally panned as being among the worst of the Cure's records.I'll tell you that this disc is in that category of diverse records where the songs oscillate between the upbeat, aggressive, downtempo, ethereal, and depressing. It's going to be one of those albums where we are just not going to be able to predict whether the fans will like it or hate it or whether every individual fan will have his own unique taste for it. Robert Smith himself said at one point that this album was going to be like Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, but that was a while ago when he was having different ideas of how the record would be mixed, whether it would be a double CD, etc. Honestly I personally think the final product is a lot more like Wish. Kiss Me was a lot more extreme in its engineering, utilizing large brass sections for some songs, tremendous keyboards and synthesizer work, and heavy mixing on all instrument tracks to create music that is just about impossible to replicate live without a lot of technology. Like Wish and WMS, 4:13 Dream sounds like 4 guys jamming out with their standard instruments. The drumming particularly is very acoustic and potent on 4:13 dream, and the bass has both a more raw and yet less prominent place than on some of their more electronically modified stuff, yet there is a much more sophisticated harmony than the earlier albums up to Kiss Me. I would say that this record could really be considered a sister to Wish and WMS, with 4:13 Dream and Wish vying for the title of prettiest sister. What I am telling you is that I think that 4:13 dream ranks up there with one of the most hailed Cure records, but it fits in a category that fans have had mixed reactions to.The record really fits nicely in almost exactly the same style as Wish and WMS, but it is not treading old paths. There are some strong influences of the style that they started with their last record, The Cure. I know that record was generally not hailed as their finest, but you have to admit that it was one of the most original and vibrant records the band has made in over a decade, with it being tough to believe that a bunch of 40-year old men could jam out a record like that one with so many modern post-punk revival and indie hard rock influences on the band, creating an incredibly unique record. I personally liked that disk, though most fans were not too impressed. But when you listen to songs off 4:13 Dream such as The Real Snow White, or also Switch, or the Scream, you see how they have taken that new hard-edged sound and incorporated it into songs that fit really well with the remainder of the record.In essence, I would say that 4:13 Dream is probably the most diverse album the Cure has ever done because it was not only made as a conscious attempt at diversity, but it came on the heels of the last album (The Cure) which was the most ambitious departure from their previous work that the band has attempted up to this day. So after trying to recapture their most popular sound (Disintigration) with Blood Flowers, and trying to tread completely new ground with The Cure, they now seem to be giving us a record that samples the broadest range of their diversity. They really could not get more eclectic than this without hiring an orchestra.After all this writing, I think I could really only hope to succeed at confusing you and saying that you will just have to buy the record for yourself to determine if you like it. My only prediction is that if you can forgive them for WMS and the Top, and if you think Kiss Me and Wish are their best work, you will like this record. I'll also say that this is a GOOD diverse record. So if you loved Kiss Me and Wish, but you CAN'T forgive them for the Top and WMS, I think you'll still like this record. Now I myself agree with the majority of the fan base that the Top mostly sucked, but I kind of liked WMS. So I am just very very pleased with 4:13 dream.One of the best things about it is that they sampled their diversity without just rehashing old sounds. After being together for so long and then putting out Blood Flowers, which was a great record but really not a new record with new sounds, and then after putting out The Cure, which was a wonderfully new and progressing record that was not all that well received, and then hearing from Smith that he was trying to go back to Kiss Me style sounds, I was really thinking that the cure had pretty much exhausted their potential for moving forward in their sound and were just going to go back to rehashing their old sounds. Well, this album just keeps enough energy from The Cure to sound like Wish while sounding like a totally new record in its own rite. There are a few observations I can state about the record: It is comfortingly familiar in many ways; it is refreshingly new and unique in many ways; the record just sounds good. They succeeded in their goal.I'm not going to say that this is a new Disintigration. But I am glad it isn't. It's an extremely strong record. Not the strongest, but extremely strong. Four Stars.