The Cure: 4:13 Dream

The Cure: 4:13 Dream

2008

Geffen Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Underneath the Stars  2. The Only One  3. The Reasons Why  4.Freakshow  5.  Sirensong  6. The Real Snow White  7. The Hungry Ghost  8. Switch  9. The Perfect Boy  10. This. Here and Now. With You  11. Sleep When I'm Dead  12. The Scream  13. It's Over


I hope everybody had a great Easter...Easter's always a holiday I tend to forget about for some reason...Probably because I don't get the day off of work like the other Holidays...I do remember it  being a biggish  deal when I was a kid, though...

Getting 20 pounds of candy all at once was pretty cool and usually there would be some comic books or a bootleg Masters of the Universe figure in my basket, and that was always exciting...

And I know everybody else in the world hates them, but goddammmit, I love black jellybeans...

So waxy and licorice-ey...So yea, Easter is okay by me...I just tend to forget about it...Anyway, let's get down to business (cracks knuckles)...Man, I have a lot of Cure albums...How long have I been doing these Cure posts now? Easily over a month..But today is the last one (until the band puts out another album, at least)...I'm trying to remember where I was and what I was doing at the time this came out...I believe I was working at Bass & Associates in Tucson, AZ...

 For some reason, I don't have many specific memories associated with "4:13 Dream." I can't really remember driving around and listening to it, or blasting it at parties...It's just always been there... First off, it's pretty amazing that the Cure has been around this long, consistently (although at a much slower rate the last decade or so) putting out albums that are usually within spitting distance of being as good as their big classics...I'm having a hard time thinking of many other artists from the post-punk era that has been able to maintain this level of quality and rate of output as the Cure, which leads me to believe a lot of listeners are taking them for granted at this point...Just imagine if you picked up the debut album by some band by a bunch of shaggy-haired kids and it sounded like this...Critics would be claiming that songs like "The Real Snow White" and "This. Here and Now. With You" out-Cure the Cure and they'd be playing Coachella with Edgar Magnet and the Absolute Zeroes, Pissypants, and the Corey Haim Trio...

So I don't want you acting too-cool-for-school, young man...I whupped yer ass then and I can whup it now...I'll admit that some of it falls into "re-write classic material" territory (most egregiously the Pictures-of-You-tastic album opener "Underneath the Stars") but I feel that argument against the album has been a bit overstated...For example, what the hell is "Freakshow"? What other album would that have fit on? 

In fact, "4:13 Dream" is probably my favorite album of theirs since "Wish." "Wild Mood Swings" sounded like shit, "Bloodflowers" felt a bit too weighty to fully enjoy, and the self-titled album was too busy re-introducing the band to a new generation...This just feels like the band showed up, plugged in, and let the Cure-ness flow...

Originally, this album was intended to be much more immersive than it is...A 30-something track double-album, that the band eventually stripped down to a single-album focused on the poppier material, which was probably a good call...The only tracks I ever skip are "The Reasons Why" and  "Switch." For the curious, the remainder of the album is set to be released later this year as "4:14 Scream." I'm sure I'll be at the local record store on release day, as usual, forking over my paycheck for the deluxe edition...

(exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming "4:14 Scream" album cover that I completely made up in MS Paint...)

I had a ridiculously good time listening to/talking about the Cure for the last month or so...As my musical tastes have changed and expanded throughout the years, the band have remained a constant in my cassette deck/turntable/CD player/MP3 player...Long may they mope, she said...

Here's "The Real Snow White" by the Cure (I promise you, the song is much better than the title)..Enjoy...