Post by nausearockpig on May 4, 2015 17:03:30 GMT 1
Talk about the self titled record has prompted this topic.
Wish is undoubtedly my favourite album by The Cure (gasp! yes I like it better than Disintegration (oh the heresy)).... Why you may ask? I think because it was "my" first The Cure album - Mixed Up doesn't count from my perspective. Wish was the first album of theirs that I was there for the release, the tour and the b-sides. I had been introduced to The Cure by hearing Never Enough, actually by seeing it on TV... and I was hooked.. I then heard the "new" Close To Me and the fever hit.... Mixed up brought me to a whole new world.. For the longest time Fascination Street was my favourite song..... It's a close second now..
OPEN
Anyway, I remember hearing Open for the very first time.. The raw "liveness" of it struck me as something I'd never heard in a recorded works before... A live sounding studio song? Crazy... It doesn't sound like that to me now of course but at the time it blew me away. The lyrics were (are) just amazing, something I could relate to at the time and to this day, and it just went on and on, not too long mind you, the perfect length.. Even the fact the song "goes on too long" is perfect for the whole sentiment of it... Like when awful parties drag on and on and on... god.... and the music.. The intro is just stellar, the way the bass thumps along and the guitar just sort of comes in minimally... Then the melodies when the song starts proper... faaaaaaaaaaaark... the bass that sounds like it's bouncing from left to right and back again and over and over (not from one ear the other - just bouncing along like a boat on the ocean).
The chorus where you can hear the heartache and the words just falling back into the plain desolation and sense of giving up.....
I like there's no lead break, like there is on From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea... it gives the song more a flow and a sense of just blatant, bleak desolation... To me this song is just the ultimate personification (persongification?) of what The Cure is. I love that there's no vocals for over 2 and a half minutes.... then there's lots and lots of vocals.
I love the sound of the melodies - not just the notes played, but the actual pitch and note sounds.. it's just perfect.... I can list to this song over and over. There's stuff going on in there that's just almost hard to hear but you know it's there... it's so deep..
I think it is my favourite song by this band. I'm pretty sure it's called Open due to the guitar tuning - an open tuning.. heh heh
HIGH
I remember being distinctly non-plussed when hearing High - to this day I still don't really like it, and feel it brings down the whole record. It seems like it's missing something.. I dunno. I just don't like it, and I think Wish would be a better record if High wasn't on there (sorry Simon). I do like the extended remix though... I can't put my finger on it...
APART
Apart is just beautiful. There are so many layers to that song. The whispered vocals in the background, the stark low bassline and the bits at the end of the bassline progression that are picked quickly but don't override the bassline.. Subtle genius...
The first keyboard line in the background sounds like a bunch of angels singing in the background. There are a couple of melodies going on between the vocal parts that just complement each other perfectly...
The lyrics are just so sad, perfectly sad.. Detailing a slow, gradual falling apart (no surprise there) of what was once a strong beautiful love.... wow...
The lead is slow and sad and just beautiful and wanders everywhere but doesn't get lost.
FROM THE EDGE OF THE DEEP GREEN SEA
This is heartbreakingly beautiful in its tale of anguish. Not only is the music just a train ride that chugs along (once it picks up) and doesn't let you go till the very last word, the melodies played are just hypnotic. As is the bassline. You can listen to the whole song just concentrating on the bass as it plays along note by note on and on.. it's just superb.
The lyrics are heart-wrenching - the bit where he says "Looks at me, my breaking face, why do you cry, what did I say? But it's just rain' i smile, brushing my tears away" show how trapped a man really can be.. god, it's just awful...hahha
Boris said this was his favourite song to play, I can see why, it's just stellar..
The lead break, which I'll admit, I thought Porl wrote as he plays it on Show, only to find out later that Robert got up from dinner one night during recording to bang it out and did it one take as it was as he said "my song, why wouldn't I play the lead?"
The exquisite torture runs through the song from start to finish and is just sublime.
WENDY TIME
I don't know why so many people don't like this song. Is it because the T&CII version is "better" or more original or (and this is hilarious) more OG? I love both versions and wish I'd heard this live back in 1992.
I love the wah wah all the way through it. It's not funky, it's not rock, it's just <shrugs> excellent. I have no real idea what Robert is singing about, but I kinda have an idea in my head..
It's got a "swears" in it, so it's naughty, but it's not gratuitous.. it is what it is.
This is kind of like a less rocky version of Never Enough, it's got some wah, a great bass line (which I believe appeared in a version of Forever in 1983... so it's been around for a while), a great vocal melody, excellent lyrics.. Great stuff!
DOING THE UNSTUCK
I wasn't taken with this for the longest time, maybe even until I heard the remix. I then revisited this and listened hard to the guitars - there are three of them... Acoustic rhythm, the "melody" picking and Porl cutting sick which was turned down in the mix, but is very audible... I like that the song sounds like it's going to have a swears in it but then veers off away from naughtiness...
It's a great, happy song. Lovely. I used to skip the song, now I look forward to hearing it.
FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE
The first time I heard this I loved it. The 12", or extended version is excellent too.. Listen hard, very hard to the guitar melody/melodies intertwining behind the acoustic rhythm.. Just. Perfect.
I read somewhere that some journo wrote "when you first hear the song, you want to sing/scream them down the phone to your loved one".. or something like that.
It's a great love song, better than Lovesong, if you ask me (which you most assuredly did NOT but I don't care)..
The "lead" is good and happy and the words are just lovely. Robert loves his Mary and it's clear.
The handclaps, the tamborine, Robert's hair in the clip that took 17 mins to record! A record from what I read.
TRUST
Perry, Perry, Perry... I'm so glad that Robert's sister taught you how to play the keyboards.. You gave us this beautiful song and I thank you for it my good sir.
The lyrics, which I might add, do not start for two and a half minutes into the song giving us a great long instrumental intro, match the beauty of the music perfectly. The words are a bit sad tho.
The false ending that breaks straight into the keyboard lead is cool followed by one chorus at the end and the song ends in a question. Perfect.
A LETTER TO ELISE
When this one re-debuted on Play Out (or did they broadcast the Unplugged session before Wish was released?) it was a revelation. A great rework of an amazing song. Back to the album: The sadness in Robert's voice is so present and his pleas so broken and heartfelt that it's hard to not feel melancholy when listening to this song.
It's a shame the acoustic rhythm guitar was mixed down so quietly, it should've been a bit more prominent but I guess that's the way of The Cure... some things are hidden, no matter how awesome they are.
The "toy" keyboard breaks are great, and the lead blisters across the guitar and keys... Excellent work gents.
This song is a quiet achiever. It's not heard any more, hasn't been heard since the Wish Tour aside from a few outings in 1997 then quite a few when Porl was back in the 4Tour fold. It's a shame it's been dropped but you can't have everything...
CUT
Yes, yes, AWAY is the OG version but it's almost a different song. Yes AWAY is awesome....but CUT rips and rocks through what AWAY was and tears it a new AWAYhole... hahahha
The feeding back Gibson Les Paul is hiding there, but you can hear it. Porl is toggling that switch all the way thru different bits of the song.. then he lets it rip and gets right up in your face!! BAM!!! It's got a thumping rolling bassline that punches through the guitars and rolls and rolls and rolls till you can't take more, then you get more! BASS!!!
You can hear the three guitars fighting in this song.. NO keyboards here thanks.. Don't get me wrong: The keys in AWAY are a perfect fit. But this isn't AWAY... it's CUT you effers! get on board..... For some reason when I hear AWAY I always hear "three blind mice" somewhere along the line... it's the keys at about the 2:24 minute mark... sing it "three blind mice" hahahahahaha
Boris should've pulled out all the stops and bashed the toms some more, not so much of the ol' hi-hat woulda been better... It would've propelled CUT to 11.
So there's quiet bit in CUT that then explodes back into the end minute or so.. "It's allllllllllllllll gonnnnnnneeeee". Yeah baby... and the feedback wails out....
TO WISH IMPOSSIBLE THINGS
This was originally going to be the last song on the record but Robert thought that album need a strong finish (more on that later).
A beautiful acoustic number, with some delay on one of the acoustic guitars and the keyboard that slowly flows and dances across the guitar and the bass.
Reminiscing about the old days, the nights that would never end.. It should make you feel sad, but it conjures up visions of remembering happy times, and not missing them, rather celebrating them. Beautiful. Of course the lyrics then turn cold and grey and everything once wished for is gone away... not so happy any more are we?
The "violin" just before the last "all i wish is gone away" bit is beautiful and sad. And then it all. Just. ENDs.
END
From what I read this started as a jam that ended up as a thumping rolling juggernaut of a song.
The drumming on this is outstanding.
The lyrics are just so down in the dumps, it crushes your heart. "I've reached that point where giving up and going on are both the same dead end to me, both the same old song"? far out man.. then he hits us with some "doo do dooo do doo"... happy happy..
Every wish has come true? Tired disguised oblivion is everything I do... The sheer brilliance of the breadth of manner of expressing oblivion is astounding.. and the music rumbles on.
Please stop loving me? No sir, I will not....
That loud reverse cymbal at the end is really loud man... geez...
As I mentioned, Wish is my favourite album, and Open my favourite song. I think the album portrays a wider range than Disintegration and KMKMKM.. it surpasses Faith and Pornography because whilst those records are totally excellent, they are essentially one-trick ponies (ooooh controversial) - there's a Faith sound, there's a Pornography sound, there are lots of different sounds on Wish... Hell, Three Imaginary Boys has a sound as does Seventeen Seconds......
Anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to comment, argue, agree, call me a tool, a fool, a stool......
Tomorrow I may drink another bottle of wine and write about the b-sides and TAPE. Maybe even tell you how I got my hands on Five Live.... and how Lost Wishes bores me but I still wish I had a copy.... wah
it's 2:02 am and I need to get up in about 5 hours so I better get to bed.
Wish is undoubtedly my favourite album by The Cure (gasp! yes I like it better than Disintegration (oh the heresy)).... Why you may ask? I think because it was "my" first The Cure album - Mixed Up doesn't count from my perspective. Wish was the first album of theirs that I was there for the release, the tour and the b-sides. I had been introduced to The Cure by hearing Never Enough, actually by seeing it on TV... and I was hooked.. I then heard the "new" Close To Me and the fever hit.... Mixed up brought me to a whole new world.. For the longest time Fascination Street was my favourite song..... It's a close second now..
OPEN
Anyway, I remember hearing Open for the very first time.. The raw "liveness" of it struck me as something I'd never heard in a recorded works before... A live sounding studio song? Crazy... It doesn't sound like that to me now of course but at the time it blew me away. The lyrics were (are) just amazing, something I could relate to at the time and to this day, and it just went on and on, not too long mind you, the perfect length.. Even the fact the song "goes on too long" is perfect for the whole sentiment of it... Like when awful parties drag on and on and on... god.... and the music.. The intro is just stellar, the way the bass thumps along and the guitar just sort of comes in minimally... Then the melodies when the song starts proper... faaaaaaaaaaaark... the bass that sounds like it's bouncing from left to right and back again and over and over (not from one ear the other - just bouncing along like a boat on the ocean).
The chorus where you can hear the heartache and the words just falling back into the plain desolation and sense of giving up.....
I like there's no lead break, like there is on From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea... it gives the song more a flow and a sense of just blatant, bleak desolation... To me this song is just the ultimate personification (persongification?) of what The Cure is. I love that there's no vocals for over 2 and a half minutes.... then there's lots and lots of vocals.
I love the sound of the melodies - not just the notes played, but the actual pitch and note sounds.. it's just perfect.... I can list to this song over and over. There's stuff going on in there that's just almost hard to hear but you know it's there... it's so deep..
I think it is my favourite song by this band. I'm pretty sure it's called Open due to the guitar tuning - an open tuning.. heh heh
HIGH
I remember being distinctly non-plussed when hearing High - to this day I still don't really like it, and feel it brings down the whole record. It seems like it's missing something.. I dunno. I just don't like it, and I think Wish would be a better record if High wasn't on there (sorry Simon). I do like the extended remix though... I can't put my finger on it...
APART
Apart is just beautiful. There are so many layers to that song. The whispered vocals in the background, the stark low bassline and the bits at the end of the bassline progression that are picked quickly but don't override the bassline.. Subtle genius...
The first keyboard line in the background sounds like a bunch of angels singing in the background. There are a couple of melodies going on between the vocal parts that just complement each other perfectly...
The lyrics are just so sad, perfectly sad.. Detailing a slow, gradual falling apart (no surprise there) of what was once a strong beautiful love.... wow...
The lead is slow and sad and just beautiful and wanders everywhere but doesn't get lost.
FROM THE EDGE OF THE DEEP GREEN SEA
This is heartbreakingly beautiful in its tale of anguish. Not only is the music just a train ride that chugs along (once it picks up) and doesn't let you go till the very last word, the melodies played are just hypnotic. As is the bassline. You can listen to the whole song just concentrating on the bass as it plays along note by note on and on.. it's just superb.
The lyrics are heart-wrenching - the bit where he says "Looks at me, my breaking face, why do you cry, what did I say? But it's just rain' i smile, brushing my tears away" show how trapped a man really can be.. god, it's just awful...hahha
Boris said this was his favourite song to play, I can see why, it's just stellar..
The lead break, which I'll admit, I thought Porl wrote as he plays it on Show, only to find out later that Robert got up from dinner one night during recording to bang it out and did it one take as it was as he said "my song, why wouldn't I play the lead?"
The exquisite torture runs through the song from start to finish and is just sublime.
WENDY TIME
I don't know why so many people don't like this song. Is it because the T&CII version is "better" or more original or (and this is hilarious) more OG? I love both versions and wish I'd heard this live back in 1992.
I love the wah wah all the way through it. It's not funky, it's not rock, it's just <shrugs> excellent. I have no real idea what Robert is singing about, but I kinda have an idea in my head..
It's got a "swears" in it, so it's naughty, but it's not gratuitous.. it is what it is.
This is kind of like a less rocky version of Never Enough, it's got some wah, a great bass line (which I believe appeared in a version of Forever in 1983... so it's been around for a while), a great vocal melody, excellent lyrics.. Great stuff!
DOING THE UNSTUCK
I wasn't taken with this for the longest time, maybe even until I heard the remix. I then revisited this and listened hard to the guitars - there are three of them... Acoustic rhythm, the "melody" picking and Porl cutting sick which was turned down in the mix, but is very audible... I like that the song sounds like it's going to have a swears in it but then veers off away from naughtiness...
It's a great, happy song. Lovely. I used to skip the song, now I look forward to hearing it.
FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE
The first time I heard this I loved it. The 12", or extended version is excellent too.. Listen hard, very hard to the guitar melody/melodies intertwining behind the acoustic rhythm.. Just. Perfect.
I read somewhere that some journo wrote "when you first hear the song, you want to sing/scream them down the phone to your loved one".. or something like that.
It's a great love song, better than Lovesong, if you ask me (which you most assuredly did NOT but I don't care)..
The "lead" is good and happy and the words are just lovely. Robert loves his Mary and it's clear.
The handclaps, the tamborine, Robert's hair in the clip that took 17 mins to record! A record from what I read.
TRUST
Perry, Perry, Perry... I'm so glad that Robert's sister taught you how to play the keyboards.. You gave us this beautiful song and I thank you for it my good sir.
The lyrics, which I might add, do not start for two and a half minutes into the song giving us a great long instrumental intro, match the beauty of the music perfectly. The words are a bit sad tho.
The false ending that breaks straight into the keyboard lead is cool followed by one chorus at the end and the song ends in a question. Perfect.
A LETTER TO ELISE
When this one re-debuted on Play Out (or did they broadcast the Unplugged session before Wish was released?) it was a revelation. A great rework of an amazing song. Back to the album: The sadness in Robert's voice is so present and his pleas so broken and heartfelt that it's hard to not feel melancholy when listening to this song.
It's a shame the acoustic rhythm guitar was mixed down so quietly, it should've been a bit more prominent but I guess that's the way of The Cure... some things are hidden, no matter how awesome they are.
The "toy" keyboard breaks are great, and the lead blisters across the guitar and keys... Excellent work gents.
This song is a quiet achiever. It's not heard any more, hasn't been heard since the Wish Tour aside from a few outings in 1997 then quite a few when Porl was back in the 4Tour fold. It's a shame it's been dropped but you can't have everything...
CUT
Yes, yes, AWAY is the OG version but it's almost a different song. Yes AWAY is awesome....but CUT rips and rocks through what AWAY was and tears it a new AWAYhole... hahahha
The feeding back Gibson Les Paul is hiding there, but you can hear it. Porl is toggling that switch all the way thru different bits of the song.. then he lets it rip and gets right up in your face!! BAM!!! It's got a thumping rolling bassline that punches through the guitars and rolls and rolls and rolls till you can't take more, then you get more! BASS!!!
You can hear the three guitars fighting in this song.. NO keyboards here thanks.. Don't get me wrong: The keys in AWAY are a perfect fit. But this isn't AWAY... it's CUT you effers! get on board..... For some reason when I hear AWAY I always hear "three blind mice" somewhere along the line... it's the keys at about the 2:24 minute mark... sing it "three blind mice" hahahahahaha
Boris should've pulled out all the stops and bashed the toms some more, not so much of the ol' hi-hat woulda been better... It would've propelled CUT to 11.
So there's quiet bit in CUT that then explodes back into the end minute or so.. "It's allllllllllllllll gonnnnnnneeeee". Yeah baby... and the feedback wails out....
TO WISH IMPOSSIBLE THINGS
This was originally going to be the last song on the record but Robert thought that album need a strong finish (more on that later).
A beautiful acoustic number, with some delay on one of the acoustic guitars and the keyboard that slowly flows and dances across the guitar and the bass.
Reminiscing about the old days, the nights that would never end.. It should make you feel sad, but it conjures up visions of remembering happy times, and not missing them, rather celebrating them. Beautiful. Of course the lyrics then turn cold and grey and everything once wished for is gone away... not so happy any more are we?
The "violin" just before the last "all i wish is gone away" bit is beautiful and sad. And then it all. Just. ENDs.
END
From what I read this started as a jam that ended up as a thumping rolling juggernaut of a song.
The drumming on this is outstanding.
The lyrics are just so down in the dumps, it crushes your heart. "I've reached that point where giving up and going on are both the same dead end to me, both the same old song"? far out man.. then he hits us with some "doo do dooo do doo"... happy happy..
Every wish has come true? Tired disguised oblivion is everything I do... The sheer brilliance of the breadth of manner of expressing oblivion is astounding.. and the music rumbles on.
Please stop loving me? No sir, I will not....
That loud reverse cymbal at the end is really loud man... geez...
As I mentioned, Wish is my favourite album, and Open my favourite song. I think the album portrays a wider range than Disintegration and KMKMKM.. it surpasses Faith and Pornography because whilst those records are totally excellent, they are essentially one-trick ponies (ooooh controversial) - there's a Faith sound, there's a Pornography sound, there are lots of different sounds on Wish... Hell, Three Imaginary Boys has a sound as does Seventeen Seconds......
Anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to comment, argue, agree, call me a tool, a fool, a stool......
Tomorrow I may drink another bottle of wine and write about the b-sides and TAPE. Maybe even tell you how I got my hands on Five Live.... and how Lost Wishes bores me but I still wish I had a copy.... wah
it's 2:02 am and I need to get up in about 5 hours so I better get to bed.
