New Cure Reissues – a Cure fan and his money etc etc…

Blue Sunshine – Deluxe Edition (Amazon Link – The Glove)
The Head on the Door: Deluxe Edition (Amazon Link – The Cure)

This was going to be part of a series of posts entitled “my favourite bands – ever”, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet and wanted to talk about these instead.

As you may know, I’ve adored the Cure since a young age, so the deluxe remastered series is exactly the sort of thing a saddo like me is going to end up buying. Now bearing in mind I’ve already got all the cds in question and the second discs are of varying quality, why, you may ask, have I shelled out another £10 each for them?

Because they’re Cure cds, with stuff I haven’t got on them, that’s why.

For example, the last set of reissues, 17 Seconds, Faith & Pornography had at least two songs on each extra cd that I’d have paid money for ages ago on bootlegs. But they’ve just not been available before now, so like any addict, I had to buy the cds all over again.

This series of 4 reissues, The Top, The Head on the Door, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and the Robert Smith / Steve Severin side-project The Glove – Blue Sunshine isn’t as laden with great extras as the original series, but what the hell.

At least the Glove second disc has all of Robert Smith’s vocal versions of the songs (he was contractually not allowed to sing on the whole album originally). The Top & Head on the Door at least have a couple of unreleased things, but Kiss Me is just studio demos of the album and a couple of live tracks.

But I had to have them anyway. And if you really have to ask why then you’ve never loved a band the way I loved the Cure. In fact, I’ve still got quite a thing going for them even now when we’re both getting a little long in the tooth.

Kate Bush – Aerial

Aerial
(Amazon Link)

This is fast becoming my album of the year.
And yes, I’m well aware that it was released last bloody year. But I only got hold of it this year.

Aerial is different from normal Kate Bush, because it’s not the ever so nutty, wild ideas Kate. This is Kate the contented Mom, staying home and doing the washing.

But the beauty she sees in the everyday is no less beautiful for being commonplace.

Aerial is split over two cds: A Sea of Honey & A Sky of Honey
A Sea Of Honey is the more song driven, personal side. Starting with the Kate Bush does Kate Bush single King of the Mountain it quickly sweeps into stranger territory with the bizarre Pi, which really is about the mathematical expression, taking Pi to 116 places in the course of the song. Bertie is a saccharine sweet song to her son, but it does manage to express what children mean to their parents in a simple yet magical couple of lines:

You bring me so much joy
And then you bring me
More joy

Mrs Bartolozzi has the fantastic vision of a woman doing her washing complete with the chorus:

Slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy

Get that dirty shirty clean

Of course Kate even manages to inject something extra into this tranquil scene of domesticity:

I watched them going round and round
My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers
Oh the waves are going out
My skirt floating up around my waist
As I wade out into the surf
Oh and the waves are coming in
Oh and the waves are going out

The second cd, A Sky of Honey is really a 9 piece suite of music, dealing with the passing of one day from one dawn to another. It’s a day where nothing in particular happens, but it does so incredibly beautifully. Starting with a simple child’s voice:

Mummy…
Daddy…
The day is full of birds
Sounds like they’re saying words

and moving to encompass birdsong, a pavement painter, a perfectly sketched out sunset and nightfall, a moonlit swim and finally a joyous welcome to a new dawn.
Sky of Honey is a stunning piece of music.

My favourite bits? Too many to mention them all, but on the title track there’s a moment where Kate weaves her voice, a blackbird’s song and then her infectious laughter together to welcome the dawn and it is so full of happiness and freedom that it can make me happy whenever I hear it.

Official site here, Wiki entry here

Young Marble Giants – Final Day

Colossal Youth (Amazon Link)

Young Marble Giants.
Wonderful band. Only really did one album’s worth of material.
But what an album. Minimal and beautiful.

And never more so than with their finest track: The Final Day.
This is of those tracks I heard way, way back and promptly filed away to look into at some point. But over the years, two things happened, it became completely ingrained on my music memory & I never got round to getting it.
But I have now.

Young Marble Giants – Final Day
When the rich die last
Like the rabbits
Running from a lucky past
Full of shadow cunning
And the world lights up
For the final day
We will all be poor
Having had our say
Put a blanket up on the window pane
When the baby cries lullaby again
As the light goes out on the final day
For the people who never had a say
There is so much noise
There is too much heat
And the living floor
Throws you off your feet
As the final day falls into the night
There is peace outsideIn the narrow light

YMG Wikipedia entry here,
final day mp3 here. Just right click and click “save as”.
You really should hear it, it’s quite wonderful.

Having a bit of a Duran Duran moment…….

Greatest [CD + DVD]
(Amazon Link)

I’m having a little bit of a Duran Duran weekend. I tend to do this every so often, where I’ll get something in my head and it won’t go away until I’ve played it and played it.
This time it was Skin Trade by Duran Duran.

My love affair with one of the most despised of 80s bands started with an ex-girlfriend.
I’d always known their music, growing up in the early 80s it was pretty unavoidable. But they were just too popular for me to like.
However, this ex played their 1986 album Notorious to me and I loved it. Of course, me loving the album wasn’t a good thing for the band because their popularity and sales took a nose dive after this and they were suddenly considered old and rather naff. (Interestingly a similar thing happened with A-Ha as well – I start liking them after their second album and their popularity never recovered either.)

But I prevailed, loving every Duran Duran album* after that. But Notorious remains a favourite and Skin Trade still ranks as one of my favourite tunes.

And this weekend I’ve been having a bit of a Duran-a-thon. Sad but true.

*Not quite true – don’t like the new one “Astronaut” with the original line-up. Seems like a backward step to me.