The Cure Album: “Japanese Whispers”

"Japanese Whispers" is an album that marks a departure point for the Cure. This is where the music was starting to become more commercial, after the bleak, tormented, soul-wrenching anguish of "Faith" and "Pornography".

"Let's Go to Bed" was Robert Smith's attempt to write "a silly pop song". Apparently Smith hated the song so much he wanted to release it under a pseudonym. Luckily he was talked out of it.

Every Cure fan will know the hit single "Lovecats" of course. At the same time this album came out the Cure film-clips were starting to look more exciting, thanks to the creativity of Tim Pope. In the clip to "Lovecats" Robert Smith doesn't look the least bit depressed. "The Walk" is one of those songs that sticks in my head. It's very 1983.

"Japanese Whispers" is a neat little package of songs. This is one of the first steps in the evolution of the Cure musically, after being fashionably depressing, then darkly depressing, then morbidly depressing. It takes the Cure out of the murky swamp of despair into the light of wider acclaim. (Although these songs still appealed to alternative listeners.)

This was the first album to prove that the Cure isn't all gloom and doom. They showed a quirky side too.

This album should be held in the highest regard. It spotlights some of Robert Smith's best songwriting skills, and some of the bands most truly "wild mood swings". Lament has always been one of my favorite songs. This album should be remastered, re-packaged, and held high up on a pedastal!

Proceeding here as a duet, Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst utilize sythesizers and sounds of The Orient to make "Japanese Whispers," which contains only eight songs, most of which are less than four minutes long (in fact, the entire album times in at less than 30 minutes). I've never particularly loved the "silly" side of The Cure. Although "Let's Got to Bed," "The Walk," and "Lovecats" are fun, they are not representative of the songs that make them a great band, although I appreciate the sharp departure from the all too bleak "Pornography." I really do like "Just One Kiss" and "La Ment" which could easily have fit well on other albums.

"Japanese Whispers" is not one of "The Cure's best, but it is quite enjoyable.

One of my favorite albums by The Cure. Robert Smith calls it idiot pop, I call it brilliance. These are the singles and accompanying b-sides. A must have for any fan.

Japanese Whispers was released by the band at the end of 1983 as a collection of its recent singles rather than as a fully developed studio album. Yet the sounds emanating from this disc have much more in common with the next three Cure releases, The Top, Head on the Door, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me than any of the earlier records do. For whatever reason, this album and its immediate predecessor, The Top, were never published in America, as Elektra probably decided that the albums would never sell here. The album's final song, "Love Cats," is probably the most perfect pop song the Cure ever made until 1987's "Just Like Heaven." "Let's Go to Bed" and "The Walk" were also very successful singles for the band, though they sound distinctly like early 1980s techno pop. Fortunately for non die hard fans, these three singles are all available on the album, "Staring at the Sea." For those willing to venture a bit further, though, the rest of this album is very tight, and Japanese Whispers belongs in any Cure fan's collection. All of the songs are heavily synthesized. "Lament" has that eerie sadness that would have allowed it to fit seamlessly on the "Faith" record; "The Dream" is a rather catchy B-side, and the almost irritating "Speak My Language" is my favorite Cure song on the record--it's like having "Love Cats" with alternative lyrics. "The little time I spend with you, we drink each other dry." A must for serious Cure fans.