The Cure Album: “4:13 Dream”

Picture this: Disintegration is the beautiful model you see in a glossy magazine picture, glacially gorgeous, but in some ways unapproachable. Wish is the pretty girl you see at a party, and while she may not be Disintegration-beautiful, she's a hell of a lot more fun, and a lot easier to get into. Wild Mood Swings is the plain girl with a crush on the guy that will never have any interest in her, and that only makes her try harder and harder to please him, never able to really give him what he wants or make him into her. Bloodflowers is a dark, mysterious beauty, and when she isn't busy cutting herself, she's illustrating to you that she does in fact understand something about life, love, and pain, and you just have to stick with her long enough to get her message. The Cure is just an angsty emo girl sitting in her room decrying the state of the world with embarrassingly childish notebook poetry, listening to the bands that her daddy served as the greatest influence for. And now, we have 4:13 Dream, who just so happens to be the fun, cool, pretty girl that every guy wants to be around and every girl wants to be. Suffice to say, 4:13 Dream is probably the best album the Cure have released since Wish, depending on your personal preference for Bloodflowers.

4:13 Dream opens with what is easily the best song Robert Smith has written since Disintegration, Underneath The Stars. This is a dark, swirling, brutal kind of song, washing over the listener in layers of reverb guitar and plaintive echoed cries. Smith's singing and lyrics on this track are top notch, standing as the best track on the album, and one of the best Cure openers ever. The album moves on to the fun pop of The Only One, which I reviewed at length on its release. Track three, The Reasons Why, is a Wish-era pop rocker complete with rocking riffs and some glorious embarrassing lyrics about suicide. Freakshow is a fun funk track it he vein of Why Can't I Be You? And Hot Hot Hot!!!, though it fails to light quite the dancing fire that those songs did. Sirensong is a gorgeous strummed ballad, akin to something off of Bloodflowers, if Bloodflowers weren't so completely dark, and its definitely one of the album highlights, creating a bit of respite between the string a rockers that start with The Reasons Why. The Real Snow White and The Hungry Ghost work brilliantly together, building a tension based on a mass of riffing guitar and driving bass lines, with Smith singing with vigor and great subtlety. Switch is one of my less favored tracks on the album, failing to be as dark as the Pornography sound that influences it. The Perfect Boy, which I also reviewed upon its release as a single, is a smooth pop ballad, and definitely one of the best "love songs" that Smith has written since the `80s, though the whole "love" aspect of the tune is somewhat debatable. With The Perfect Boy out of the way, This. Here and Now. With You sets up the rock roller coaster that is the final four tracks of 4:13 Dream. It's a surprisingly spry track, and one that will likely grow on listeners as opposed to having instant appeal. Sleep When I'm Dead is a solid alt rocker, but not one of the best tracks on the album, weighed down with some strange God-complex lyrics. The Scream is the brutality that Switch fails to be, closing with an epic scream the likes of which I don't think we've ever heard from Smith. Closer, It's Over, is surprisingly fast paced for a Cure closing track, but it's good and works the album into a frenzy just before its abrupt end.

All in all, 4:13 Dream is one of the best Cure records we've seen in a very long time, and I have no doubt that in years to come it will be at the top of many a fan's list. The Cure have recorded one of the best albums of the year, so don't miss out.

9.5/10

It appears that the majority of reviews for the new Cure album are favorable, and mine is no different. I grew up more of a hair metal fan in the 80's (I know...yikes), but I also dug The Cure and their eccentricities, even if I didn't have any of their albums. As I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate them even more, and now they are at the top of my favorite band-list. This latest effort is superb, with the same melodic guitar delivery and Robert Smith's angst-driven vocals. Every song seemed to flow effortlessly into the next. There is always a comfortable quirkiness about any Cure song, and this album is no exception. They just seem to take the listener somewhere musically and emotionally that no other band can. My favorite tracks on 4:13 Dream are the fantastic opener Underneath The Stars, The Reasons Why, The Perfect Boy, and This Here And Now With You, but honestly, there isn't a bad track on here. It's all genius, as you'd expect from The Cure.

I never was really able to bond with the self titled album from 2004. And I had almost given up hope that I would feel the way I used to feel when first listening to a new Cure album. But this one is truly inspiring. Underneath the Stars opens the album somewhere between Open and Plainsong. The Reasons Why and The Hungry Ghost bring you back to pre-Head on the Door times while maintaining their own new sound. The Scream could've been placed somewhere on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Don't get me wrong: this isn't textbook-heard it all before-Cure... 4:13 Dream has maintained what has always been great about The Cure, while creating a whole new world to get lost in.

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.

Finally, an album that makes 'Wild Mood Swings' seem like a masterpiece.

While there are some tracks that are somewhat strong, i.e. "Underneath the Stars" , the album is lackluster and dull..the magic is gone. The production is flat, the vocals somewhat off-key and the notable absence of synthesizers doesn't do anything positive for the album. Nothing moves you in a way as much as say "Jupiter Crash" or jolts you like "Want", which I use as examples from what is considered to be one of their "worst" albums.

To it's credit however, it is not an offensive album in the least. All the tracks are certainly listenable and the album flows consistenly. I do applaud their use of the steel guitar in "Siren Song" More of this type of experimentation would have been nice. "Sleep When I'm Dead" is also somewhat effective as a real "Cure" song...but ironically was written 20 years ago. "It's Over" is a thunderous closer, and about the most excitement you get on the album, though for some reason it feels a little contrived.

Overall, I'm really not negative about the album, but give me "Wild Mood Swings" or "Bloodflowers" over "4:13 Dream" anyday..not even taking into account the AMAZING stuff they did in the 80s..WOW Is this the same band that wrote Disintegration? Unbelievably so. Give me a Pepsi Free, Camelot Music and a Cassette Deck and I will lay back and dream of better days...