The Cure CD Reissues (2006)
The Cure – The Top
Sound: B Music: C+ Extras: A
The Cure – Head on the Door
Sound: B Music: A Extras: A
There are
times when I go to write about a band or an album and as I sit poised at my
typewriter, libation to my left, lights dim but still bright enough to sort of
make out the keys as I hunt and peck (I’m notoriously slow and often comically
inaccurate as my fingers slide along the smooth surfaces, stabbing and
careening into verbal wipeouts), the stereo going with the volume twisted to
loud, the air vibrating deliciously…and then nothing happens. I sit there trapped in the staring game with
a blank sheet of paper, the music somehow growing louder on its own, everything
becoming uncomfortably claustrophobic.
No words, nothing.
This is
never more frustrating than when the band I’m supposed to be writing about (The
Cure) is one of my all-time favorites and the spinning of nifty little yarns
regarding the music and its intersection with my own life something I regard as
a true pleasure. What could be better
than banging at the keys with the rock’n’roll blasting in your ears and
drinking deep of a cool case of local brew?
The only thing missing: a devastatingly pretty girl dancing to the tunes
and telling secrets out of school.
There are
no pretty girls here tonight. It’s just
me, the music, and my writer’s block.
This is a lousy situation and I feel like I need to apologize to Robert
Smith for my inadequacy to the task.
Robert, I’d say, come over here I need to tell you something. No Robert, please, leave the mascara alone
and come sit down. No, your hair looks
great, man. Here, Robert, have a
drink. Well, Robert, I’m sorry you don’t
like the cheap stuff, I’m kinda skint lately and it’s all I could afford and
actually it’s not that bad if you swallow it really fast…but that’s not
important. You’ve got me off topic, just
listen a minute will ya. Robert, look, I
was trying to write about how much your music has meant to me and well, I
screwed it up, man. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t get it done. I feel awful about it, too. What can I say? No, Robert, I don’t have anything else to
drink here.
Getting a
big-time rock star to pay attention while you pour out your sad little heart is
not an easy thing to accomplish.
Anyway,
once again Rhino has done a top notch job on these latest volumes in their
series of Cure re-issues. Gorgeous
packaging, excellent remastered sound (CD’s usual PCM 2.0 16bit/44.1kHz Stereo),
and another batch of everything-and-the-kitchen-sink bonus tracks.
Robert,
if you’re out there, man, I love ya!
- Kristofer Collins
Kristofer
Collins is an editor at The New Yinzer and owner of Desolation Row CDs in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can
contact him at:
desolationrowcds@hotmail.com
