The Cure’s Wish Is Getting the 30th Anniversary Treatment
What’s my favorite Cure album, you ask? Well, of course there’s their undisputed masterpiece, 1989’s Disintegration while 1981’s Faith was the band at their most melancholy and spiritual. But then there’s 1992’s Wish, which was the first Cure album I ever heard in its entirety and the one with which I’m most familiar.
My friend Leah gave me a copy of Wish that she’d dubbed onto an old black cassette for my 16th birthday, and it soon became a frequent companion and source of solace for the remainder of my high school years. Thanks to countless hours spent listening to the album on the bus and in my room, songs like “Apart,” “From the Edge of the Green Sea,” “A Letter to Elise,” and “To Wish Impossible Things” are permanently seared into my memory.
I still have that old black cassette as a treasured memento of those years, though I don’t listen to it any more. And now, 30 years later, Wish is finally getting the same deluxe treatment that previous Cure albums, like the aforementioned Disintegration and Faith, have received. Wish is being reissued in a variety of formats (many of which are selling out quickly, especially the vinyl), but I’m opting for the 3CD set.
CD 1: Original album remastered by Robert Smith and Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios
- Open
- High
- Apart
- From the Edge of the Green Sea
- Wendy Time
- Doing the Unstuck
- Friday I’m In Love
- Trust
- A Letter to Elise
- Cut
- To Wish Impossible Things
- End
CD 2: Demos, All previously unreleased versions (* — Unreleased track)
- The Big Hand (1990 Demo) [Final version on B-side to “A Letter to Elise” 7″]
- Cut (1990 Demo) aka “Away” [Final version appears on Wish]
- A Letter To Elise (1990 Demo) aka “Cut” [Final version appears on Wish]
- Wendy Time (1990 Demo) [Final version appears on Wish]
- This Twilight Garden (Instrumental Demo) [Final version on B-side to “High” 7″]
- Scared As You (Instrumental Demo) [Final version on B-side to “Friday I’m In Love” 12″]
- To Wish Impossible Things (Instrumental Demo) [Final version appears on Wish]
- Apart (Instrumental Demo) [Final version appears on Wish]
- T7 (Instrumental Demo) *
- Now Is The Time (Instrumental demo) *
- Miss Van Gogh (Instrumental demo) *
- T6 (Instrumental Demo) *
- Play (Instrumental Demo) [Final version on B-side to “High” 12″]
- A Foolish Arrangement (Instrumental Demo) [Final version on B-side to “A Letter to Elise” 12″]
- Halo (Instrumental Demo) [Final version on B-side to “Friday I’m In Love” 7″]
- Trust (Instrumental Demo) [Final version appears on Wish]
- Abetabw (Instrumental Demo) *
- T8 (Instrumental Demo) *
- Heart Attack (Instrumental Demo) *
- Swing Change (Instrumental Demo) *
- Frogfish (Instrumental Demo) *
CD 3: Lost Wishes / Studio Out-Takes / 12″ Remixes / Live / Rare / Previously Unreleased
- Uyea Sound (Dim-D Mix) [From Lost Wishes]
- Cloudberry (Dim-D Mix) [From Lost Wishes]
- Off To Sleep… (Dim-D Mix) [From Lost Wishes]
- The Three Sisters (Dim-D Mix) [From Lost Wishes]
- A Wendy Band (Instrumental) *
- From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea (Partscheckruf Mix) **
- Open (Fix Mix) [B-side to “High” 12″]
- High (Higher Mix) [“High” 12″]
- Doing the Unstuck (Extended 12″ Mix)
- Friday I’m In Love (Strangelove Mix) [“Friday I’m In Love” 12″]
- A Letter To Elise (Blue Mix) [“A Letter to Elise” 12″]
- End (Paris Live 92) **
It’s an obvious wealth of material, ranging from demos and unreleased tracks to remixes and live performances. One of the most exciting inclusions are the four instrumentals from Lost Wishes, a cassette released in 1993 that was only available via mail-order. Lost Wishes has long been a sort of Holy Grail for Cure fans — its songs are really quite lovely — and this is the first time it’ll be available on CD/vinyl/digital. Listen to “Uyea Sound” below.
Wish’s 30th anniversary edition will be released on October 7, 2022.
On a related note, I marked Wish’s 30th anniversary back in April with a playlist and podcast episode that are exclusives for Opus subscribers.