Friday I’m In Love

2004 is turning out to be the year for Cure fans. Earlier in the year, Robert Smith and Co. released Join the Dots, a 4-disc compilation of b-sides and rare tracks that was quite a joy to go through. Now, according to Pitchfork, the band’s new album is due out sometime in the fall.

Now, I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical. I loved Join the Dots, for the most part, mainly because it was a look back at the band’s career. However, I think most people would agree, or maybe it’s just most people I’ve talked to, that Wish was the band’s last truly solid album. Since then, their output has been shaky and uneven, to put it mildly.

And, to make things even more uncertain, Ross Robinson, who has helped break such noteworthy acts as Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Vanilla Ice(!), is producing the album. If that’s not enough to get you worried, I don’t know what is. But I’ll confess that all of my concerns are essentially meaningless, because I’ll still be in the record store the day it comes out, cash in hand. That’s the kind of sucker I am. And I hope, hope, hope that all of my concerns about the band’s vitality and choice of producer are proven wrong beyond the shadow of a doubt.

And this won’t be the only Cure release that I will receive in exchange for my hard-earned money. The band is giving their discography an even more thorough goings over than Join the Dots originally suggested. 4 classic Cure albums will be re-released on August 17. Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography are all being reissued, presumably with plenty of b-sides… which you probably already own if you’re a real Cure fan. But for the rest of us who don’t spend hours scouring EBay for every 7″ flexi-single and yet still have the gall to call ourselves fans, this is cool news — even if it means our checkbooks will be feeling the hit.

Personally, I’m most excited about the Faith reissue. It’s difficult to say for sure, but I’d probably consider Faith to be my fave Cure release, based solely on the strength of songs like “All Cats Are Grey,” “The Funeral Party,” and the title track. I still remember listening to that old cassette for days upon days after I picked it up. And who knows? With Faith being reissued, maybe “Carnage Visors” (the band’s hypnotic 27-minute instrumental that served as Faith’s b-side) will finally have an official CD release on this side of the pond.