Half a Robert Smith is still better than most of the crap out there today.

/Just an opinion, relax.

That's strange, because in the new single-song, pick-and-choose mp3 world, you'd think it doesn't matter how many songs are on an album.

I thought that the music industry was effectively putting an end to the music industry, period.

The new album is so bad that it sounds like half of Robert Smith is operating anyway...

I mean, this album is BAD.

paulseta: The new album is so bad that it sounds like half of Robert Smith is operating anyway...

I mean, this album is BAD.

Dammit. I just ordered it and didn't want to listen to the clips because I wanted to hear it in it's entirety.

Nabb1: paulseta: The new album is so bad that it sounds like half of Robert Smith is operating anyway...

I mean, this album is BAD.

Dammit. I just ordered it and didn't want to listen to the clips because I wanted to hear it in it's entirety.

Your milage may vary - but I have all their albums, and have found them to be at the very least a very interesting band, but this new album (and I did not know it was the "light half" of a double) seems lacking in melody and good writing... and frankly even the production sounds a bit rubbish to my ears.

It could be a grower, but I am really, really disappointed with the quality of the songs more than anything. Maybe the lack of some of the other longtime bandmembers has had a bigger impact than anticipated.

No real feelings about The Cure, but I do want to point out that, very often, today's 1-CD albums are the equivalent of two LP's. Filling 2 CD's with songs is the equivalent of releasing 4 or even 5 LP's worth of music; doing something like that even in a two year period was the kind of thing once only reserved for bands like The Clash (or Frank Zappa in any given six month period). There's a reason that 95% of albums released before the CD age were between 35-45 minutes in length; when you start putting more than that on an album, it either means you really have something to say, or you've abandoned quality control temporarily.

Even a band like System of a Down had to do this a few years. it seems to be a very odd trend with almost no real discernible reason as i fail to see how it generates more revenue as double-albums have been largely overpriced for a while now.

downstairs: That's strange, because in the new single-song, pick-and-choose mp3 world, you'd think it doesn't matter how many songs are on an album.


one thing I've noticed lately is how many albums I've bought this year that are 35 minutes or less (new Wire, No Age, Retribution gospel Choir, etc). I kind of like in that even though I'd love for a band to fill a CD to capacity, the longer the album, the less likely the band is to maintain consistency.

Stadium Arcadium.......sooo no.

/dont even start to hate on them.

tarkus1980: No real feelings about The Cure, but I do want to point out that, very often, today's 1-CD albums are the equivalent of two LP's. Filling 2 CD's with songs is the equivalent of releasing 4 or even 5 LP's worth of music; doing something like that even in a two year period was the kind of thing once only reserved for bands like The Clash (or Frank Zappa in any given six month period). There's a reason that 95% of albums released before the CD age were between 35-45 minutes in length; when you start putting more than that on an album, it either means you really have something to say, or you've abandoned quality control temporarily.

I've heard a lot of people say a good double album could have been a great single album, and I think that holds true for the most part. I know there are exceptions.

And yeah, LPs at 33 1/3 were optimized to get maximum volume and dynamics around 20 minutes per side, so 40 minutes per disc. CDs nearly doubled that (74 minutes, and possible to squeeze an extra couple minutes out of it by adjusting the track pitch).

elev8meL8r: (74 minutes, and possible to squeeze an extra couple minutes out of it by adjusting the track pitch)

I was under the impression CDs always maxed out at 80 minutes and that the appeal of CDs was that, in theory obviously, you could have a long-ass album and it wouldn't at all effect the sound fidelity.

Procedural Texture: I thought that the music industry was effectively putting an end to the music industry, period.

This. They are exhibiting the very definition of "disintermediation." I doubt they will be missed.

Half a Robert Smith is still better than most of the crap out there today.

That's not the half I was thinking of.

The point though is that its sad that it's forcing their artist to cut their album in half, like System of a down, and Cure ect..


I guess the new trend that artists and old listeners have to come to grip with, is that your music is now not meant to be listened in its entirety and in a specific order, like those old double concept albums used to be... But in bite-size format.


we are going back to the 50's style of 45 single, in a way

I love Disintegration and Blood flowers.

Will I like this new album?

FeedTheCollapse: elev8meL8r: (74 minutes, and possible to squeeze an extra couple minutes out of it by adjusting the track pitch)

I was under the impression CDs always maxed out at 80 minutes and that the appeal of CDs was that, in theory obviously, you could have a long-ass album and it wouldn't at all effect the sound fidelity.

The technical standard ("Red Book") specifies 74 minutes of audio including pauses. I believe CDs with more than 74 minutes do not technically conform to the standard - although most modern CD players have no problem dealing with it, some very early CD players might not be able to read those non-conforming discs.

They can get up to 80 minutes by adjusting the track pitch, which is a measure of how tightly the microscopic data spirals along the playing surface. By tightening the spiral, they can get more revolutions and thus more playing time. I'm not aware of this having any effect on the fidelity. When I said "pitch," I didn't mean to refer to the process of speeding up the audio so you could fit more on there (which would *definitely* affect the sound). I probably should have been more clear.

Tron Lafontaine: I love Disintegration and Blood flowers.

Will I like this new album?

I dunno, I think a lot of it sounds more like some of the singles and b-sides from the Wish and Wild Mood Swings more than anything else.

Some of the non-album tracks on i-Tunes, like "All Kinds of Stuff", are really good, I think.

But, yeah, not my favorite album, but, as others have said, a "meh" album by the Cure is A++ compared to most other shiat out there right now. I'm happy. I like it.

PS -- "Sleep When I'm Dead" is a song that he made a demo of waaaaay back in the Head on the Door or Pornography days. It's worth a listen if only for that eh

What's with all the 4:13 Dream hate? I'm listening to it for the first time right now, and I"m actually really enjoying it even if it's not their most memorable or original work. Maybe it will reverse-grow on me or something, I don't know, but right now I'm loving it.

I don't get the hate for 4:13 Dream either. To me it's like the album that could have come between Disintegration and Wish. And in six months we get the "dark half" of the album. Can't wait.

I don't hate it, far from it, it just hasn't grabbed me as much as, say, "The Cure" did. Damn, "I Can't Find Myself" kicks major ass.

But, then again, I bought every single as it came out, and bought the remix EP, so I'm used to a lot of it. And I've only listened to the whole thing like twice.

It's a good album. If you like the Cure in general, you should like this one, too.

elev8meL8r: tarkus1980: I've heard a lot of people say a good double album could have been a great single album, and I think that holds true for the most part. I know there are exceptions.

In my personal opinion, Physical Graffiti is the best exemplar of this theory, because the "great single album" is the first disc.

Think about it - the first disc leads off with "Custard Pie," ends with "Kashmir," and is completely solid in between. On the other hand, the second disc starts with "In the Light", which I'm pretty sure was pieced together from sound checks of Jimmy Page practicing scales. And what the hell is "Boogie with Stu" doing on anything but a completist-only box set?

Fark U: tarkus1980: There's a reason that 95% of albums released before the CD age were between 35-45 minutes in length; when you start putting more than that on an album, it either means you really have something to say, or you've abandoned quality control temporarily.

Actually, I think it has less to do with your reasons and more to do with the physical medium's restrictions of the time period.

/At one time, new albums could be bought on cd, tape, AND record.

I agree that the practical reason for the 35-45 minute range was restrictions of the medium. I don't doubt that many bands, had the CD existed in the 60's and 70's, would have been prone to the same excesses in filling the space as so many artists were in the 80's onward. My contention is that it was an unintentionally useful limitation. It had two useful effects. One was that it forced good artists to prune their albums carefully, getting rid of as much weak material as possible, to get them down into the time limit. If you wanted to release more than a single LP, you had to have a damned good reason, otherwise it had a chance to bog down badly. The second was that it forced them to record on a consistent basis, as opposed to recording a bazillion songs at once and then taking a long time off between albums.

Say what you will, but I really think that the loss of the time limits imposed by the LP format is one of the most important disadvantages of music from the 80's onward, as opposed to music from the 60's and 70's.

Tron Lafontaine: I love Disintegration and Blood flowers.

Will I like this new album?

Looking above, others seem to like the album. I think it's a big step below in quality from even the much-criticized late period Cure.

If you love Disintergration, you may like the first song on the new one. Ditto with Bloodflowers. But I think if you don't like the really throwaway tracks (like a lot of Wild Mood Swings and bits of Wish and especially Kiss Me x3) then you will *not* like this album.

I would guess the "dark side" CD will be more to taste. Personally I think the missing band members must have contributed a lot more than some of us suspected.

Where the hell was Biggles: Think about it - the first disc leads off with "Custard Pie," ends with "Kashmir," and is completely solid in between. On the other hand, the second disc starts with "In the Light", which I'm pretty sure was pieced together from sound checks of Jimmy Page practicing scales. And what the hell is "Boogie with Stu" doing on anything but a completist-only box set?

hey, I like In the Light. Though I don't think even the band tries to hide the fact that Physical Graffiti is more or less a dumping ground of leftovers, albeit largely good leftovers.


I also nominate The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails. Granted, at two disc, it does have a certain flow, but it really could've been whittled down to one long single disc.

FeedTheCollapse: Where the hell was Biggles: Think about it - the first disc leads off with "Custard Pie," ends with "Kashmir," and is completely solid in between. On the other hand, the second disc starts with "In the Light", which I'm pretty sure was pieced together from sound checks of Jimmy Page practicing scales. And what the hell is "Boogie with Stu" doing on anything but a completist-only box set?

hey, I like In the Light. Though I don't think even the band tries to hide the fact that Physical Graffiti is more or less a dumping ground of leftovers, albeit largely good leftovers.


Ten Years Gone saved the second disc of Physical Graffiti for me. Then again, Achilles Last Stand is my favourite LZ song. Despite what Amarok says. It's convinced I'm madly in love with Stairway. I think the program is cheating somehow.

I'd love to hear a Muse double album. I had no idea Giant Steps was a double though - it's just a single CD in my collection.

/loves Melon Collie and The Wall

I too am enjoying the new album. The one song I really can't get into is 'The Scream' but even the tunes they played live this summer that I thought were ok have grown on me. I certainly like this album much more than the last one which I gave a few listens to and put away with a heavy sigh.

Can we please see the day soon when record companies become completely irrelevant? To punish a band for wanting to release material is just sad. Especially as bands age and gaps between albums get longer, I don't want some contractually obligated 6 month and a day waiting period for new material.

The 90s had Smashing Pumpkins' Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Springsteen's The River, the Boo Radleys' Giant Steps, Spiritualized's Laser Guided Melodies, the Wu-Tang Clan's Wu-Tang Forever and Sonic Youth's Dirty.

FAIL

Say what you will, but I really think that the loss of the time limits imposed by the LP format is one of the most important disadvantages of music from the 80's onward, as opposed to music from the 60's and 70's.

Generally speaking, in my not at all humble opinion, artists produce their best work when forced to confront some kind of limitation. The time limitation of the LP was one such. It's why editing of books is so important. If you leave artists to their own devices, they get self-indulgent and weird.

The shining exemplar of this musically still has to be The Clash's Sandanista. 3 LPs worth of dreck with maybe one album of worthwhile tunes on it.

Plenty of double albums fit on one CD...

These come to mind:





Of course, these are double albums on LP, but I will ALWAYS refer to them as double albums.

I dig 4:13 Dream. Underneath the Stars and The Hungry Ghost are my favs.

Most decent bands, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, have marked their creative high point with a monolithic double-disc masterpiece and many a generation has been defined by them.

lolz.

Simon Gallup is one of the most underrated Bass players in rock. Listen to Faith or Pornography for examples, pure genius!