Our Blog

The Cure “Three Imaginary Boys” (1979)

The early years of the Cure were a quite different proposition than their better-known commercial years, a colder, more alienated (and alienating) unit with a darkness at the core of everything they do. Not that they were ever  sunshine and lollipops, but there was a perverse bleakness that permeated their first few albums that lifted ever so slightly as they carried on. Way back here on their debut, they have the rolling, tense sound of post-punk/no-wave, with the clicking rhythms and murky bass lines taking influence from reggae and dub, but with the nihilism and antagonistic energy of punk rock played with a touch more spiky, precise musicianship. You would hardly recognize them as the band they would become, except in an occasional familiar quirk of Robert Smith’s voice.

“10:15 Saturday Night” is one of those obsessively neurotic songs that everyone seemed to be doing around the time (perhaps because they so well fit the nervous energy of this musical style), and one of the best, with a great smeared, jagged guitar solo. It sets the tone of alienation and disconnection that most of the album carries on. What love songs appear here are disguised and usually bleak (and there’s “Object” which denies any affection for a partner – ‘don’t try to hold me because I don’t want any ties, you’re just an object in my eyes, but I don’t mind’), although there is a surprisingly effective total reinvention of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” that is more like Devo than the rampant sexuality of Hendrix. Instead, these are songs about dripping faucets, track lighting, subways, the impending extinction of humanity, or about being hung to bleed out on a meathook. Universal stuff. It is not on the whole some of their more distinct work, but it is a very strong example of the post-punk era. —Jared

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *