The Cure : 4:13 Dream
If you were like me, growing up an outcast in the ’80s, there were three bands that provided the soundtrack of your lost and lonely life—Depeche Mode, New Order and The Cure. While mi hermano was devoted to Robert Smith and The Cure, my lyrical corazon belonged to Depeche Mode and New Order. I wasn’t a diehard Cure fan like he was—nothing personal against Smith or The Cure, it’s just that albums like Disintegration were too depressing for my already lonely existence. That’s not to say that I wasn’t a fan, just maybe not as intense a fan. Songs like “Just Like Heaven,” “Close to Me” and “Love Song” were staples on my mixtapes dedicated to my many unrequited crushes that never came true.
It may sound sacrilegious to fellow Robert Smith devotees but my favorite Cure album wasn’t made in the ’80s or ’90s. To me, 2000’s Bloodflowers was their best. This was supposed to be the swan song for Smith; he was finally going to retire his famous moniker and go solo, something he had been threatened to do for ages. Bloodflowers would have been the ultimate finale, as the last chapter in Robert Smith’s “heart of darkness trilogy” that began with Pornography, followed years later with my brother’s favorite, Disintegration.
Yet there was a hint in “Maybe Someday” and even in “Out of this World” that maybe Smith wasn’t ready to hang it up at the end of the song.
“One last time before it’s over
One last time before the end
One last time before it’s
time to go again…“
Four years later, The Cure returned with a disappointing album with Korn producer Ross Robinson behind the boards. It felt forced and unfinished, more like what Robinson’s idea of what a Cure album should sound like. Worse still, some of the best songs were left off the American pressing of the album. Who knows why Smith refused to allow stellar songs like “Going Nowhere” and “Truth of Goodness and Beauty” on the album, but it was a definite step back for Robert Smith and made me think he made a mistake for not simply leaving us with the everlasting legacy of Bloodflowers.
Following that misstep, Robert Smith once again went back to restore the glory of The Cure. Smith reportedly had planned to drop a double album in the fall of 2007, as he had recorded more 33 songs for his new album. And gone was Ross Robinson as producer. Thankfully the double LP idea was scrapped and 13 tracks made the album. Smith decided to release an EP every month, starting in May and ending in September, before the release of 4:13 Dream.
Initially, I had my doubts. Some of the songs and remixes I heard were more of the same vibe from their disappointing 2004 album. But I did have a sense of hope because of the track “Please,” which Smith recorded with Orbital co-founder Paul Hartnoll. That song recaptured the essence of The Cure; Smith hadn’t sound this energized and alive in years.
4:13 Dream—whose title perhaps unintentionally evokes “10:15 Saturday Night,” or perhaps intentionally?—was the result of all Robert Smith experienced during a dreamlike state as suggested in its title. Its opener, “Underneath the Stars,” is one of the greatest opening songs on a Cure album, in league with 2000’s “Out of this World.”
Echoing “Pictures of You,” Smith comes out sounding the most confident he has in years. With his echoing dreamy vocals, he invites us to enter his dream world, a welcome return to a more electrifying Robert Smith performance. “The Only One” is a modern adaptation of “High” and surpasses the summit reached by the original found on Wish. You can actually hear Smith sounding excited as he reaches those upper notes, like he did during his early goth incarnations of The Cure.
The Peter Hook-esque bass line could be an ode to New Order on “The Reasons Why.” (This wouldn’t be the first time Smith honored one of his fellow English new wave/post-punk compatriots—in 1998, Smith recorded a tribute to Depeche Mode with a rousing cover of “World In My Eyes” on For the Masses.) By this part of the album, one begins to notice a recurring theme, with Smith singing about stars and dreams as metaphors for falling in love. “The Reasons Why” sounds like a fan writing a letter to Robert Smith, wanting to feel some kind of connection outside of the song. Smith takes the idea of dream and turns into a more classical Shakespearean meaning of eternal sleep of death.
“Freakshow” is a funky burst of energy recalling 1996’s Wild Mood Swings. The freaky guitar riffs enhance the dream-state illusions of a damsel who’s shattering his heart by slithering away a chance for true love. “Sirensong,” one of my favorites, is one of the shortest, sweetest and most personal songs Robert Smith has ever composed on this or any album. I adore the dreamlike vibe that has Smith personifying his muse into the guise of a dream girl: “Tell me you love me/Before it’s too late/She sang/Give me your life/Or I must fly away/And you will never hear this song again.”
The next song , “The Real Snow White,” reverts back to the band’s classic dark side with Smith revising the story of Snow White, while “The Hungry Ghost” has some of the best guitar work of Robert Smith’s career. His vocal sounds electric and impassioned, but the lyrics “No it doesn’t come for free/ but it’s the price/ we pay for happiness,” are lacking the substance behind the stylish power of the song “Sleep with the Dead” is vintage Cure with 21st Century zeal, Robert Smith having unearthed this one from the The Head of the Door songwriting sessions. Continuing his eloquent imagery, he calls out “I’ll sleep when I’m Dead/ you angels…before I lay me down to dream.”
What impresses me even with a few on the tracks that don’t stir me is that there are transcendent transitions between songs of 4:13 Dream. It is in constant flow, moving from one emotional peak of “Underneath the Stars” through the breaths of despair in “It’s Over,” which closes 4:13 Dream with a fury that’s been missing from most of the sanitized Cure albums of the not so distant past. Think the guitar fire of “Burn” mixed with the vocalized passion of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. As Robert Smith sings “I can’t do this anymore,” I am hoping that 4:13 Dream is only the next chapter, and he doesn’t ultimately walk away from The Cure. Robert Smith has resurrected the legacy of The Cure with an album that dedicated fans and newcomers would both adore.
Label: Ficiton/Universal
Year: 2008
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