Track Listing

1. Underneath the Stars
2. Only One
3. Reasons Why
4. Freakshow
5. Sirensong
6. Real Snow White
7. Hungry Ghost
8. Switch
9. Perfect Boy
10. This. Here and Now. With You
11. Sleep When I'm Dead
12. Scream
13. It's Over

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5709 in Music
• Released on: 2008-10-28
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
2008 release, the 13th studio longplayer from the legendary Goth rockers led by Robert Smith. Now down to a quartet (Smith, Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson and Jason Cooper), the band continue to musically evolve while dealing with subjects like relationships, the material world, politics and religion. The songs on 4:13 Dream are stripped down and 'in your face' while also sounding very much like The Cure. Includes the singles 'The Only One', 'Freakshow', 'Sleep When I'm Dead' and 'The Perfect Boy.'

Amazon.com
No one ever managed to nail aimless suburban alienation quite like the Cure, so sensitive yet so party-hearty, and 4:13 Dream, their thirteenth studio album and first in four years, lands in a musical landscape infested with their descendents. Yet Robert Smith and his old blokes can still show the young shavers how it’s done, even as they enter their fourth decade as a working band. The wistful yet ominous opener, "Underneath the Stars," seems to slip towards Pink Floyd’s "Wish You Were Here," making for a perfect exemplar of the Cure’s highly nuanced, yet undeniably commercial, English art-rock. "The Only One" seems to rework their own, twenty-year-old classic, "Just Like Heaven," while the febrile scratchy funk of "Switch" sounds peculiarly contemporary right now. Their woozy "Sirensong" simply refuses to settle into predictablility, and even the lumbering and gloomy "The Real Snow White" sounds ready for arenas rather than confined spaces. Enjoyable throughout and often effortlessly commercial, 4:13 Dream should depress and impress many young people, especially some musicians who may now realise just how far they have to go to catch up. --Steve Jelbert

About the Artist
20/10/08 The Cure Story continues...

It all started in 1976 as 'Easy Cure', formed by Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) along with schoolmates Michael Dempsey (bass), Lol Tolhurst (drums) and local guitar hero Porl Thompson. They began writing and demoing their own songs almost immediately, playing throughout 1977 in Southern England to an ever growing army of fans. In 1978 the 'Easy' was dropped, along with Porl, and an eager trio now known simply as The Cure were quickly signed to Chris Parry's new Fiction label.

In May 1979 their debut album Three Imaginary Boys was released to great acclaim, and as the band toured extensively around the UK, the singles "Boys Don't Cry" and "Jumping Someone Else's Train" were released. Michael left the band at the end of the year, and Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) joined. In early 1980 the 4-piece Cure embarked on an exploration of the darker side of Robert's songwriting, and emerged with the minimalist classic Seventeen Seconds, along with their first bona-fide 'hit single' "A Forest."

After an intense world tour Matthieu left the group, and in early 1981 the trio recorded an album of mournful atmospheric soundscapes entitled Faith, which included another successful single in "Primary." The band then set out on a second global trek, named "The Picture Tour," during which they released the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes." In 1982 The Cure went back into the studio, and their increasingly ugly fascination with despair and decay culminated in the unrelenting sonic attack of Pornography. An intensely volatile tour ensued, and the single "The Hanging Garden" was released just as Simon left the band.

After pushing the limits of excess, Robert felt he had to change things, and did so by 'going pop' again. Rejuvenated, the now 2-piece Cure released their first real dance single, the cheesy "Let's Go To Bed," and during the making of the accompanying video forged a colorful and lasting relationship with director Tim Pope. The band continued into 1983 with the groovy electronic dance of "The Walk," followed by the demented cartoon jazz of "The Lovecats." In 1984 The Top was released, a strange hallucinogenic mix, which contained the infectiously psychedelic single "The Caterpillar." The world `Top Tour' saw the band expand to a 5-piece, with the addition of Andy Anderson (drums) and Phil Thornalley (bass), and the return of Porl Thompson (guitar).

The new Cure sound was captured live for the album Concert. Andy and Phil left soon after the end of the tour, and were replaced by Boris Williams (drums) and further returnee Simon Gallup (bass). This new incarnation started work on 1985's The Head On The Door with a very real sense of 'something happening'... The vibrant hit single "Inbetween Days" was followed up by "Close To Me," and the ensuing world tour paved the way for the massive success of the singles collection Standing On A Beach in 1986. That summer saw the band headline the Glastonbury Festival for the first time, and a year of extensive gigs and festivals was crowned by Tim Pope's live concert film The Cure In Orange.

In 1987 The Cure brought out Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, an immense double album of extreme and extraordinary stylistic range, and with the arrival of Roger O'Donnell on keyboards the 6-piece Cure traveled the world with the 'Kissing Tour', enjoying 4 more hit singles along the way. The wonderfully atmospheric Disintegration was demoed in 1988 and released in 1989, and despite being a work of powerful brooding grandeur, it too gave rise to 4 hit singles. The awesome 'Prayer Tour' that followed, with the band back down to a 5-piece following the departure of Lol Tolhurst, included some of The Cure's best performances to date, and was captured live for the album Entreat.

In early 1990 Roger O'Donnell left the group, and was replaced by long-time band friend Perry Bamonte, just in time for a series of headlining European festival shows that included the band's second Glastonbury headline slot. The album Mixed Up was released, supported by the re-mixed singles "Never Enough," "Close To Me" and "A Forest," and in 1991 The Cure at last won some long overdue "home" recognition with a Brit Award for "Best British Group."

In 1992 they produced Wish, a richly diverse multi-faceted guitar driven album hailed by some as their best work to date. It spawned 3 fabulous hit singles, and the glorious `Wish Tour' that followed was a worldwide sell-out. The sheer power of the shows inspired the release of two live works in 1993, Paris and Show. Immediately after the tour ended, guitarist Porl Thompson left the band again (this time with a smile!), and The Cure headlined the XFM 'Great Xpectations Show' in London's Finsbury Park as a 4-piece. The band also contributed '"Burn" to the film `The Crow' and covered "Purple Haze" for the Hendrix tribute album 'Stone Free'.

In 1994 Boris Williams decided to move on, and in early 1995 Jason Cooper took up residency behind the drum kit, with Roger O'Donnell rejoining once more on keyboards. Work on the next album was interspersed with recording "Dredd Song" for the film `Judge Dredd', a cover of Bowie's "Young Americans" for an XFM album, and headlining several major European festivals, including the 25th Glastonbury. Wild Mood Swings was released in 1996, and went straight into almost every top ten around the world. The Cure hit the road once more with 'The Swing Tour', their longest to date, and released 4 more singles.

Galore, the follow up singles and video compilation to Standing On A Beach, was released in 1997, after which work took place in 1998 on a variety of projects, including "More than This" for the `X Files' album, and a memorable appearance by Robert in the TV cartoon show `South Park'! In 1999 the band completed the recording and mixing of what many regarded as their best studio album so far, the Grammy Nominated Bloodflowers. With it's release in 2000 the band set off on the massive world-wide `Dreamtour' - playing to more than a million people in 9 months.

2001 saw the long awaited release of the Cure's Greatest Hits album, which featured all the band's biggest selling singles along with 2 new songs, the elegiac "Cut Here" and the ebullient "Just Say Yes," a duet with Saffron. This year also saw the end of the group's relationship with Fiction Records, the label they had been instrumental in starting 23 years before.

In 2002 the band spent the summer headlining a number of European Festivals before going into rehearsals for two very special nights in November at the Tempodrom Berlin, where they performed all the tracks from Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers plus encores! Both performances were shot in Hi-Def video on 12 cameras, and Trilogy DVD was released.

In 2003 as another chapter of The Cure story opened, the band signing a 3 album global deal with the Geffen label. 2004 saw the release of Join the Dots, a 4cd Box set compiled by Robert of all the B-sides and Rarities, followed by the widely acclaimed new album The Cure, co-produced with the renowned Ross Robinson. 3 singles, "The End Of The World", "alt.end" and "Taking Off" all hit big, and another hugely successful world tour ensued, with the 23 date North American Curiosa Festival leg especially notable for seeing the band supported by a number of hand picked younger bands including Interpol, Mogwai, The Rapture and Muse. The year ended with an MTV Icon Award presented at a special televised London show.

In 2005 Perry Bamonte and Roger O'Donnell left the band and Porl Thompson joined for a third time. The quartet's debut show was headlining Live 8 Paris, followed by a number of other summer European Festivals. The first four Cure albums (Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography) were re-released, with Robert providing 'rarities' for Deluxe Edition extras CD's, as part of an ongoing campaign to re-master and re-issue all the Cure albums. Immediately after closing a week of Teenage Cancer Trust Shows at the Royal Albert Hall in April 2006, the band started recording their 13th studio album, breaking off in June to allow Robert to work on a live DVD. In August the second set of re-releases (The Top, The Head On The Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me) was released, each album as a 2CD Deluxe Edition, along with 1983's Glove album Blue Sunshine. In November Festival 2005, a 155 minute 5.1 DVD comprising a 30 song selection of live performances captured the previous summer by a mix of fans, crew and `on-the-night-big-screen cameras', was put out.

Spring 2007 saw The Cure headline the Miami Ultra Music Festival before heading back into the studio to continue work on new songs. The 11 show Australasian leg of `The Cure 4Tour 2007-2008' kicked off in July with a headline slot at the Fuji Rock Festival, the band's first performance in Japan since 1984, before moving on through Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. In October the band headlined the San Francisco Download Festival, before playing 3 wild nights in Mexico City at the Palacio de los Deportes, followed by an outstanding performance at the MTV Latin America Awards.

In February 2008 The Cure kicked off the 23 date European leg of `The 4Tour', and in May released "The Only One", the first of 4 singles to be released every 13th of the month for 4 months. "Freakshow", "Sleep When I'm Dead" and "The Perfect Boy" followed, and as the band continued `The 4Tour' with a sell-out 27 date North American leg, all 4 singles reached #1 on the Billboard chart. Indeed, for one remarkable week in August, 4 Cure singles were in the USA Top 20 at the same time! In September the "Hypnagogic States" EP was released, featuring remixes of the first 4 singles by acclaimed younger artists Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), Pete Wentz & Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy), Jade Puget (AFI) and 30 Seconds To Mars. 4Tour support band 65 Days Of Static joined in the fun, remixing all four singles as one track. All artist royalties from this EP were donated to the International Red Cross.

In a radical move the new album 4:13 Dream was performed in its 13 song entirety by The Cure 2 weeks prior to release at a live broadcast MTV event in the Piazza San Giovanni in Rome before an estimated crowd of 75,000 and a potential TV audience of 200 million. The reaction to the event has been awesome, with many fans already acclaiming this new Cure album as a bona fide classic...

In late October 4:13 Dream, The Cure's 13th studio album - recorded, engineered, produced and mixed at Parkgate Studios UK by Robert Smith and Keith Uddin - is released worldwide...

To be continued...

(Tim Brothers)

THE CURE is Robert Smith (Vocal and Guitar - 32 years in the band), Simon Gallup (Bass - 29 years in the band), Porl Thompson (Guitar - 15 years in the band) and Jason Cooper (Drums - 13 years in the band)

Customer Reviews

Better, but not quite a return to form
Full disclosure: I LOVE the Cure. They are my favorite band. However, I do not think they have released a first class record since Bloodflowers. I found the self titled album terribly disappointing, and this album, though better than the last, still leaves much to be desired. I fear Robert Smith is trying to remain young and relevant by embracing the modern emo/hardcore aesthetic, rather than the aesthetic that made them amazing in the first place. This was especially apparent with their choice of producer on the self titled album (Produced by Ross Robinson, who had previously worked with bands like Limp Bizkit), and with the emo bands bands they chose to remix their material on their latest EP, Hypnagogic States.

While I think the writing on this album has improved dramatically, I think the production is HORRIBLE, and that damn near ruins the album for me. The bass and vocals are almost always mixed way too high, the drums sound thin and quiet, and the guitars are mixed so low they are sometimes hard to heard. This is a special shame, since it sounds like the shimmery guitars may be back on this record, but are often buried far too low. Working with another producer that is more familiar with and better able to handle the sound that the Cure are so good at (I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Alan Moulder get his hands on a Cure record), I truely think this could have been a return to form and another amazing record. The Cure need to embrace their role of elder statesmen of a genre and STOP trying to be a modern emo band. They are wonderful at making huge sounding, dense, dreamy music, and I would love to see them do that once again.

4:13 Dream
Picture this: Disintegration is the beautiful model you see in a glossy magazine picture, glacially gorgeous, but in some ways unapproachable. Wish is the pretty girl you see at a party, and while she may not be Disintegration-beautiful, she's a hell of a lot more fun, and a lot easier to get into. Wild Mood Swings is the plain girl with a crush on the guy that will never have any interest in her, and that only makes her try harder and harder to please him, never able to really give him what he wants or make him into her. Bloodflowers is a dark, mysterious beauty, and when she isn't busy cutting herself, she's illustrating to you that she does in fact understand something about life, love, and pain, and you just have to stick with her long enough to get her message. The Cure is just an angsty emo girl sitting in her room decrying the state of the world with embarrassingly childish notebook poetry, listening to the bands that her daddy served as the greatest influence for. And now, we have 4:13 Dream, who just so happens to be the fun, cool, pretty girl that every guy wants to be around and every girl wants to be. Suffice to say, 4:13 Dream is probably the best album the Cure have released since Wish, depending on your personal preference for Bloodflowers.

4:13 Dream opens with what is easily the best song Robert Smith has written since Disintegration, Underneath The Stars. This is a dark, swirling, brutal kind of song, washing over the listener in layers of reverb guitar and plaintive echoed cries. Smith's singing and lyrics on this track are top notch, standing as the best track on the album, and one of the best Cure openers ever. The album moves on to the fun pop of The Only One, which I reviewed at length on its release. Track three, The Reasons Why, is a Wish-era pop rocker complete with rocking riffs and some glorious embarrassing lyrics about suicide. Freakshow is a fun funk track it he vein of Why Can't I Be You? And Hot Hot Hot!!!, though it fails to light quite the dancing fire that those songs did. Sirensong is a gorgeous strummed ballad, akin to something off of Bloodflowers, if Bloodflowers weren't so completely dark, and its definitely one of the album highlights, creating a bit of respite between the string a rockers that start with The Reasons Why. The Real Snow White and The Hungry Ghost work brilliantly together, building a tension based on a mass of riffing guitar and driving bass lines, with Smith singing with vigor and great subtlety. Switch is one of my less favored tracks on the album, failing to be as dark as the Pornography sound that influences it. The Perfect Boy, which I also reviewed upon its release as a single, is a smooth pop ballad, and definitely one of the best "love songs" that Smith has written since the `80s, though the whole "love" aspect of the tune is somewhat debatable. With The Perfect Boy out of the way, This. Here and Now. With You sets up the rock roller coaster that is the final four tracks of 4:13 Dream. It's a surprisingly spry track, and one that will likely grow on listeners as opposed to having instant appeal. Sleep When I'm Dead is a solid alt rocker, but not one of the best tracks on the album, weighed down with some strange God-complex lyrics. The Scream is the brutality that Switch fails to be, closing with an epic scream the likes of which I don't think we've ever heard from Smith. Closer, It's Over, is surprisingly fast paced for a Cure closing track, but it's good and works the album into a frenzy just before its abrupt end.

All in all, 4:13 Dream is one of the best Cure records we've seen in a very long time, and I have no doubt that in years to come it will be at the top of many a fan's list. The Cure have recorded one of the best albums of the year, so don't miss out.

9.5/10

Has its moments, but something is missing...
If you hated The Cure's 2004 self-titled album, you might like 4:13 Dream more. But I liked the last album, although the grungy sound would have been more timely in 1992. Despite its flaws, I think I listen to it more often than to Wish. I'm less enthusiastic about this album, however.

What's especially noticeable, to me, is the crudeness of the vocals. It's not necessarily that Smith's voice has gotten worse, but it seems that there is much less variety in his performances. He doesn't emote much anymore. In most of these songs, he sort of half-yells, half-recites the lines, and it sounds like he's having a harder time fitting them into the music, like his voice is straining to keep up with the rhythm. For instance, the music in "The Only One" is almost exactly the same as in "High" from Wish (the intro induces serious deja vu), but Smith's vocal is much tighter and catchier on the 1992 album. And since his voice is loud in the mix here (like on the 2004 album), every flaw is made especially apparent. This "loose" feeling doesn't serve The Cure well -- somehow I suspect that this exact same song, with the same words and music, would have sounded a lot better if Smith had sung it ten years ago, with the more disciplined approach he had then.

At the same time, "less catchy" is still pretty catchy, in this case. Even if you only listen to the first thirty seconds of "The Only One," you might not be able to get it out of your head. In fact, you might have a better impression of the song if you only listen to the first thirty seconds. But if you're willing to forgive Smith everything as long as he can still summon some of that addictive pop magic, well, he does enough of that to get off scot-free again.

The band is going for more tonal variety on this album than on the last one. They've done away with the chugging alt-rock guitars. This time, the target seems to be The Head on the Door ("Sleep When I'm Dead" was actually written during those sessions, which may explain why it has the catchiest chorus on the album) or the sunny parts of Wish. But unfortunately, they don't recreate the clean sound of The Head On The Door. For some reason, every Cure album after Disintegration has been plagued by a somewhat muddy production, which blends the instruments together into a formless blur. This style actually worked pretty well in 2004, when the guitars were more aggressive, but it doesn't suit a sunny pop album -- rather, it just makes the songs sound more similar than they really should.

It may also be that the band has become content to sketch out basic "Cure-like" grooves rather than actually writing new hooks. "Underneath The Stars" almost evokes the majesty of "Plainsong" with its expansive sound (it helps that this is one of the few songs on the album where Smith tones down his delivery a little), but this is entirely due to production sleight-of-hand. Recall that "Plainsong" also had a towering guitar line and thunderous percussion to add to the production, which are missing here. None of the songs can compete with "Lullaby" or "Fascination Street" for memorable musical content. I sometimes think that the band's latter-day albums would sound a lot better if Boris Williams were still drumming for them. Jason Cooper is good at playing typical rock patterns, but Williams always had all kinds of original rhythmic fills that were memorable pop hooks in and of themselves. Simon Gallup gets one chance to shine here, on "It's Over," but his bass is quickly overwhelmed by the noisy production.

At least Smith's writing has improved a little. He still relies on rhymes like "head/bed," "cry/die," "please/squeeze," but at least these lyrics are less primitive than on the self-titled album. "The Hungry Ghost" is a critique of consumerism, a favourite topic for aging rock stars, but it's oblique enough to avoid sounding preachy. And there are even times when everything seems to come together almost like in the gloomy old days -- catchy lyrics, a good guitar hook, interplay between instruments... For example, look at the lovely guitar lines in "The Hungry Ghost," or the keyboard/guitar interaction in "The Reasons Why."

It's not such a bad album. Objectively, it's probably better than the previous one, in some ways. But, paradoxically, it's less attention-grabbing, actually harder to listen to. Unlike the self-titled album, which tried to modernize their style, albeit using outdated grunge templates, I just can't see 4:13 Dream attracting a new audience, or even reinvigorating the old one.