WILD MOOD SWINGS

Started by Carnage Visor, July 27, 2007, 01:18:34

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Ulrich

"Wild Mood Swings" turns 25 next year! Thus, it is listed here:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/1996-rock-albums/

QuoteWe've rounded up the hits, the misses, the glorious comebacks and even a few projects you've probably forgotten for our list of notable rock releases turning 25 years old in 2021.

The Cure, 'Wild Mood Swings'

'Wild Mood Swings' arrived after a four year break for the Cure and is largely remembered for all the wrong reasons. The two releases which immediately preceded it - 1989's 'Disintegration' and 1992's 'Wish' - helped cement the band as one of the most influential, and commercially successful, groups of its era. Expectations for 'Wild Mood Swings' were high, but the LP proved disappointing. Maybe it was the absence of Porl Thompson and Boris Williams - two classic era contributors who departed prior to the recording of 'Wild Mood Swings.' Or perhaps it was the health issues faced by bassist Simon Gallup, who had to take a break from the band while recovering. Whatever the reason, the Cure appeared rudderless and unengaged on the LP, with only a few bright spots - such as "Mint Car" and "Strange Attraction" - providing any moments of energy.

Note: I don't really agree with this review, there are many more good songs than those mentioned.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

I don't agree with that review at all, @Ulrich.  I don't agree that the album appears "rudderless and unengaged" - sometimes reviewers seem to lack the capacity to engage meaningfully with a lot of the material presented to them - especially if they don't appreciate things they can't wiggle to. :P

Seems to me they were going for a mixture of vastly different styles, like with KMKMKM.  It worked there.  I have to admit I prefer KMKMKM (because there are less songs on it which grate on me musically or philosophically, and more that really work for me), but Jupiter Crash is one of my all-time favourite Cure songs (really well-written lyrics, plus a soundscape which plucks you out of wherever you are, and drops you straight into a night-time seashore that you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste :smth023), and there's plenty more strong songs on it (Treasure and Want I particularly like), and contemplative stuff towards the end of the album (which also has its uses).

Also - not every album has to be a "theme" album - it's fine to have "mixed anthologies" etc.  Sadly, there's this tendency towards homogenisation nowadays - just look into supermarkets, or paddocks - when diversity is a wonderful thing.

I've got some lawn to mow (spring flush still going here), and today I might put on WMS instead of my traditional lawnmowing album, Paris;)
SueC is time travelling

dsanchez

Quote from: Ulrich on December 13, 2020, 10:40:52Whatever the reason, the Cure appeared rudderless and unengaged on the LP, with only a few bright spots - such as "Mint Car" and "Strange Attraction" - providing any moments of energy.

LOL. They don't even mention the highlight of that album which is, by far, Want
2023.11.22 Lima
2023.11.27 Montevideo

Ulrich

Quote from: SueC on December 14, 2020, 07:38:06Seems to me they were going for a mixture of vastly different styles

Also - not every album has to be a "theme" album

Well, I always thought this one had a "theme": Wild mood swings! (And yes, there are mood swings on it.)  ;)

Quote from: dsanchez on December 14, 2020, 12:16:19LOL. They don't even mention the highlight of that album which is, by far, Want

Yes, "Want" is great and the band kept playing it live often.
But I also like "Jupiter Crash", "Bare", "Trap", "This is a lie" and many more!!
I always felt the addition of real strings (instead of keyboards "imitating" them) gave some songs a "depth" which otherwise would not be there.

However, there's a few points they are right to criticize. The band seemed "unfocussed" a bit and it sounds like a collection of singles rather than a coherent album.

Which points to the fact that there were different drummers (probably recorded before Jason Cooper was "established"): Louis Pavlou, Mark Price, Ronald Austin.

Plus there was bit of a rush when it came to mixing it. (The band went to South America for shows before it was released.)
Lots of names mentioned who were involved in the mixing...

QuoteSteve Lyon – production, engineering, mixing
Paul Corkett – mixing
Spike Drake – mixing
Paul Q. Kolderie – mixing
Tom Lord-Alge – mixing
Alan Moulder – mixing
Tim Palmer – mixing
Mark Saunders – mixing
Adrian Maxwell Sherwood – mixing
Sean Slade – mixing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Mood_Swings#Personnel
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

@Ulrich, you are turning into an encyclopaedia!  :cool

And yes, haha, if wild mood swings is a theme... then this is a theme album... 🤪  (Alternative titles anyone?  Me & My Multiple Personalities?  Brett suggested Bubble & Squeak - for those who aren't living in English-speaking countries, that's a hotchpotch fry-up with whatever you find in the fridge when you're hungry...)

I'm not saying the album is above critical discussion (nothing is, not even the speed of light), just that someone who likes only a couple of songs off it (and songs to wiggle to, at that) probably hasn't got that much to contribute to that discussion.

For my part, I don't like This Is A Lie lyrically and I reckon Mary should have put her spouse in the doghouse for it.  You don't make remarks like that after you've married someone of your own free will, and they're still nice to you. :P  Also, the main arguments of that song aren't logical.  I've written about that at length elsewhere and included in that a refresher course on Buridan's Ass. :angel

My lawnmowing session with WMS this afternoon was interesting.  Paris is much more suited for that task - it's more even.  I forgot that there are two enormous dummy-spits on that album!  :lol:  And I got reminded of how much I really don't like The 13th - it's not improving on acquaintance for me.  I find it pretty unrelatable personally, and the music sounds off to me.

Numb is a pretty good one, and very applicable.  (I'm going to have to look at this album eventually on the Exploring thread but it was in our house before I joined CF and I'm currently prioritising "new" stuff as it comes into our mailbox.)  But yeah, my three favourites off this are definitely Jupiter Crash, Treasure and Want.
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Quote from: SueC on December 14, 2020, 15:53:25you are turning into an encyclopaedia!

Yeah, well, I remember some stuff I read back then (or later) and what I don't remember I try and look up on the net...

Quote from: SueC on December 14, 2020, 15:53:25For my part, I don't like This Is A Lie lyrically and I reckon Mary should have put her spouse in the doghouse for it. 

As far as I recall, Robert said she knows him long and well enough to forgive him one stupid song.  ;)

I like the music of the song (beautiful strings) first and foremost. The lyrics ain't all that bad, at least it gives some fodder for discussion (which is a good thing)!

"How each of us believes
I've never really known
In heaven unseen and hell unknown
How each of us dreams to understand anything at all

However unsure
However unwise
Day after day play out our lives
However confused
Pretending to know to the end"

(Which reminds me of some religious people, who think they're "in the know" about anything and everything...)

Quote from: SueC on December 14, 2020, 15:53:25Numb is a pretty good one, and very applicable. 

Apparently it's about Kurt Cobain and other suicides...

Still, it never really "clicked" with me. It's not a bad song, but somehow something seems to be missing (for me).
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Matti

Quote from: SueC on December 14, 2020, 15:53:25I reckon Mary should have put her spouse in the doghouse for it.

Especially if you take into account this bit:

It's the first thing I've written that Mary came and asked what I meant by it. She's always given me a huge amount of leeway, creatively speaking. . but because it was so anti-monogamy, she came up and said: 'Is this what you really think?' It was much worse before. The original Iyric to 'This Is A Lie' actually had as its final line: 'Travel a long road in chains ." 
Charming. 
"Exactly," he laughs. "That was her word, charming (...)"
and we close our eyes to sleep
to dream a boy and girl
who dream the world is nothing but a dream

SueC

Thank you, @Matti:)  (How are you doing?  Love the new avatar, BTW!)  I'd seen the excerpt you quoted before, but not that interview, and it's a great read and adds more context, and more nuance actually, so I'm happy to have the link.  :cool

It was this snippet I found at the time that I particularly felt was very much open to debate:

Quote from: undefinedIn "This Is a Lie", one of the most sombre songs on "Wild Mood Swings", you describe life as a lie. You sing that every love relationship is a lie, since by choosing one person, you deny everyone else in the world, without being able to know if you have made the right choice or not. That you only pretend, all the way until the end. Is this something that you feel very strongly or is this only a thought?

It is something that I feel strongly since I don't think it can be any other way. It is like that. No one can be sure. But you can't walk around thinking about it either, you would become insane...

...and that's why I went on to debate it on the other thread.  But as @Ulrich says, it's a good thing when texts get a bit of debate going, and as @word_on_a_wing often says, sometimes people deliberately write something they want you to argue with.


Quote from: Ulrich on December 14, 2020, 18:34:49"How each of us believes
I've never really known
In heaven unseen and hell unknown
How each of us dreams to understand anything at all

However unsure
However unwise
Day after day play out our lives
However confused
Pretending to know to the end"

(Which reminds me of some religious people, who think they're "in the know" about anything and everything...)

Yeah, I know people like that.  :1f635:  And sadly, you don't have to be religious to be like this (and some people who are religious actually aren't, either - as you've already implied there, but it does surprise some individuals, mostly the ones who don't have much to do with religious people of various ilks).  I've seen people adopt certain subsets of philosophy as some people adopt a religion - just stick their mind into it like a jelly into a mould, unwilling after that to explore any alternatives to that particular subset so that there is no real difference anymore, unwilling to see the shades of grey and the truths of alternative positions, or to keep questioning everything, including their own world view, and the world views of people they love.  People can turn lots of things into a religion - including their soccer affiliations and political views - and often to the point of violence.

Even atheism can be turned into a religion, and Dawkins is pretty good at that, and I say that as a biologist and science educator who's got no quibbles with Darwin and who is as annoyed as Dawkins about the way teaching evolutionary biology is attacked and stymied particularly in the US, essentially by a flat earth society that's ignorant and wants to remain so in order to be able to carry on with their entrenched young-earth-God-with-a-magic-wand world view regardless of the evidence against it.  But it's unhelpful when Dawkins becomes nearly as extreme as the people he's criticising, and starts to make personal attacks, and to tar everyone with the same brush, and to get nearly as black-and-white as the people he's debating.  I think Alain de Botton (also an atheist, and wrote Religion for Atheists and lots of other interesting stuff that's not trench warfare) has a far more balanced take on religion, and is in a far better position to discuss that area productively with people because of that.

And I think Step Into The Light is an excellent song about this particular subject; and I'm very much looking forward to the next album!  :)

PS:


:winking_tongue
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Quote from: Matti on December 14, 2020, 20:06:59...actually had as its final line: 'Travel a long road in chains ." 
Charming.
"Exactly," he laughs. "That was her word, charming (...)"

Seems like Mary was able to take it with humour...  :)

(Btw, I remember reading this interview back in the day!)
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

The Misnomers

I love it!  When the 13th was released as the lead single I thought it was mad to release THAT song which would obviously alienate some people and it didn't sound like anything else coming out at that time (including on the album), but I LOVED it. It was so great and represented what I like about the Cure - they are always trying new things.  Let's Go To Bed was viewed as a terrible decision at the time (right up until it was released and became a hit)...

Ulrich

Welcome to the forum & merry Xmas!  :cool

I remember when "The 13th" was released, I told a mate that it sounded kinda "Mexican" with the trumpets, he didn't seem to believe me, but a while later (when he'd heard it) he said "it really does sound Mexican"...  :)

I agree it is an odd choice for the first single off WMS, "Mint Car" might have been more "logical" (it sounding a bit like the little brother of "Friday...")!
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

The Misnomers

Quote from: Ulrich on December 25, 2023, 11:05:24Welcome to the forum & merry Xmas!  :cool


Thanks! Merry Christmas!