I've recently come to the opinion that I think it would have been better for The Cure to release A Strange Day as a single instead of The Hanging Garden. Now i don't know what "better" means in this context, perhaps it means commercial success or perhaps it means that one song is better than the other [but what is better really]. Maybe I think it would be a "better" song because I've heard THG soooooooo many times, that I can't listen to it unless I'm listening to Pornography as a whole....
Who thinks what?
the hanging garden is one of the bands best songs i think
In my opinion every Cure single has a particular purpose: it's a missionary of the world's most wonderful music.
I don't care for the label's purposes (money). I do care if a young person listen to all this crap out there. When I meet someone who looks about the real thing, someone with willingly ears, I always try to "convert" him. And you know what? There are very few out there who didn't stuck. They begin with the "lighter" stuff and soon they find them selves listening to Pornography. That is what the single-releases do, in large terms.
So when it comes to singles, I prefer what is more catchy for the others and not the "better one" from a Curefan's point of view. Let them start and then we will welcome them all in curefans.com and discuss about it :smth056
Besides we know that most of the best Cure songs never released as singles.
On that base, I believe that A Strange Day would be a much more appropriate choise.
As far as the "better" concerns, for me "A Strange Day" is better in many ways. I personally consider it one of the best Cure songs ever.
The Hanging Garden is a very stern song even for a Cure fan. I mean it requires, more than many other songs, a certain mood. And I believe more concentration to the music.
7 to 10 times I hear it, I pass it over. But the remaining three times I'm captivated. That is how it works for me. I love it for these 3 times.
As much as I love A Strange Day, THG was the perfect choice for a single, especially if they were going for such a dark, ugly album. Might as well be jerks, stick to their guns, and submit an ugly, unsettling song as their single. And compare the video to what was out there at the time, as well.
And it's cool that such a young band (at the time), with a fraction of the clout that they have now with a record company, were able to get away with releasing THG as a single.
It's almost like how the Flaming Lips amazingly got Warner Brothers to release Zaireeka (for those who don't know, an album split over 4 CDs, to be played simultaneously), even though their previous album didn't fare so well, they lost their guitarist, and they had a fraction of the popularity & respect than they do now...
It's kind of neat when artistic decisions win, when it comes to the numbers-driven, business side of things.
yeh that was cool of them, reall though as much as none of us want to admit it the cure are driven by money now. also when i convert people to the cure they nearly always stick too, whether that be with pornography or the greatest hits
Quote from: nausearockpig on April 04, 2007, 08:21:11
I've recently come to the opinion that I think it would have been better for The Cure to release A Strange Day as a single instead of The Hanging Garden. Now i don't know what "better" means in this context, perhaps it means commercial success or perhaps it means that one song is better than the other [but what is better really]. Maybe I think it would be a "better" song because I've heard THG soooooooo many times, that I can't listen to it unless I'm listening to Pornography as a whole....
Who thinks what?
The Hanging Garden is a single material because the song has the dynamics for a radioplay while A Strange Day takes some time to build up...
BUT THEN AGAIN, THAT ALBUM DOESN'T HAVE ANY "SINGLE"
Quote from: farquad92 on April 04, 2007, 21:05:48
also when i convert people to the cure they nearly always stick too
hmm it almost sounds like a lossy conversion (once poor mp3s, always poor mp3s... :lol: )
anyway, i somehow love that expression, "convert people to the cure"!
i remember seeing 'a strange day' often been titled as "the great lost cure single" or something like that (correct me if i'm wrong). it's probably a better song of the two but anyway i'd agree that 'the hanging garden' was a powerful choice, probably the right one for a single.
i think it did bring forward the "dynamics" of the band during that era much better and more truthfully than 'a strange day' would have done, which also made it a more "authentic" choice, so to speak.
Guess which one i think would have been the appropriate choice......... :-D ;)
I believe "The Hanging Garden" was the appropriate choice for the single. At the time the band didn't care (or want) commercial success and therefore chose a song (probably) that they felt best represented what the album was about - dark, moody psychedelics wrapped in metronome-ish, propulsive beats. It really does sum up the album quite well, and its not as if "The Hanging Garden" is as difficult a listen as, say, "Siamese Twins" or "Cold" (both absolute favorites of mine). I may also have this view being that "A Strange Day", while very nice, never really became "One of Those" songs for me - you know, one of the songs where if I had to make a Cure mixtape for someone I'd absolutely have to put it on there. Maybe that's why the band also chose not to release it as the single. Who knows? There's my 2 cents, though.
if they truly wanted no sucess they wouldve released Pornography or The Figurehead as a single and called it a day... The Hanging Garden has at least some mainstream potential.
Well, here's a quick sampling of some of the top hits of 1982 (presumably based off of the US charts. If I have a second, I can maybe find the UK). I think "The Hanging Garden" is from an entirely different planet:
http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id198.htm
Just scroll down a bit.
If John Oates doesn't scare you away.
the hanging garden has that strong distinct start which makes it the better choice.
IMHO A Hundred Years knocks Hanging Garden into a cocked hat!
Would have been a much better A side.
Also, you have to consider that it does actually stand up today as a good song.
When was the last time Hanging Garden got an airing in concert?
Cheers.
Steve
i think the hanging garden stands up today just as well as 100 years. its the bands decision not to play it, roberts voice is perhaps a little too old to carry it.
INTERESTING,ALSO,HOW ROBERT SAID THAT THE ALBUM
BLOODFLOWERS HAD NO SINGLES AT ALL
WHILE "MAYBE SOMEDAY" WAS THE SINGLE MATERIAL
100%
WITH A BETTER AIRPLAY
AND SOME CUTTING TO MAKE IT AROUND 3,5 minutes
IT COULD BE MASSIVE HIT
:rocker
Don't take this personally Janko, but is there something wrong with your caps lock button?
Looks like you're shouting when you post :lol:
just another robert smith wannabe :lol:
Quote from: farquad92 on April 12, 2007, 16:10:08
just another robert smith wannabe :lol:
THIS IS TRUE...
IF ROBERT CAN, SO CAN I ...
AH, WHAT ELSE IS NEW?!
:-D
ps
yes, nothing much
:D
try this: in wmp or winamp or whatever player you want, queue up all the tracks which appear on Standing On A Beach but replace The Hanging Garden with A Strange Day and have a listen.
does it flow, does it sound better, does it suck?
I believe that in the context of Pornography, The Hanging Garden flows perfectly. it sits in the right place [tracklisting wise] and is generally "right". But in a singles compilation context, I don't know....
Quote from: Janko on April 12, 2007, 15:49:12
INTERESTING,ALSO,HOW ROBERT SAID THAT THE ALBUM
BLOODFLOWERS HAD NO SINGLES AT ALL
WHILE "MAYBE SOMEDAY" WAS THE SINGLE MATERIAL
100%
WITH A BETTER AIRPLAY
AND SOME CUTTING TO MAKE IT AROUND 3,5 minutes
IT COULD BE MASSIVE HIT
:rocker
actually the reason no singles were released from Bloodflowers was because Robert diddnt want to have to cut any songs down because he diddnt think theyd have the same effect. I do think Spilt Milk wouldve made a good stand alone single.
Quote from: KingOfSomeIsland on April 15, 2007, 05:50:23
I do think Spilt Milk wouldve made a good stand alone single.
WELL IT WAS A RADIO PROMO SINGLE...
TO ME:
LAST DAY OF SUMMER
MAYBE SOMEDAY
WHERE THE BIRDS ALWAYS SING
THERE IS NO IF...
WOULD BE PERFECT FOUR SINGLES OFF "BLOODFLOWERS"
well i'm aware it's maybe a sort of easy thing to say since it doesn't really crave any imagination from me, but i've always been very happy with the idea of 'bloodflowers' being an album without singles. i somehow feel this gives it a sepcial kind of stature, almost like self-confidence as an album - it's doesn't need any singles to advertise itself, it's perfectly ok in its very own both strong and calm way without any tracks being ripped from the structure. surely, it's filled with gorgeous songs, many of which would apparently "made great singles", but they are even better when they are kept in the context of the album. surely they would have beaten most of the other songs out there in radio play at that time by the terms of quality of the songwriting itself, but still none of the songs is shouting out "i'm a great single, look at me!"
i think the decision not to put out any singles was a very good one, and in perfect harmony with the nature of the album.
why would it need any singles?
don't get me wrong but i get the same feeling as every time when people talk about certain B-sides and say this or that song "should have been an A-side". like there was some sort of hierarchy where being a B-side means the song was somehow neglected. the same with singles: i don't think some songs very accidentally neglected (or on purpose either) when they maybe weren't released as singles. i don't think this is true at all. robert often talked about this, how and why he chose the certain songs on this or that album and why some songs (that were often even recognized as being far superior songs by him too!) were left out. like why 'wendy time' was on 'wish' and 'this twilight garden' wasn't. i think he had perfectly reasonable ideas behind this, since he was always thinking about the album structure as a whole, how to make it work the best possible way as an album. so i don't think he neglected anything or missed noticing some songs had potential, but it was a conscious choice.
well ok, the choice of singles was sometimes not his choice but also maybe dictated by the record label. so in that respect it's maybe a bit different... but anyway, i don't feel any need to regret that there were no singles released from 'bloodflowers'. it's not a fixed question of value. and i don't know why singles should even be compulsory - the album structures/contexts are different: for some albums the "producing of the singles" come naturally, for others it doesn't. and i don't think 'bloodflowers' has this "single mentality" on it.
and yet, this is definitely more like a strenght than a weakness, imo.
so, no singles for me, please. :)
(i also think it was only good that 'spilt milk' was released completely separately from 'bloodflowers'. it wouldn't have been comfortable on the album anyway - especially if they had put it in just to have one song with "single quality". it would have been totally obvious and would have felt out of place, breaking the arch of the rest of the album.)
can someone please send me spilt milk?
bloodflowers is one of my favourite albums and i think its better than disintegration when you listen to both as albums rather than collections of songs, it just didnt have a lullaby or lovesong on it. criminally under rated i think, if the next album reaches that quality il be very pleased
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 00:16:57
criminally under rated i think, if the next album reaches that quality il be very pleased
i wouldn't say it's underrated. i feel it's just as often almost overrated and strangely for the very same reasons than it' also underrated for... people just keep saying it's underrated because it didn't get as much airplay as some other albums - because there were no singles - but that's not the only way to rate something. it certainly didn't sell poorly and it was practically praised to death by most critics. it was a nominated for the grammy award. the tour that followed was pretty succesful everywhere they went to. nobody's really slagging it off in a way that people keep beating WMS or 'mixed up' - those might be underrated (that is if they ever deserve to be called that - but that's another story altogether). etc. etc.
anyway, doesn't sound like an underrated album for me!
the only people that rate it though are cure fans and critics, you ask anyone else and the reactions always go like "are they still around?" "past it..." "oh yeah the last one i had was wish" etc. when you mention the band people think of just like heaven, disintegration, wish, friday im in love and not bloodflowers despite its brilliance and being a decade younger. and the cure will always have succesful tours, regardless of album
sure, but i would concentrate on what people who know and care about the band think about, like people here on the forums. not on what people who don't really know much or only associate the band with some old hits do think. i see what you meant and i don't want to sound blunt but i just honestly don't think that everyone and their dog's opinion is really interesting to consider in this respect. sure, they probably didn't notice 'bloodflowers', because they only notice hits at its best. but these people always miss a multitude of great albums anyway but yet it's not the same as if those albums were somehow criminally neglected in general. the best things are rarely the most popular ones - and maybe it is even good that way! i don't really worry about the popularity or non popularity of something i like. it's not important or interesting to me.
personally i just honestly don't care how non cure fans rate this band - since they are not fans i don't think they can have much interesting to say (unless they become fans first hehe ;)).
and so what i meant is that it's somehow strange to me that people on cure forums (=fans) pretty unanimously keep praising 'bloodflowers' but also keep adding that "it's so underrated" - because why should we bother what some non fans think about it or how they rate it? i just think it's much more interesting to concentrate on how we fans perceive the material, since we are the ones familiar with it. the rest can be ignored.
i guess its just what you consider under rated, if i see a great small band who have a small but dedicated following i still think theyre under rated because they are passed over by most, which bloodflowers is, even by new fans.
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 02:03:03
i guess its just what you consider under rated, if i see a great small band who have a small but dedicated following i still think theyre under rated because they are passed over by most
sure. but isn't it often also considered even better for some band that most people just pass it by? how many bands were really loved when they started and they were "underrated" in this way, then as they started to gain publicity and suddenly people were saying they were "overrated" and not so good anymore.
so being "underrated" (or not) has nothing to do with the actual quality of the subject.
don't get me wrong, i don't mean 'bloodflowers' wouldn't have deserved to be found by even more people than now. it's a great album and beats most others that came out at that time, maybe even all the rest of them. but i just mean it's not necessarily anything criminal. it isn't any lesser album now and i don't think it wouldn't have been any better if it were more widely known. so i just mean that maybe there's nothing to regret after all. it doesn't really matter because it wouldn't change anything.
well i like to introduce people to new music, and am very good at it even if i say so myself, so i just wish such a great album is known by and enjoyed by more people.
of course! and i like to do that too, sure. but i think it often works best on a "grass level", when one individual introduces something to another indivual. and so again, it's maybe not about how the great masses think or rate this band. i jusr don't think that 'bloodflowers' is an album that would have benefited/would benefit from any extensive commercially oriented hype. it an album that people seem to find it one by one. people often say (even fans) that it took some time to get into it, to figure it out. not that it's so called "difficult music" but because it's rather layered, you uncover it's secrets differently than you listen to some more pro-singles oriented album.
so, "one by one, they'll all submit to it, just wait and see..." ;)
i just like this quality in that album. that it's so "silently powerful" somehow. it doesn't need any hype, it's like it was above it...
(anyway, i don't want to sound annoying with what i say here, like i was splitting hairs or something. i guess i just like to discuss the things in detail sometimes.)
ha, dont worry. its good that the board can have a few really active topics.
i dont mean that i wish it was a worldwide no.1 album that won all the awards just that it deserved the respect and "fame" that pornography, 17 seconds, faith get.
and i agree its easier and more rewarding to convert people on a one to one bases. so far 3 or maybe 4 have been cured, 3 have become white stripes (my other true love) fans, one an avid one, a few dirtbombs fans, velvet underground, the smiths... its very rewarding :D
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 02:33:17
its good that the board can have a few really active topics.
i agree. although the alarming thing might be that it looks like we must be the only two people left alive in here... :roll:
;)
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 02:33:17
i dont mean that i wish it was a worldwide no.1 album that won all the awards just that it deserved the respect and "fame" that pornography, 17 seconds, faith get.
i guess that will come with time. i don't think pornography and 17 seconds got their reputation overnight either. 2000 is still rather recent, maybe...(?) so maybe there's nothing to be worry about.
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 02:33:17
its very rewarding :D
ahhh yes, brainwashing other people -- nothing more rewarding than that! :twisted:
:lol:
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 02:33:17
so far 3 or maybe 4 have been cured, 3 have become white stripes (my other true love) fans, one an avid one, a few dirtbombs fans, velvet underground, the smiths... its very rewarding :D
i have a friend who pretty much only likes madonna in earnest, nothing else much (ok please don't ask me how... i'm not responsible for it!)
anyway, i've recently decided (just by myself - she doesn't know it yet hehehe :twisted:) that such an outrageous thing has got to change and that i'll make her a NIN fan -- it's surely going to be some task... but i'm on it! wish me luck! hehehe :smth023
yes the forum has seemed a little quiet today, i havnt seen david on msn the last few days either.
good point about it being a recent album, hopefully in 10 years time it will be one of the first the next generation of fans buy :rocker
haha i hope you can achieve it! i turned the local posh no-it-all into a cure fan when she kept bugging me on msn in a group convo and me and a friend were talking about pornography (the album that is) so i sent her hot hot hot!!!. she claimed to not like it, then 2 weeks later "actually i really like it now" :lol: i told her to buy the greatest hits which she did and i think she has kmkmkm now too. its just a shame i dont like her
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 16, 2007, 02:36:54
re****tion
whoaaa! i wrote such a dirty word i got cencored!
r-e-p-u-t-a-t-i-o-n - oooh it's got to be almost as bad as saying EM-PEE-THREES used to be on "certain" other site :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
(i can hardly make enough LOLs here -- LOL!!)
Quote from: farquad92 on April 16, 2007, 02:46:15
its just a shame i dont like her
yet another one: :lol:
:lol: i think you are bored as i am.
well its 2 o clock now, i have to be up in 4 and a half hours and i got the first of 4 days of exams tomorrow so i best be off. wish me luck!
p.s japanese baby, check out my thread i made tonight in this section with no replies. i would think its something you would discuss
good luck!
&
ok i will - tomorrow.
Every time the 'is Bloodflowers underrated' question rears its head, I do this:
Poll of overall opinion of the Bloodflowers album:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/discography/bloodflowers.html
Poll of Out of this World:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/outofthisworld.html
Watching me Fall:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/watchingmefall.html
Where the Birds Always Sing:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/birdssing.html
Maybe Someday:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/maybesomeday.html
The Last Day of Summer:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/lastsummer.html
There Is No If...:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/thereisnoif.html
The Loudest Sound:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/loudestsound.html
39:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/39.html
Bloodflowers:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/bloodflowers.html
This, to me, spells UNDERRATED!
BF = underrated? Hell no. It took a while to grow on me, and allthewhile, it was as if I was missing out on something that was pretty clear to everyone. As if I could listen it, but still not hear "the greatest album ever" (okay, that's a little hyperbole). Now, after some years (I think it was with the release of Trilogy, so three), I've finally come to like it / be able to put it on and listen end to end.
Now, The Top, on the other hand... I've always felt that was criminally underrated by fans... both as an album, and as an important step in the Cure's development...
Any how, as far as Cure albums go, with the exception of the first album and The Top (yes, I love it to death, but it jumps around a bit.. esp. "The Wailing Wall". Doesn't fit! At least after Birdmad...), they've been wonderfully consistent "albums".
The Cure, from Seventeen Seconds onward, are one of the few bands who perfectly adhere to the "album" concept... The album as the entire work, one that happens to be made up of individual songs, and not the reverse (a bunch of songs slapped together and -- erroneously, IMO -- labeled an "album"). That's what I detest about a lot of the local bands here (and other places, I am sure). Once they have 10 or 12 songs, they think that they have an album. At best, it's a disjointed compilation of their past year's studio output.
It's great that they have been able to put out albums, and have some songs rise to the surface as useable singles, instead of a) compiling a random suckfest as described above, or b) piecing together a great album, and then inserting a completely out-of-place song to use as "the single".
And it's quite admirable that some really great songs have fallen by the wayside, as they wouldn't quite "fit" on the album. However, I still fail to see how "The Exploding Boy" couldn't have been on The Head on the Door (instead of, say "Six Different Ways"...), and how "This Twilight Garden" couldn't have been on Wish, as stated somewhere above.
Also, as far as singles/radio play for BF songs, I remember hearing "Last Day of Summer" on a radio station, while out to lunch with a friend a few months after the album's release... I wasn't even paying attention, and he pointed it out, asking "Hey, isn't that the Cure?" And it wasn't even our (now-ultra-ultra lame) "alternative" station here...
Quote from: japanesebaby on April 15, 2007, 23:50:10
well i'm aware it's maybe a sort of easy thing to say since it doesn't really crave any imagination from me, but i've always been very happy with the idea of 'bloodflowers' being an album without singles. i somehow feel this gives it a sepcial kind of stature, almost like self-confidence as an album - it's doesn't need any singles to advertise itself, it's perfectly ok in its very own both strong and calm way without any tracks being ripped from the structure. surely, it's filled with gorgeous songs, many of which would apparently "made great singles", but they are even better when they are kept in the context of the album. surely they would have beaten most of the other songs out there in radio play at that time by the terms of quality of the songwriting itself, but still none of the songs is shouting out "i'm a great single, look at me!"
i think the decision not to put out any singles was a very good one, and in perfect harmony with the nature of the album.
why would it need any singles?
don't get me wrong but i get the same feeling as every time when people talk about certain B-sides and say this or that song "should have been an A-side". like there was some sort of hierarchy where being a B-side means the song was somehow neglected. the same with singles: i don't think some songs very accidentally neglected (or on purpose either) when they maybe weren't released as singles. i don't think this is true at all. robert often talked about this, how and why he chose the certain songs on this or that album and why some songs (that were often even recognized as being far superior songs by him too!) were left out. like why 'wendy time' was on 'wish' and 'this twilight garden' wasn't. i think he had perfectly reasonable ideas behind this, since he was always thinking about the album structure as a whole, how to make it work the best possible way as an album. so i don't think he neglected anything or missed noticing some songs had potential, but it was a conscious choice.
well ok, the choice of singles was sometimes not his choice but also maybe dictated by the record label. so in that respect it's maybe a bit different... but anyway, i don't feel any need to regret that there were no singles released from 'bloodflowers'. it's not a fixed question of value. and i don't know why singles should even be compulsory - the album structures/contexts are different: for some albums the "producing of the singles" come naturally, for others it doesn't. and i don't think 'bloodflowers' has this "single mentality" on it.
and yet, this is definitely more like a strenght than a weakness, imo.
so, no singles for me, please. :)
(i also think it was only good that 'spilt milk' was released completely separately from 'bloodflowers'. it wouldn't have been comfortable on the album anyway - especially if they had put it in just to have one song with "single quality". it would have been totally obvious and would have felt out of place, breaking the arch of the rest of the album.)
NO, I AM NOT HAVING REGRETS AND I'M NOT THINKING THAT "BLOODFLOWERS" WERE BAD ALBUM
GOD FORBID!
I'M JUST SAYING THAT THOSE SONGS ARE THE SINGLE MATERIAL AND IF THERE WERE SINGLES THESE SONGS WOULD MAKE GOOD EXAMPLES
ALSO, "NO SINGLES" POLICY IS A BIT WACKY BECAUSE "BLOODFLOWERS" PROVED TO BE JUST ANOTHER ALBUM:
NOT THE LAST
NOT TOO CONCEPTUAL(AT LEAST IT WASNT "HERMETIC" LIKE "DISINTEGRATION")
NOT THAT COMPACT ("DISINTEGRATION" IS FAR MORE COMPACT AND IT HAD SINGLES)
...
AND ALSO - HAVING SINGLES MEANS HAVING AIRPLAY WHICH MEANS MORE PROMOTION AND THEN MORE CD'S GET SOLD AND EVERYONE IS HAPPY...
:-D :D :-D
r there any singles from the new cd goin 2 b releashed?
Quote from: Cure on May 03, 2007, 19:28:18
r there any singles from the new cd goin 2 b releashed?
ARE THEY RECORDED?!
:(
Quote from: rjl on April 16, 2007, 19:27:51
BF = underrated? Hell no. It took a while to grow on me, and allthewhile, it was as if I was missing out on something that was pretty clear to everyone. As if I could listen it, but still not hear "the greatest album ever" (okay, that's a little hyperbole). Now, after some years (I think it was with the release of Trilogy, so three), I've finally come to like it / be able to put it on and listen end to end.
It took a LONG time for Bloodflowers to grow on me. I remember driving all the way out to the mall the morning it was released, only to put the CD on and think "WTF is this???" :smth011
It just sounded so weird to me. Too different, too modern-sounding. I just didn't like it. I don't even think I gave it a full listen. Just some songs here and there, but it just didn't grab my attention at all.
I was so disinterested that I failed to notice that a tour was coming up. It all just passed me by until I started getting really interested in band again toward the end of 2002.
Then one day I gave Bloodflowers another listen, and I liked it much more. I heard some live versions too, and I realized it actually had some really good songs. It sounded more and more like The Cure after all.
I still don't think it's the greatest album in the world, but I've definitely come to respect it and genuinely enjoy it. I guess I kind of went though a similar thing when Wild Mood Swings came out â€" although for some reason I actually listened to that one a lot more.
Hmmm... I guess this doesn't really have much to do with the title of this thread, but this just reminded me of some things. :lol:
Pornography is generally one of my favourites among The Cure discography and THG is by far one of my favourite songs but I can't choose between these two. I've always been listening to the album in whole and one just asks for another to continue so...I've never really perceived that album as being made up out of so-and-so songs but as a whole. Can't listen to one song without listening to the next one.
Great discussion here... I'm a HUGE Hanging Garden supporter.. it reminds me of The Cure I fell in love with.. :smth049
:rocker
I just haven't got into A strange Day ..that much.. but I'll give it another spin.. :smth020
Strange Day seems to never fully pick up and come into its own, so I choose "HANGING GARDEN", which is my go-to song when I want to showcase the band as being "Gothic" to my friends.
Plus, I like the tribal drums...it's like the song is a fierce creature biting and tearing in a playful way at your eardrums, the bassline holds the song together and sedates the creature, while Robert's voice sounds ferocious as well. I love how he sounds in this one, so angry, so adamant, yet so distant from the listener. It's a very nice landscape.
That's my random analogy of that song...
"STRANGE DAY" is like what happens after the creature that is "HANGING GARDEN" gets sedated and is sitting alone in it's cage and watching as little children come by and laugh at it...a very defeated-sounding song, almost desperate. It makes me think of a bad drug trip that ends up in a loss, maybe someone OD'd and now you're depressed, but still a bit hazed and dazed and confused...a great song, but not quite as catchy and approachable as GARDEN.
That's my view, hope you have a good HOLIDAY!!!
@CV: always so interesting to read other people's expressions, and how different they can be from your own.
i admit that i used to think a bit similarly about 'a strange day', that it really doesn't pick up as a song... i was almost wondering if there was something missing there (oh what blashemy...!)...
and it took a pretty long time for the song to grow on me, but once it did, it's one of the best songs on the album, i think.
a great underdog! it sneaks upon you....
i have never considered 'a strange day' to be a desperate song. for me it's probably the only song on 'pornography' that is full of light - secret kind of light. it's like the only song on 'pornography' that isn't drowning in these druggy hallucinations - maybe it's drugheaded too but i mean it's not drowning... it's floating, it's like good memories from long ago, strange light shining through... it's like being in one of these strange dreams you sometimes see where you suddenly somehow know you're sleeping and just having a dream and where everything is crystal clear, detailed, even overly so. like traveling back in time to a place that doesn't exist anymore.
so to me, if there is desolation in it then it's not of a desperate kind. maybe "everything is gone forever" soon but everything is not full of pain, like so many other songs. it's like a peaceful interpretation of the words "it doesn't matter if we all die" - it doesn't matter, so there's no need to suffer for it. just let it happen...
for instance, i find the contrast with 'cold' that follows a really huge one. 'cold' is when all that desperation really hits you again. whereas on 'a strange day' we had blissfully forgotten about it for a while... even if it was just a dream.
among all the cure lyrics i can think of now, i do find the words
Sudden hush across the water
And we're here again
among those cyre lyrics that are most full of hope, to me...
Quote from: Carnage Visor on December 21, 2007, 01:01:18
Strange Day seems to never fully pick up and come into its own, so I choose "HANGING GARDEN", which is my go-to song when I want to showcase the band as being "Gothic" to my friends.
Plus, I like the tribal drums...it's like the song is a fierce creature biting and tearing in a playful way at your eardrums, the bassline holds the song together and sedates the creature, while Robert's voice sounds ferocious as well. I love how he sounds in this one, so angry, so adamant, yet so distant from the listener. It's a very nice landscape.
I completely get this CV... I have tried to listen to A Strange day.. really.. :smth090 and find nothing that moves me like The Hanging Garden.. as you mentioned.. the tribal drums... your description of the song is so what it means to me as well.
I think I prefer The Figurehead still to A Strange Day ( again the drums..)
definite A Strange Day, it's fantastic song, he come under my Top 3 most favourite songs :) Is there great guitar solo :smth035 wau and perfect bass riff
just considering what a single is normally supposed to do (radio airplay + stuff) I definetely would have gone with A Strange Day as the single of the album, but due to Robert's attitude at the time I am not surprised it wasn't... A Strange Day is maybe the only song of the album that could at the time have gained them airplay.
Quote from: Aarna on June 17, 2007, 13:58:45
I can't choose between these two. I've always been listening to the album in whole and one just asks for another to continue so...I've never really perceived that album as being made up out of so-and-so songs but as a whole.
Couldn't have said it better. One song feels like a fragment of a whole, and I really couldn't say whether I prefer my arm or my leg, you know?
(My God, you avatar....!! Did you make it?)
Quote from: nausearockpig on April 14, 2007, 08:30:59
try this: in wmp or winamp or whatever player you want, queue up all the tracks which appear on Standing On A Beach but replace The Hanging Garden with A Strange Day and have a listen.
does it flow, does it sound better, does it suck?
I believe that in the context of Pornography, The Hanging Garden flows perfectly. it sits in the right place [tracklisting wise] and is generally "right". But in a singles compilation context, I don't know....
I can only assume,that THE HANGING GARDEN was intended as a "canape" for the WHOLE album.
A STRANGE DAY does not fit between CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES and LETS GO TO BED,well...
Understandable,when THG was selected as a single.
I liked Hanging Garden before I liked Strange Day so then would have said HG but now would say SD, forgive me for dropping the articles. Strange Day is truly a disturbing song, I don't normally get all wrapped up in songs but this one makes me think. Don't know whether it's a universal cataclysm, a global catastrophe or a garden-variety (!) nuclear war. There's a great home-made video on youtube, great visuals, very fitting and occasionally even more disturbing than the lyrics. There's a little of a genuine dark substance in this song, as if the author went on a journey somewhere and came back with lightning in a bottle and somehow worked it into the words and tune. To me it's the most disturbing song of the lot yet most enjoyable, every live version is a new experience. Although the newest live versions have been slowed down too much for my taste (which does not figure in to anyone's decisions!). Cool topic. There's an interesting interpretation of the 'sudden hush across the water' lyric as being positive; I always thought that the 'whatever' is going on was now sweeping across the water to engulf the narrator and the other characters. Oh well, six of one...