I Love What You Do To My Heart

The Cure - The Only One (Mix 13)/NY Trip

The Cure are finally getting around to releasing their next album later this year. Until then, they'll be releasing a new single around the thirteenth of each month. There will be four before the full length record hits the markets in September. In addition, each will sport an unique single mix that will be different than the album version and each will come with a non-album B-Side.

"The Only One" is the first single and it became available this week. I've been excited to hear some new recordings ever since my guitar hero and on-again/off-again Cure member, Porl Thompson, returned to the band a few years ago. Not that Perry Bamonte, who played guitar for the Cure for the last decade in Porl's absence, was a bad guitar player, but his style was very similar to Robert Smith's, so it lacked identity. Sometimes I couldn't tell which guitar parts were Robert's and which were Perry's. His playing was identifiable when I would hear a brief guitar lick here or there, but that's about it. Porl's guitar work is very different from Robert's and it has a distinct flare that is very much his own.

Since Robert's main instrument on "The Only One" appears to be the baritone guitar, I'm under the impression that Porl is handling most of the guitar work on the track. His playing here is more in keeping with songs like "High" or "Friday I'm in Love"; arpeggiated runs with shimmering tones. He gets a chance to knock out a pretty cool guitar solo near the middle, but as with past Porl rock out moments, it's buried in the mix. Maybe, the album mix will have it pushed up more.

Lyrically, "The Only One" fits the pattern that Robert has fallen into since around Bloodflowers. Too often his lyrics take a motif or theme and run it into the ground or he'll sing a positive verse followed by a negative verse (see "Bloodflowers"). This song falls under the former category. He sings to his lover that "I love what you do my head" in one verse, "I love what you do to my heart" in the next, and the same for "lips" and "hips". This is cute, but not that inspired. Also, Robert gets as much mileage out of words that rhyme with "scream" (which is followed by "extreme" and "dream") as possible. Cute and fun, but not very deep.

Still, I'll take a song like this over most of what came out of Wild Mood Swings and Bloodflowers. Not a bad start and with four preview singles for their thirteenth album, the Cure have plenty of opportunities to show the band's many signature song styles. This one gets filed under "upbeat pop".



The B-Side, "NY Trip" is a different beast altogether. This track is more of a sly, funky track, somewhat in the vein of "Wendy Time". Porl is given more of an opportunity to rock out on this song. The guitars bleed in and out and there are plenty of wha-wha and effects goodness.

Vocally, Robert sings in a way that he hasn't in a long time. He gets to have fun with his voice and his delivery isn't as straightforward or generically "The Cure" as "The Only One". Maybe this is due to the Cure not having done this kind of song in years. Whatever the case, it makes for a fun listen.

6 out of 10