I Made a Promise to Myself...

The Cure - 4:13 Dream

Ever since the birth of the Cure over thirty years ago and through a multitude of personnel changes, there have only been three other musicians in the band that managed to not only match Robert Smith in talent and technique, but also push the band's principle songwriter creatively. Those three musicians would be bassist Simon Gallup, guitarist Porl Thompson, and drummer Boris Williams. It's practically indisputable that the Cure's most successful era, both artistically and commercially, was when all three were in the band at the same time. Not to undercut the contributions of Roger O'Donnell, Perry Bamonte, or Lol Tolhurst, but Gallup, Thompson, Williams, and of course Smith were the driving forces behind The Head on the Door, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration, and Wish.

I bring this up in my review for the newest album but the Cure, 4:13 Dream, because I believe that it is the best album by the band since that historic period. While Robert Smith was able to retain Simon Gallup during the interim, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, and The Cure, all fell short for various reasons. Wild Mood Swings was too long and didn't have enough really great material to justify the length. Bloodflowers was D.O.A. due to being over-hyped, too many expectations, and the strange need to force a third chapter to some imagined trilogy. The Cure was a move into the right direction and overcame a lot of what weakened the previous two efforts. Still, the primary reason why these three albums could not come anywhere close to the "Big Four" was due to a lack of creative challenge from the other musicians. Bamonte, O'Donnell, and drummer Jason Cooper are all very skilled, but their playing lacked the identity and ability to add to Smith's songs that make them more than the sum of their parts.

4:13 Dream is the first album in sixteen years to feature Porl Thompson. I've never been shy about the fact that Thompson is the biggest influence on my own guitar playing, so when his return was first announced, I was more than excited. He's an amazing musician and deeply creative. His playing has always stood as a brilliant juxtaposition to Robert Smith's guitar work. Perry Bamonte did a fine job, but apart from a few overused guitar licks, I could never tell where Smith ended and he began. This has never been the case with Thompson. The new record is made even better by his return.

Not that Porl Thompson should get all the credit, but his return seems to have lit a fire under both Robert Smith and Simon Gallup. Gallup's bass work seems more inspired by Thompson's output. It's as if he saw a creative challenge and was able to rise up to meet it. More importantly, Smith has finally reestablished himself as one of the most important songwriters in the last three decades.

In the last decade, Robert Smith's most annoying habit as a lyricist has been the pro/con, positive/negative writing. It practically ruined Bloodflowers for me and smacks of laziness. Sure, he still employs a variation of this on "The Perfect Boy", but this is an instance where it actually pushes the song's narrative and it really works. There are still songs where gold, silver, and crystal replace each other or there's a new season per verse, but it isn't as noticeable as when a verse is completely repeated except that "always" is replaced by "never". So as far as lyrically crafting goes, 4:13 Dream is a major step up over the previous three records.

Another noticeable improvement on 4:13 Dream is Robert Smith's ability to change up his singing rhythm from song to song. His singing has always been brilliant and that voice is unforgettable, but delivery has rarely varied. Not so on the new album. On "This. Here and Now. With You" he slowly builds over the duration of the song and crescendos at a brilliant bridge. Like the music, Smith's delivery on "Underneath the Stars" moves at a glacial pace. There's fury in "The Scream" and "It's Over", which is he sings at a breakneck speed. All of this helps in giving each song a unique identity.

"Underneath the Stars" - This is a really amazing opening track and ranks up there with some the best openers from the Cure's catalogue like "The Kiss", "Plainsong", and "Want". "Underneath the Stars" is truly majestic in nature and moves at a slow but determined pace. It calls back to Disintegration more so than any song produced since that landmark album, more so than anything on the supposed sequel Bloodflowers. Why it took almost two decades for Smith to create a track that could rivals the beauty and power that encapsulate that 1989 album is unknown. Maybe he just stopped trying so hard and let it come naturally.

"The Only One" - I wrote quite a bit about this song when it was released as the first single earlier this year. What I will mention here is that it's placement as the second song fits with the tradition of upbeat pop songs that get the album rolling forward like "Play for Today", "Primary", "High", and "Club America". This isn't the best song on the record, but it's a sweet, dumb, fun number and very much in the tradition of one of the Cure's biggest hits "Friday, I'm in Love". Like that polarizing track, "The Only One" may have some inane lyrics, but the guitar work is skilled and fluid.

"The Reason Why" - The pop continues with this awesome number. Simon Gallup's bass has never sounded this much like New Order's Peter Hook as it does on the opening lick for "The Reason Why". That's not a bad thing and he doesn't over do it. Porl has his own catchy riff during the verses, too. This is the type of song that made me fall in love with the Cure in the first place. It's melancholia wrapped in a brightly colored package. This song definitely could be released as a single and is one of my favorite tracks on an already excellent record.

"Freakshow" - I went into depth on this number when I wrote about the single. It continues to grow on me with each listen and the studio version is still better than the live rendition due to all the instrumental layering.

"Sirensong" - This is a pleasant mid-tempo acoustic strummer. What really sells this song is the slide guitar work by Porl Thompson. This is something unique to the Cure catalogue, but it feels natural and not forced. I also really like the layered "she said, she said" vocals that proceed the chorus. Short and sweet.

"The Real Snow White" - Like "Freakshow" I wasn't totally sold on the live version of the song due to it sounding thin with only Thompson on guitar. The recorded rendition is a whole lot better. The Cure almost sound like the Pixies here with Smith's sly phrasing and Thompson's collapsing guitar line. Definitely a grower.

"The Hungry Ghost" - This is another song that could have easily been released as a single. "The Hungry Ghost" is a solid pop/rock number that features some uncharacteristic outward looking lyrics from Smith. His forte is romance and falling in or out of it, but this is one of those rare numbers where he increases the scope of his themes. Luckily, it isn't as obvious or clumsy like "Us or Them". Thompson employs an echoing, almost Edge-like guitar part for this number.

"Switch" - On a few Cure albums there's a song that seems to not fit into the overall scheme of the record as smoothly as the others. Not that they're bad songs, but "Wendy Time", "Strange Attraction" (correction: this song is painfully abysmal), "Anniversary" don't seem to gel as naturally with their respective albums for some reason or other. "Switch" is that song for 4:13 Dream. This sort of "machine rock" number (see "Wrong Number") isn't as organic as the two rocking closers on the album, thus sticking out a bit. This song gets points for Thompson's crazy intro, though.

"The Perfect Boy" - I've already raved about this song enough when I reviewed the single. It's still one of the best songs Robert Smith has written in the last decade and a half.

"This. Here and Now. With You." - This is a pleasant little builder. It starts off low and gentle and climaxes into a beautifully loud (but not rocking) bridge. Smith gets to use some interesting vocal phrasing on this one, too. If anything, it serves as the calm before the closing storm.

"Sleep When I'm Dead" - This song begins the build towards a loud, violent conclusion to 4:13 Dream. I wrote about "Sleep When I'm Dead" back when the single was released. It's still a song that continues to grow on me. I hear elements of "The Hanging Garden" in the bass during the verse. I really like the chaos of the bridge near the end. It acts as a hint of what's to come.

"The Scream" - This brooding builder is fantastic. It seems to take the best elements of the rockers on The Top and the legendary, unreleased "Forever" and perfect them. I wonder if Gallup broke any bass strings on the madness that ends the song. Thompson's guitar turns into a swarm of bees by the conclusion and Jason Cooper does some of his best drum work here. Smith's wailing is spot on here.

"It's Over" - There's a reason why the Cure closed the primary set of their shows this past tour with this number; how can you possibly continue to play another song with out a break after this high speed, brutal number? This is the type of track that "Give Me It" and "Shiver and Shake" always had the potential of reaching but never quite achieved. Layers of insane guitars by Smith and Thompson, thundering drumming by Cooper, and an impossibly amazing bass line by Gallup. Smith sings at 100 miles per hour which just increases the intensity. "It's Over" blasts in, does the job, and gets the hell out. If the next album is to be the darker sister to 4:13 Dream, then it has been savagely set up by this awesome song.

If I had one real gripe about 4:13 Dream, it would be the over reliance on vocal effects, but it's not enough to diminish everything I enjoy about the record. 4:13 Dream is the type of album by the Cure that is in the spirit of The Head on the Door, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, and Wish; it’s made up of a batch of songs that showcases the many styles of the band, leaning more towards the pop and the rock side of their sound. I would put its quality on par with Wish. While Wish had more songs that I would consider classics, 4:13 Dream holds together better as a collective unit. If this is the "dream", then I'm looking forward to the release next year of the companion album for the "nightmare".

8 out of 10