Friday, October 24, 2008

More 4:13 reviews

Germany - MBeat (9/10), Taz (positive), Die Zeit (negative).
France - Premonition
US - Beacon News (semi-review)
(Thanks TheVinc, Thomas, Kate )
Posted by Craig at 1:46 PM

7 comments:

  1. CraigOctober 24, 2008 at 2:02 PM

    From the Taz review: It's reflective and it seems that the author knows what he writes about
    (except for "The Stream" instead of "The Scream").

    After lots of blabla about the rise and fall of The Cure some notes about
    the music:

    "Underneath The Stars" reminds the author of "Plainsong". The other songs
    on "4:13 Dream" only have faint resemblences with former songs. The Cure
    manage not to cite themselves musically. There are only little hints that
    create familiarity, such as the quirky pop song ("The only one") and
    "Sleep When I'm Dead" with its connection to "Head on the Door". The
    author thinks "The Scream" is the best song on the album.

    The author realizes that the drums sound different than in Boris's era
    (not so much reverb) and that the keyboards are gone (but nobody misses
    them).

    He does not see any influences of current musical fashion in "4:13 Dream".
    Depression, sadness, etc. are only hinted at and not sung about to excess.

    The album sounds metallic and clear, pure and cleaned-up, sober and determined.


    From the Die Zeit review: A negative one. In fact, so unbelievably negative that I had to laugh
    several times while reading the review.

    Central points of criticism:
    - The Cure should have left out no. 13. Nothing really new.
    - More symbolism (13) than musical innovation
    - The Cure relive their own past. Underneath the Stars sounds as if
    recorded for Disintegration, The Only One and The Perfect Boy are the
    usual poppy side of Mid-80s-Cure, Sirensong fits on Wish, Sleep When I'm
    Dead on Kiss me, Freakshow is as excentric on WMS
    - But in contrast to those albums, 4:13 Dream is not a whole good piece of
    music. It's torn and without a red thread.
    - The songs are trivial, meaningless. Songs like Switch or It's over try
    to sound like The Cure but have no melody.
    - Porl's guitar play is boring (!!!).
    - And now (please don't laugh, that's what he says): The Only One is the
    only good song! Two, three other songs aren't bad (he doesn't name them).
    The rest is bad.
    - The production is bad (as bad as on the last three albums). You cannot
    distinguish the bass, for example.
    - And, of course, Robert's age might be responsible. He's so old and has
    listend so often to his own music that his ears, well, might not be very
    good any longer. (Ok, this might be irony but not very skillfully
    applied...)."

    ReplyDelete
  2. CraigOctober 24, 2008 at 2:03 PM

    Thanks to Thomas for the translations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. perfect.murderOctober 24, 2008 at 2:14 PM

    Bit of a mixed bag review that Premonition one! I can't be bothered to translate(sorry guys..it's a bit long)...but at the beggining you think..hmm here we go he's gonna slate the album, but give the guy credit, he comes good in the end with what i feel is a positive review..The parting shot being "Talent is present on the record, as expected, and this could be the time to get reconciled with The Cure.

    ReplyDelete
  4. StigmurderOctober 24, 2008 at 2:17 PM

    Thanks for that; I'm glad I didn't have to wade my way through those with my shoddy German!

    "And now (please don't laugh, that's what he says): The Only One is the only good song!"

    I laughed! XD

    ReplyDelete
  5. RandyOctober 24, 2008 at 2:55 PM

    i don't let reviews sway my opinion, but anybody that says the album sounds 'just like everything else the cure has done' either doesn't know the cure's history or hasn't listened to 4:13 dream.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rev. HeronOctober 24, 2008 at 3:59 PM

    From the Beacon review:

    "I just have to shake my head. I listened to the Cure in junior high school, and, believe me, no one else did. I can think of only three other people in my class who even knew who Robert Smith was before Disintegration came out in 1989. And now people act like every school dance closed with In Between Days . It just ain't true."

    THIS.

    THIS!!!

    This paragraph just sums it all up for me.

    It ALWAYS pisses me off when 80's-themed movies have an alt-rock soundtrack as if that was the dominant music of that time. The reality was that Janet Jackson et. al. were the real mainstream soundtrack of the 80's. Unfortunately, their music sucked, so nobody wants to use their music to remember the 80's by.

    If you lived anywhere outside a major urban area in the 80's, you were a an outcast if you listened to bands like the Cure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. vOctober 24, 2008 at 4:56 PM

    MB: I agree with you. I don't get all of these reviews writing it off as "just another Cure album, like all the others..." :\

    ReplyDelete

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