The Cure - 4:13 Dream

2008 release, the 13th studio longplayer from the legendary Goth rockers led by Robert Smith. Now down to a quartet (Smith, Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson and Jason Cooper), the band continue to musically evolve while dealing with subjects like relationships, the material world, politics and religion. The songs on 4:13 Dream are stripped down and 'in your face' while also sounding very much like The Cure. Includes the singles 'The Only One', 'Freakshow', 'Sleep When I'm Dead' and 'The Perfect Boy.' Album Description

A cure for the ages

With the cure framework beautifully in place this stripped-down, elegantly executed album is the best in many years from this band. Their previous couple of albums had Robert Smith in top artistic form but the density washed out the execution to some extent. Bloodflowers was great but the beauty of a Cure song has always been in its simplicity and top to bottom every song on 4:13 is pure pop goth beautiful.

Incredible and wonderful that ever since 1976 Robert Smith has been able to keep this band still moving forward.

jh
A Bottle of Rain
Nowhere Near the Sea of Cortez November 30, 2008

4:13 Dream

Excellent album!!! Top favorites are: This. Here And Now. With You., It's Over, Sirensong, and Scream. I would highly recommend album!!! November 26, 2008

Fat Bob phones one in...

Finally, an album that makes 'Wild Mood Swings' seem like a masterpiece.
While there are some tracks that are somewhat strong, i.e. "Underneath the Stars" , the album is lackluster and dull..the magic is gone. The production is flat, the vocals somewhat off-key and the notable absence of synthesizers doesn't do anything positive for the album. Nothing moves you in a way as much as say "Jupiter Crash" or jolts you like "Want", which I use as examples from what is considered to be one of their "worst" albums.

To it's credit however, it is not an offensive album in the least. All the tracks are certainly listenable and the album flows consistenly. I do applaud their use of the steel guitar in "Siren Song" More of this type of experimentation would have been nice. "Sleep When I'm Dead" is also somewhat effective as a real "Cure" song...but ironically was written 20 years ago. "It's Over" is a thunderous closer, and about the most excitement you get on the album, though for some reason it feels a little contrived.

Overall, I'm really not negative about the album, but give me "Wild Mood Swings" or "Bloodflowers" over "4:13 Dream" anyday..not even taking into account the AMAZING stuff they did in the 80s..WOW Is this the same band that wrote Disintegration? Unbelievably so. Give me a Pepsi Free, Camelot Music and a Cassette Deck and I will lay back and dream of better days... November 25, 2008

4:13 Dream - The Cure

Need not say much, 4:13 Dream speaks for itself. "The Perfect Boy" my favorite is the defining song on this album, any CURE fan [probably already has this]will surely enjoy!!!!! Maybe their next project will be a re-release of ultra rare collections to add to their fan's collection, ex. [Maybe Someday - Out Of This World - Just Say Yes - Quadpus - Galore, The Video Collection on DVD - just to mention several, that were limited, esp. to U.S. fans. A Genuine Cure for what all fan's. [Re-Makes of All Their Single's] I'm Convinced They Would Out-Sell Most Group's Albums. Example - Lost Wishes - "Lost Flower's, supposedly B-sides and Demo's From Bloodflower's, Only heard of them never have acutally Heard the song's? If They exist, Perhap's 'Bloodflower's' will be Their next Deluxe Edition release with them on there. / Enough already evry album they release - 4:13 Dream - Fan's can't get enough.../ Hard Work Pay's. Thanks Guy's & keep putting them out. November 23, 2008

Has some great tracks, but this basically fails as an album...

I'm a huge Cure fan but I've been disappointed as of late. Robert Smith talked of ending The Cure after the amazing 'Bloodflowers' but was talked out of it. Then came their 2004 self-titled effort which I'd rank in the lower half of their catalogue. I didn't have high expectations for this album, and from that point of view, I really haven't been let down.

The positives: "Underneath the Stars" is by far the best song on the album for me - absolutely brilliant. It's slow, heavy, and melancholy and struck me the very first time I heard it. Robert Smith has talked of releasing a second album soon of other songs he's recently recorded (a "darker" album he's said) and if they are anything like this, I have high hopes. "Sirensong" follows in somewhat of the same vein and is one of the other tracks I really like.

What's great though is that we get the happy, upbeat Cure as well. "The Only One" is a great example of this.

Then we've got the mid-paced, super-catchy stuff like "The Only One" and "The Hungry Ghost."

Unfortunately, that's it for the album as far as I'm concerned - 5 tracks out of 13 is a bit of a let-down, isn't it? Everything else is completely mediocre (at best). There's nothing else that I find myself wanting to go back and listen to.

I guess it depends what you're looking for: if you're simply looking for some great songs to add to your Cure catalogue, you're going to find some real gems here. If you're looking for a complete album that adds to The Cure legacy (instead of essentially diminishing it), I think you're going to be disappointed.

November 23, 2008

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