If you’ve been reading these reviews in alphabetical order,
\nyou’ll know that I admitted one review ago that I buy some albums
\non impulse. (What!?! You haven’t been reading these in alphabetical
\norder?)<\/p>\n
When The Cure released their live album
\nShow<\/i> in 1993, for some strange reason, I felt like I had to
\npick it up. Then, I saw they had released
\nParis<\/i> as a companion live album (and, from what I remember,
\nit was supposed to be a limited edition). Well, you can’t just buy
\none album and not buy its comanion, can you?<\/p>\n
We’ll get to
\nShow<\/i> one day on these pages. But
\nParis<\/i> is an interesting listen; it features Robert Smith and
\ncrew caught between the two worlds of the goth-rock the band loved
\nand the more sensible melodies of pop music. Thing is, this band
\nsuccessfully straddles both territories — and you don’t need to be
\na diehard fan of The Cure to appreciate this music.<\/p>\n
The first half of the album features Smith and his bandmates
\ntackling the more cerebral gothic side of their music – this seems
\nto be the portion of the show that was meant for the long-term
\nfans. Tracks like “One Hundred Years” and “At Night” will not be as
\nfamiliar to those people who only know The Cure from alternative
\nradio — but these tracks are so good, they may just inspire some
\npeople to check out some other Cure albums. (Side note: When I was
\nlistening to this side at home the other day, my 2-1\/2-year-old
\ndaughter started dancing to the music – almost Devo-esque, to be
\nhonest. It both made me laugh and scared the hell out of me –
\nnamely because she’s a better dancer at her age than I am at
\n28.)<\/p>\n
And while the audience is very receptive to the five songs that
\nmake up the first half of
\nParis<\/i>, it isn’t until the second side is reached with seven
\nmore radio-friendly numbers that things really get electric in the
\ncrowd. Numbers like “Lovesong,””Catch” and “Close To Me” are eaten
\nup wholly by the crowd – even if Smith doesn’t always sound like
\nhis heart is in the performances. (While “Lovesong” has never been
\na particularly energetic number, Smith sounds more lethargic on
\nthis version.)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the rest of The Cure – especially bassist Simon
\nGallup — put on an impressive showing musically. If you weren’t
\nconvinced that The Cure is a solid band musically, then one listen
\nto
\nParis<\/i> should change your mind quickly.<\/p>\n
So where are some of the better-known songs, you may be asking?
\nWell, that’s where
\nShow<\/i> comes into the picture.
\nParis<\/i> acts as the “for-the-diehard-fans” live album – but
\nyou might find yourself enjoying this disc more than
\nShow<\/i>, especially once you begin to delve into The Cure’s
\ndiscography.<\/p>\n
Of course, having a pretty good knowledge of The Cure’s music
\nhelps a lot with
\nParis<\/i> – but even if you can’t sing along with the songs, you
\ncan still get quite a bit of enjoyment out of this album – proving
\nthat being gloomy isn’t all that bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6048],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36118","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-cure","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36118"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36118"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}