The Cure Remasters Review & Contest

Last week, Rhino released three volumes of remastered albums from The Cure (The Top, The Head On The Door, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me) and Robert Smith & Steve Severin’s project The Glove's Blue Sunshine. These 2-CD sets include the original album in remastered form, and a full second disc of demos and live tracks.

Usually when a band releases demos to the public, they are studio demos not terribly dissimilar to the final product. In the case of these sets, in addition to the studio demos are the original home demos that Smith recorded himself. These spartan tracks really show the origins of songs like “Inbetween Days”, “Push”, and “The Kiss”, all songs that started very acoustically in Smith's home studio, but all ended up with that patented huge Cure sound by the time they hit vinyl.

Each set contains extensive liner notes, and in the booklet for The Head On The Door, Smith explains that the home sessions that produced “Inbetween Days” finally convinced him that the acoustic guitar was not a “hippie instrument”, and could certainly be used in the realm of alt-rock the way The Cure was forming it back then.

Unlike most rarities discs, these work well on their own all the way through, tracked carefully to be fully enjoyable all the way through as sort of a full alternate version to the original. Highly recommended to old-school Cure fans and neophytes alike. Muss your hair straight out, put on an oversized black jumper, make fun of Lol Tolhurst, and throw these discs on to fully replicate the full Cure experience.

In celebration of the re-release of these classics, extrawack! will give one reader their choice of a copy of The Head On The Door or Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. To win, simply submit a Cure-related haiku to extrawack@gmail.com by Midnight, 20 August 2006. Our favorite wins the prize. Contest open to residents of USA only. Good luck!

The Cure - "Just Like Heaven" mp3 buy

Link courtesy Gigarock.