The Cure

Dark songs

Is anyone else REALLY fond of the Cure's darker songs? And by dark, I don't mean downbeat songs like Apart. I'm talking Pornography era songs like One Hundred Years and Pornography. Don't get me wrong, I love the Cure's other musical periods just as much, if in different ways, but these dark songs really take my breath away. They're so majestic and raw, it's hard to even express.
What are your favourite dark songs? Can anyone suggest me some I haven't heard (if I've missed any?)
My favourites are Cold, Splintered In Her Head, One Hundred Years, and Pornography, which I honestly believe is the darkest, rawest song in human history. I dare you to prove me wrong!

Re: Dark songs

New Day (Head era) is one that springs to mind.. Love the lyrics..
Fear of Ghosts (Disintegration era)
It Used To Be Me (Swings era)
This Morning (Self titled era)
Truth Goodness and Beauty (Self titled era)
Without You (4:13 era)

Re: Re: Dark songs

Fear of Ghosts is another favourite of mine. I just love the way Robert sings the first stanza...so eerie...

fattyowls wrote:
New Day (Head era) is one that springs to mind.. Love the lyrics..
Fear of Ghosts (Disintegration era)
It Used To Be Me (Swings era)
This Morning (Self titled era)
Truth Goodness and Beauty (Self titled era)
Without You (4:13 era)

Re: Dark songs

my favourite are: all cats are grey, holy hour,primary,the hanging garden,descent, splintered in her head, a riflection,
secrets.

Re: Dark songs

I like the dark songs too. The Drowning Man, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, Same Deep Water As You, etc.

Re: Dark songs

I prefer the darker side as well :-)
One Hundred Years, Short Term Effect, etc are great songs!

Re: Dark songs

Yes the dark and angry songs are amazing to listen to.

"Give me it" is a great song as is "shiver and shake". Some are more dark in intent than in music like without you or apart , the lyrics are sublime.

I favor the songs that are about recogniseable relation situations. Falling in love but not loved back , people who have loved each other that drift apart. A couple that sees things differently. A one night stand , falling in love with someone else. The tediousness of growing old together. Leaving someone. It's all there.

Those songs would be ; Apart , Disintegration , Watching me fall , without you , Halo , Lost , Bloodflowers , The perfect boy , The real snowwhite etc...

Re: Dark songs

faith and the same deep water as you ,GREAT MUSIC

Re: Dark songs

HAVE to add "Prayers for Rain" to the list, but the version of "Faith" on the "Cure Live in Orange" video is one of the most darkly beautiful songs I know!

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Prayers for Rain is brilliant. Everything is empty, barren; there's no room for anything else.
I'm quite surprised, looking over the thread, that I didn't mention The Figurehead as one of my favorites. It's one of the best from Pornography, which is one of the best of their whole discography. When I listen to it, it's like a procession into the heart of an absolute wasteland...

Wayne Twine wrote:
HAVE to add "Prayers for Rain" to the list, but the version of "Faith" on the "Cure Live in Orange" video is one of the most darkly beautiful songs I know!

Re: Dark songs

Babble has a nice dark feel as well. "The whispers in my ear again ..."

"Give me it" is both violent and dark.

But I have to agree that the darkest stuff is from Disintegration and earlier.

Re: Re: Dark songs

Cure user wrote:
Babble has a nice dark feel as well. "The whispers in my ear again ..."<br /><br />"Give me it" is both violent and dark.<br /><br />But I have to agree that the darkest stuff is from Disintegration and earlier.

Re: Dark songs

Sinking..........Head on the Door, doesn't get much darker than this one.

Re: Dark songs

Hmmmm.. I've always been partial to "Cold" ("Your name like ice into my heart"-fave line). Pornography, All Cats are Grey, Charlotte Sometimes, Fear of Ghosts, Lament. And the list goes on....

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jimpool wrote:
Sinking..........Head on the Door, doesn't get much darker than this one.

Re: Dark songs

The Drowning Man. Live

Re: Dark songs

I really listen to most songs by mood, so when it rains, are the time of day, I bust the darker stuff, or just play one of my favs.

Re: Dark songs

I like A Strange Day--the sound and the lyrics grab me..

Re: Dark songs

I've just re-discovered "Seventeen Seconds".. great album! It was lost when I moved recently. I love the song "Secrets". Dark song and album as well:)

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cats_n_cheese wrote:
I prefer the darker side as well :-)
One Hundred Years, Short Term Effect, etc are great songs!

Re: Re: Dark songs

blacklily wrote:
I've just re-discovered "Seventeen Seconds".. great album! It was lost when I moved recently. I love the song "Secrets". Dark song and album as well:)

Re: Dark songs

Same here, I like the "darker" albums best, Faith, Pornography and Disintegration.

I think, I must have listened to Disintegration, Prayers for rain, Siamese Twins, One hundred years or Faith at least a hundred times. I still remember listening to Disintegration and Siamese Twins on repeat for days when I split up with my first big love back at uni. My best friend thought I was suicidal but it really helped, wallowing in selfpity for a few days and then getting on with life. God, I really love Robert's lyrics.

Re: Dark songs

one hundred years / a short term effect / the hanging garden.

awesome opening to an album!

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veni83 wrote:

blacklily wrote:
I've just re-discovered "Seventeen Seconds".. great album! It was lost when I moved recently. I love the song "Secrets". Dark song and album as well:)

yeah i think Seventeen seconds is the darkest album of the cure!..just love it:)

Re: Dark songs

I'm really drawn by the dark side of Cure songs. What's funny is that my wife was the one that liked the Cure and kind of got me into them, except that she likes the more pop-ish songs like "Friday I'm in Love" while I'm drawn more to the dark stuff. "At Night" and "100 Years" etc.

Re: Dark songs

I think it depends on mood really...

Like everything else, sometimes, I'm in a poppy mood, sometimes, reflective. Most of the times I'm in my car (singing), trying to dodge Surrey's suicidal squirrel population thusly:

"And all the Other Voices say AAAAARGH GET OUTTA THE BLOODY ROAD, YOU IDIOTIC TREE-HUGGING DUMB-ARSED SODDING RODENT!!!"

...etc.

:-D

Re: Re: Dark songs

I absolutely understand you!Unfortunaltely I also had got a peroid in my life which was had. In that time I was listening lots of Cure songs...these always ease me.Maybe the lyrics,maybe the sound,maybe Robert's voice...I don't know or that all together!Magic!
If I think it over my all of favourite song is dark...
I have to agree with you...Everybody wrote some great ones.
I don't would like to repeat you,just complete with some glorious "melody".
Here you are:
If only tonight we could sleep
The snakepit
Forever
Faith
Carnage visors
Anniversary
Three imaginary boys
Descent( definitely when I saw and listened in live in the RAH show:))
....etc

Re: Dark songs

The Funeral Party
Just One Kiss
Cold
Siamese Twins

I love these songs so much, they are so dark and beautiful...

Re: Re: Dark songs

arsenic9sea wrote:

The Funeral Party
Just One Kiss
Cold
Siamese Twins

I love these songs so much, they are so dark and beautiful...

Re: Dark songs

"Cold" and "At Night." Although At Night is more subtly dark, but I think the theme of night and darkness is there: e.g. "I sense quiet despair"

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sugargirl67 wrote:

arsenic9sea wrote:

The Funeral Party
Just One Kiss
Cold
Siamese Twins

I love these songs so much, they are so dark and beautiful...

I love them too! I love Robert's voice on these tracks, so pure, & the lyrics are just beautiful!

Re: Dark songs

I must say seeing the cure earlier this month.. the drowning man has become my favorite cure song of all time. It was the most amazing performance any artist on the planet has ever.. seriously, brilliant! I think a tear fell from my eye.. that song haunts...

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Can't say much; my 'Cure-I-Q' is limited... but thanks for the song names, guys. I'm all over these darker tracks...

Re: Dark songs

lament
the drowning man
a forest
charlotte sometimes
kyoto song
prayers for rain
untitled
a strange day
same deep water as you
faith
all cats are grey
in your house
play for today
and of coarse: the funeral party
many many more, memory escapes me at the moment

but then, some of the not so dark songs are still dark for me. pictures of you makes me cry. a night like this is absolutely nostalgic for me. just like heaven makes me cry because no one ever loved me like that. amazing! not that i was not loved as i feel he expresses love for someone in that song..just amazing how beautiful and yet sad it is at once. such sad, personal yet quite relateable, and lovely lyrics and music. its haunting and addictive.

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i forgot homesick, and plainsong...i love those. especially the last few lines of plainsong. its just so sad and beautiful.

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anyms wrote:
lament
the drowning man
a forest
charlotte sometimes
kyoto song
prayers for rain
untitled
a strange day
same deep water as you--those last few lines are so sad, sweet and chilling to me
faith
all cats are grey
in your house
play for today
and of coarse: the funeral party
many many more, memory escapes me at the moment

but then, some of the not so dark songs are still dark for me. pictures of you makes me cry. a night like this is absolutely nostalgic for me. just like heaven makes me cry because no one ever loved me like that. amazing! not that i was not loved as i feel he expresses love for someone in that song..just amazing how beautiful and yet sad it is at once. such sad, personal yet quite relateable, and lovely lyrics and music. its haunting and addictive.

Re: Dark songs

Just wanted to say i don't mean to sound like a whiner about the love thing..i was just trying to say that sometimes what seems happy for some can seem dark to others. Say "love song", well that song is sad (which can also mean dark, atleast in my opinion) to me because well its just so sweet. I almost can't listen to it. I can indentify with it, having loved someone deeply, but still it makes me sad. All of the lyrics, to all the songs I mentioned and more, are captivating and have such depth. Wether dark or not..they are beautiful and I consider them as well as the music, which is reflective, supportive, and ultimately tied to the lyrics, (i know, i sound like an idiot somehow)..consider them to be exceptional artistry. sorry for posting twice the same thing before.

Re: Dark songs

COLD, is surely my favorite (but its alos takes my back, to really dark times)
and faith too!

just LOVE the pornography album.

but i also rate songs by their emotionally effect on me.

Re: Dark songs

' If only tonight we could sleep' is one of the darker Cure songs I love.

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Pornography is the best they ever made. I was about 16 when it came out. Still I listen to it at least once a week. I guess it has something to do with the "right time, place, age...".

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yes, pornography and the top were two of the first albums i was fortunate to be exposed to when i was around 16...i remember listening to "100 years" over and over. quite dark. suited me perfectly.

Re: Dark songs

must correct myself..it's One Hundred Years, not 100 years. Cold was the other dark track i listened to over and over. yes, Pornography is very dark. As are Faith and Seventeen Seconds. I love those albums. I wish The Cure would tour here in US in 2013..never got to see them live.

Re: Dark songs

Would 'This is a lie' count as a dark song, definitely feels pretty dark. Such an amazing song.

Re: Dark songs

I hurt by all of 4:13 and Bloodflowers but from the self titled album,lost is painful. Especially the last line of the song. That ones a doozy,lol!