The Cure

Wild Mood Swings

Hi all

apologies in advance if a topic like this already exists
So I have been reading alot of articles/interviews recently and talking with fellow Cure fans and one thing that pops up alot is how much people (even die hard cure fans) dont like Wild Mood Swings

I have been giving it a few spins recently and I must admit I do actually rather like it, there are some killer tracks on it including but not limited to Strange attraction, This is a lie and want

Just curious as to what you guys think of it??

Re: Wild Mood Swings

It is one of my all time favorite Cure albums! I love it! It's so fun to sing along to and Treasure and Bare are some of the saddest songs that The Cure ever recorded. And the B-sides are amazing.

I'd say as far as their more pop oriented albums go it is definitely my favorite.

I know that it is quite varied and such and it seems like the songs dont fit at first but I think they fit much better than the album sequence for Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (don't get me wrong I love that album) One of my favorite songs on the album is "Return"

but it is a album that you have to let grow on you... When I first got in back in like 1997 I didn't like most of the songs and then slowly they grew on me and now they remind me a lot of my childhood and such.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I adore WMS. There is so much variety on this album and I too don't understand why it is so underrated. My favorite songs on it are Want (killer opener to the album!), Round&Round&Round, Strange Attraction, and Treasure. The only songs I don't like much on the album are Gone! and Club America. Other than that, I think it's a pretty fantastic album. I've been listening to it a lot lately. =]

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

I really like it!!! "This is a lie" and "Treasure" are my favourite...

Re: Wild Mood Swings

to me it's one of those records where the more you listen to it, the more you enjoy it.

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

tfinch wrote:
to me it's one of those records where the more you listen to it, the more you enjoy it.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I love Want... It's such a powerful way to start an album. However... I really don't like Club America. One of the only Cure songs that I always skip. The rest of the album I like, but Want really stands out for me.

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

KittenAsaCat wrote:
I love Want... It's such a powerful way to start an album. However... I really don't like Club America. One of the only Cure songs that I always skip. The rest of the album I like, but Want really stands out for me.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Wonderful album. Was my first (oops, second) complete Cure album. I love the way the songs interact with each other, lots going on in the album. I go ahead and name my favorite tracks, but I'm sure all fourteen would end up on here, as my favorites vary with my mood :) It makes me sad when other fans say they're not fond of the album; they haven't a clue what they're missing,

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

Overcoate wrote:
Wonderful album. Was my first (oops, second) complete Cure album. I love the way the songs interact with each other, lots going on in the album. I go ahead and name my favorite tracks, but I'm sure all fourteen would end up on here, as my favorites vary with my mood :) It makes me sad when other fans say they're not fond of the album; they haven't a clue what they're missing,

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

Overcoate wrote:
Wonderful album. Was my first (oops, second) complete Cure album. I love the way the songs interact with each other, lots going on in the album. I go ahead and name my favorite tracks, but I'm sure all fourteen would end up on here, as my favorites vary with my mood :) It makes me sad when other fans say they're not fond of the album; they haven't a clue what they're missing,

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Jupiter Crash, Bare, Gone!, Round & Round & Round, 13th and Mint Car are my favs off this album.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I'm one of those

Don't like it, don't own it, don't want to

Re: Wild Mood Swings

When I first got this CD, I gave it one listen through, HATED IT, and then threw it on the shelf to rot.

But, I took it back out over time and I actually do like some of the songs on it. I was too quick to judge. My favourites off it are Mint Car, Jupiter Crash, and Strange Attraction. Those are some very great songs.

I think Club America though is one of the worst songs EVER.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

To my opinion, WMS is the first truely diverse album since Kiss Me.
It's gorgeous. My favorite party time song is Return! I know I'm pretty much alone in this preference. One of the most sincere and great lyrics you can find, are in Want.
So, Wild Mood Swings is hugely underestimated, underrated even amongst "true Cure fans". Hey, the Cure are so precious exactly for the emotional and sonic diversity they create. You can't expect 10 albums filled with songs like Forest or Lullaby, can you?

Cheers!

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I also don't understand the collective averseness to Wild Mood Swings.
It definitely has its moments.

Want, for example, is a really powerful, wistful, tragic opener (one of my all-time favourite songs besides Disinteration, of course), that transfers all the numbness, all the dullness of our impulsive, fast society, and represents the wish for something real, something that remains, something authentic.
But as you know, lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, that was only mine.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I remember reading somewhere that Robert thought that the problem with Mood Swings was that there were 2 songs too many on there. The production of the album was very much a group effort apparently as well. All the band went away and came back, met up with Robert and then they worked through the ideas (unlike Bloodflowers where Robert just told everyone what to do). I really quite like Wild Mood Swings. It's strange how the effect of the album isn't all that impressive but each of the songs bar Gone! and (sorry) Strange Attraction are excellent stand alones. I think the ones that mostly moan about it are those who expect dark and dreary all the time from The Cure.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Hmmm...

It isn't my favorite album as a whole BUT one of my top ten favorite Cire songs of all time is on WMS and that song is Jupiter Crash. I also love Want, This is a Lie, and Strange Attraction (I love the story that this song tells)

:0)

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I love it! It was one of my firsts cure albums, there are songs for all moods..numb is my favorite :] and gone of course! let's get up, get out, get gone and jazzzzzz!:D

Re: Wild Mood Swings

i fell in love with WILD MOOD SWINGS via a cassette tape in a CRAP player bumping along the expressway on the way to my first Cure concert in Tampa in a Yugo. The engine on this car was so loud, and the windows wide open for ventilation because there was no A/C that I could hardly hear the music...however, i fell dippy in love with Gone on the way to the show. and the show was chock full of Wild Mood Swings songs...opening with WANT...that WMS is one of my all time favorite albums EVER. I love ever song.

Re: Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

arsenic9sea wrote:

KittenAsaCat wrote:
I love Want... It's such a powerful way to start an album. However... I really don't like Club America. One of the only Cure songs that I always skip. The rest of the album I like, but Want really stands out for me.

i agree... if you take out Club America the rest of the album syncs up so nicely!

I think Club America should have been a b-side and WMS a 13 song album

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Am I the only one that loves Club America?! Can't you lot hear that guitar going round and round?!

I bought WMS because of this thread, and couldn't get on with it at first. The whole idea of jazz turns my stomach, all that plinky plonky arty-farty dicking about is the polar opposite of Steve Jones crashing through "Holidays in the Sun" or Keith Moon crashing through "I can see for miles"...which is what music is all about, to me anyway...so anything tinted or tained with jazz turns me right off.

However it is growing on me, it starts and ends well and I think a couple of more listens will see me through it.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I don't hate Club America. I don't skip it but I do think the album is better overall without the song.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Is there noone who likes RETURN ?
Such a happy song...
It's even more beautiful than the all time trigger happy chant on MintCar.

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

vesodoc wrote:
Is there noone who likes RETURN ?
Such a happy song...
It's even more beautiful than the all time trigger happy chant on MintCar.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I love Want, but listened to Return a few too many times so it is starting to get boring

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I am officially showing my appreciation for return...

Return, I appreciate you..

;0)

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

Pinkzilla wrote:
I am officially showing my appreciation for return...

Return, I appreciate you..

;0)

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Ive always loved Wild Mood Swings. It was one of the first few Cure albums I bought back in 97' and have ever since considered it to be my favorite Cure album.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I don't yet own it but I really like what I've heard.

A lot of people aren't as fond of post-"Wish" Cure, some people felt they sold out to pop music etc. If you ask me Smith and the band's talent still shows whatever they do and they always succeed at making catchy and memorable music!

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

DistantJ wrote:
I don't yet own it but I really like what I've heard.

A lot of people aren't as fond of post-"Wish" Cure, some people felt they sold out to pop music etc. If you ask me Smith and the band's talent still shows whatever they do and they always succeed at making catchy and memorable music!

Re: Wild Mood Swings

And people forget that their very first release was "Boys Don't Cry", and it's hardly goth rock, is it? lol

Personally, I'd consider Wild Mood Swings to be a better album than Wish...

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

DistantJ wrote:
And people forget that their very first release was "Boys Don't Cry", and it's hardly goth rock, is it? lol

Personally, I'd consider Wild Mood Swings to be a better album than Wish...

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Pretty much, yeah... I'd only ever stick the G word on the album Pornography, but even that is far deeper and more graceful than anything else I've heard the name given to.

But yeah, Seventeen Seconds was a bit of a transition, and Faith and Pornography are the only albums which really consist of entirely dark material (and even Faith has a couple of reasonably upbeat punky tracks).

Arguably, Disintegration might count, but I find that album more romantic than dark. Same for Bloodflowers - in fact, I can't hear anything dark about Bloodflowers at all.

That's two albums out of thirteen...

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I think WMS is not as good as Wish.
But I do think WMS is better than their self-titled disc from a few years ago.

Re: Wild Mood Swings

The Cure is just a great band... they defy all categories... and I love Wild Mood Swings a lot. There is a darkness or darker disposition to the band than other pop bands... but I love that about The Cure.. it's what makes them so perfect!

Re: Wild Mood Swings

well i looooooooooove Wild Mood Swings! turns me up as a whole and has some beautiful hidden secret moments... It also was supported by at least a couple of wonderful videos - pure Cure way LOOOOOVE IT!

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I love WMS. I will never understand all of the criticism that's been heaped upon it and still is heaped upon it.

Guess it's just personal taste...

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

DistantJ wrote:
I don't yet own it but I really like what I've heard.

A lot of people aren't as fond of post-"Wish" Cure, some people felt they sold out to pop music etc. If you ask me Smith and the band's talent still shows whatever they do and they always succeed at making catchy and memorable music!

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I dunno, I like about half the album on a good day haha

I can listen to Want everyday though haha. SO amazing... Club America can go die though muahaaha I dislike Robert's vocals and the music and the lyrics..... that one is as bad as "A Man Inside My Mouth" for me heh x]

But Jupiter Crash and Gone! and Mint Car and the lyrics of Strange Attraction and The 13th are really pretty great :)

Does no one else really like The 13th? I find it completely addicting

Re: Wild Mood Swings

If anything I think the B-sides to the singles are the best material to come from that album.
I think that was one of the hardest albums for Robert to put together as it was so diverse, some of those B-sides I know Robert wished had been chosen for the final cut - I would even go as far to say that if he'd had his way he would have been quite happy to make it a double album.
But once again the record execs would have put their foot down as the album was too long as it was..
Out of the six B-sides I think A Pink Dream is the happiest song they've written and it also showed Robert as his most comfortable with what he was doing. After Disintegration and the pressure of have to try and better it with Wish, Wild Mood Swings was his way of saying "I don't care what's happening in the music industry at the moment, I just want to make music on my own terms".

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

notdeadyet wrote:
I dunno, I like about half the album on a good day haha

I can listen to Want everyday though haha. SO amazing... Club America can go die though muahaaha I dislike Robert's vocals and the music and the lyrics..... that one is as bad as "A Man Inside My Mouth" for me heh x]

But Jupiter Crash and Gone! and Mint Car and the lyrics of Strange Attraction and The 13th are really pretty great :)

Does no one else really like The 13th? I find it completely addicting

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but I just remembered a fond memory of the first time I listened to this album..
As soon as I got home from buying it at the shops I put it on (naturally, as you do!) and as I was listening to the melody of the song whilst reading the lyrics, I found I could mouth the words in time to the rhythm of the music as if I'd heard it a hundred times!!
I don't think I've been able to do it with any other album, though..
Just a piece of wierd trivia I thought I'd share :p

Re: Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

MissDrea83 wrote:

notdeadyet wrote:
I dunno, I like about half the album on a good day haha

I can listen to Want everyday though haha. SO amazing... Club America can go die though muahaaha I dislike Robert's vocals and the music and the lyrics..... that one is as bad as "A Man Inside My Mouth" for me heh x]

But Jupiter Crash and Gone! and Mint Car and the lyrics of Strange Attraction and The 13th are really pretty great :)

Does no one else really like The 13th? I find it completely addicting

I LOVE The 13th. :)

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

fattyowls wrote:
Don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but I just remembered a fond memory of the first time I listened to this album..
As soon as I got home from buying it at the shops I put it on (naturally, as you do!) and as I was listening to the melody of the song whilst reading the lyrics, I found I could mouth the words in time to the rhythm of the music as if I'd heard it a hundred times!!
I don't think I've been able to do it with any other album, though..
Just a piece of wierd trivia I thought I'd share :p

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I like the album a lot, but it contains one of the few Cure songs that I hate - Mint Car, I cannot stand it!!!!

I love Jupiter Crash, Club America, Treasure, Want, Bare, Gone, The 13th, think this album is very much underrated...and Mint Car overrated by some, but hey, someone has to like it:-)

Re: Wild Mood Swings

'96 was such a transitional period in the music world..
You had the whole Britpop movement with the likes of Blur and Oasis.
On the other end of the spectrum you had the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins with their amazing double album "Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and Pearl Jam and the Chili Peppers..
And then you have Wild Mood Swings which more or less encapsulates everything the band has done previously while at the same time going out of their comfort zone with live string/horn arrangements which really shows how good a musician Robert really is..
Sure it went against everything else that was going on musically at the time, but then when have they really ever 'fitted in' anyway? That's what we love about them, right??

Re: Wild Mood Swings

The more I listen to this album, the more I seem to like it. Want, Club America, The 13th, Mint Car, Jupiter Crash, Numb, and Trap...

Re: Wild Mood Swings

I don't think it deserves the bad reviews it gets, it's quite a bold album, however I think it's nowhere near as good as most The Cure's other albums, especially ones previous. I really like Jupiter Crash and Mint Car on the album. :P

Re: Re: Wild Mood Swings

Clairebearagain wrote:
I don't think it deserves the bad reviews it gets, it's quite a bold album, however I think it's nowhere near as good as most The Cure's other albums, especially ones previous. I really like Jupiter Crash and Mint Car on the album. :P

Re: Wild Mood Swings

Wild mood swings came out in 1996 , a full 4 years after Wish. I had such high hopes , being in my twenties and still not really grown up I wanted a Wishy Disintegration style album. Dark and dramatic. So when it came out I was disappointed with the lighter stuff on the album.

I have to to say 14 years later this is a good album like any other Cure album ever released , you just got to sit back and enjoy what the artist wrote. Not what you in your mind wanted him to write. It's a pit trap.

My faves are of course Want but I also very much like Club America , Strange attraction , Jupiter crash and Trap.