Can’t hear the final notes of Plainsong without anticipating the opening notes of Pictures of You. It’s like that all the way through.
Related Recs
(Aka what it sounds like when the Cure do the Cure)
Sixteen years after their last album, Robert Smith & Co. have returned on their own (admittedly, glacial) terms. They sound regal, exhausted, and deliciously slow, wrestling with mortality and doubt in a way that's perfectly suited to the Cure (and reminds me more than just a little of David Bowie's final work, "Blackstar," which focused on the same endgame subjects in a similarly "top of their game" sort of way right at the end of his life). I first heard the track linked here, "And Nothing Is Forever," on last year's Cure tour of the U.S. (which I wrote about for Magnet here) and it reminds me that -- unlike, say, the Stones -- Smith has never felt the need to flex for the sake of proving his youthful virility. If anything, the Cure was always adult-before-their-time, sounding world-weary and sick of it all long before goth made that a core brand attribute. I love this album more than anything the band has done since 1989's "Disintegration," which saw Smith retreating from fame and popularity through the copious use of hallucinogens, which greatly influenced the sound of that record. What is the feeling of pending death if not the world's most powerful psychotropic drug? The Cure have been and shall always be one of THE bands for me. "There is none blacker," as the joke goes. All hail the dark lords of pop, as magisterial and mysterious as ever. đź‘‘
Nov 1, 2024
Nov 1, 2024
đźš—
(the suburbs (continued) is a great closer, especially after Regine’s Sprawl II, and if you play the album in a loop (how albums should be played, imo) the piano of the title track crashes into you, just as intended. Beautiful and mundane and dramatic and filled with longing and nostalgia for “wasted“ time and familiar spaces)
Mar 16, 2024
Top Recs from @acb
đź—ľ
Many things to recommend this show: complex character-driven drama & moments of quiet contemplation punctuated by sudden & visceral violence; the most important characters aren’t always who you might expect (as in: men & colonial interlopers aren’t always as powerful as they think they are…); the way translation is depicted is brilliant & subtle. I could go on. A must watch if you love confident, thoughtful and surprising storytelling.
Apr 10, 2024
A meta-recommendation.
At Goodwill the other day, I was the unsuspecting stranger. The cashier noticed my debit card—it features an image of an audio cassette. (My credit union issues these to support KEXP, our local radio station!)
“I ask everyone with that card for a song recommendation,” said the cashier.
I gave him R.E.M’s “Orange Crush.”
So now this is a meta-meta-recommendation.
Mar 4, 2024
“It’s become my second nature / to wander through the pet store / and stare into the sideways gaze of a lizard / Doesn’t always make me feel better / Just less alone”
Aug 3, 2024