The Cure

Item: Three Imaginary Boys
Author: Idy

Three Imaginary Boys

(1979)

Reviewed by Idy

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Label Fiction RecordsSomething for Nothing #61July 2005

gothic rock new wave post-punk power pop

i've always liked the cure (but only up to "the head on the door"), but never bought any of their records until about 7 or 8 years ago. their first album, "three imaginary boys", was until now available only as an import. i never had it until about three years ago when i found a copy for $3 (rather than the $28 i usually saw it for). it is now finally released domestically, with a second disc of singles, demos, and live tracks from the same era. the actual album, while not my favorite cure record, still sounds good, and was obviously unique for its time (and is probably the most non-cure sounding cure album). it's kind of a mix of dark power-pop, and even darker, slower songs. songs like "another day" and the title track give a glimpse of things to come on "seventeen seconds" and "faith". there was a u.s. release called "boys don't cry", which included much of the album, but with some tracks replaced with singles and other songs from the album sessions. disc two includes most of those tracks, but the exclusion of "plastic passion" and "killing an arab" is inexcusable--especially since disc two is only 64 minutes long, and disc one is just 34. also, the sound quality of "world war" (which is on my vinyl copy of "boys don't cry", but not on my cd version) is muddy and annoying. there are neat demos of "fire in cairo", "i'm cold", "boys don't cry", and others, plus demos and studio out-takes of unreleased songs (most of which are better than some of the songs that made it onto the album), which make it worthwhile. the packaging is trippy and the liner notes are okay, but could have been better and more detailed. overall, though, it's a nice set--the missing songs just make it frustrating.