The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys - 1979
This was The Cure's debut album, from May 1979, and, although it went unnoticed by me at the time, it stands as one of the full-on post punk trail blazers - stabbing guitar riffs, rubbery bass lines, metronomic drums and a vocal full of ennui. Their temperamental, precious singer Robert Smith was never happy with the album, apparently, and it was compiled without his consent. That sort of added to the intrigue that surrounded this mysterious group. Their music, however, was often more listenable than one may have imagined.
There is also an appealing rough and ready sound to this album. I should have give it more attention back in 1979, but I had many other artists taking my attention. For many, this is as carefree and poppy as The Cure ever got, their subsequent albums were far more downbeat. 10.15 Saturday Night is a classic example of the group's surprisingly accessible, catchy post punk. It has an absolute killer of a guitar solo in it too, together with an unnerving bass line.
Accuracy features Robert Smith's deadpan bored-sounding voice at its most archetypal. The same applies to the Joy Division meets PIL vibe of Grinding Halt. Another Day reminds me of similar slow, sombre, moody offerings from The Buzzcocks and Magazine from the same period, a time when punk's anger and fury had dissipated into insecure student navel-gazing. It was that that sort of turned me off it at the time, but I cannot deny that the track is full of foreboding, depressing atmosphere. Smith's vocal is very Steve Harley-esque at times on this, which showed his possible influences. Harley liked a bit of broodiness too.
Object brings the tempo up again on an edgy, riffy, punky thrash while the sub-two minute Subway Song has a wonderful bass line and a finger-clicking late-night groove about it. Its vague reggae tinges fitted in with the zeitgeist as well. The oddly incongruous, quirky cover of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Foxy Lady is something of an interesting, but perplexing curio.
Meat Hook also ploughs that late seventies white reggae furrow, effectively. It sounds so very 1979 and the fuzzy, punchy So What is full of PIL-style post punk, bleating bad-tempered rage, along with a stuttering Buzzcocks-style vocal. Fire In Cairo is one of the album's most pleasing tracks, melodically, sounding sort of punky and new wavey simultaneously, although quite why the title's letters needed to be recited is unclear.
It's Not You is a very Buzzcocks-esque punky number that reminds me that it was still early 1979 when this was released - punkiness was still ok. Three Imaginary Boys is an enjoyably melodic and beautifully bassy mid-paced number while the short instrumental closer, The Weedy Burton, shows the breeziness that the band occasionally showed that they could use, as indeed they did on their irresistible hit single, The Lovecats.
