post punk

Record #905: The Cure – The Head on the Door (1985)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If there’s one thing Robert Smith hates, it’s being pigeonholed. After releasing a gloomy trio of goth rock classics in the early part of the decade, Smith began to feel like his band was misunderstood as producers of monochromatic dourness. With a slightly shifted lineup, they released a trio of standalone pop singles that shattered the conception that they were one note.

And while that same pop perfection failed to infiltrate their following album, The Top, their 1985 record The Head on the Door was a masterpiece of hook-laden pop songs that didn’t forsake their mastery of dark atmospheres.

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Record #904: The Cure – Faith (1981)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 2 Comments

As it turns out, my mid-thirties aren’t too late for my first Cure phase. And friends, this phase is deep, and I have no recourse against the urge to fill in the gaps in my collection for one of the deepest and most rewarding discographies of all time.

Just like Rome though, the Cure wasn’t built in a day. It took a few releases for them to find their own voice. But Faith, their third record, is where the spectral, teased-hair silhouette of their legacy started to take shape, introducing gossamer atmospheres and dirgelike tempos to their increasingly dark post punk. And while it’s still massively indebted to bands like Joy Division, Television, and Siouxsie and the Banshees (who Robert Smith would briefly play guitar for later), it’s the clearest picture of The Cure to come they had yet released.

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Record #903: The Cure – Wish (1992)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 2 Comments

When I first heard Disintegration, which I bought on reputation alone, I lamented that I didn’t get into the Cure when I was a teenager. My thirties were too late to start a Cure phase—too late for the gloomy goth rockers to sink their hooks into my soul as deeply as they were meant to be (I even blamed my very 80s child mother for not exposing me to them).

Then, I had a child, and at six months old, she is certainly not too young for a Cure phase. As we’ve tried different strategies to get her to sleep, we’ve discovered that the most reliable tool is the Rockabye Baby series’ collection of Cure lullabies. And as those delightfully sweet arrangements have played on repeat in our house the last few weeks, I’ve found myself obsessing over the Cure with the same earnestness I thought I had missed out on by getting into them later.

That new obsession has gotten me to finally check out Wish, which I had assumed for years was an unabashed pop backlash to the dirge of Disintegration, based solely on the sugary hit “Friday I’m In Love.”

Boy, was I wrong.

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Record #870: Executioner’s Mask – Winterlong (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As I’ve made my way to reviewing music more or less full time, I’ve noticed that my own tastes have started trending into stranger and darker directions. A few of the records I’ve fallen in love with recently exist in eldritch soundscapes that might sound abominable to the average listener (see also: Cremation Lily, HERIOT).

So when I first came across Winterlong, I was already poised to love it. But when I saw that the press release compared them to Deerhunter, The National, and Alcest, I was rapt with intrigue. What sort of music could be accurately described by that unlikely trio?

As it turns out, Winterlong doesn’t just fall right in the middle of those three—it also has plenty of nods to Joy Division, The Cure, Slowdive, and even Black Sabbath. And that’s all while sounding focused and gripping.

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Record #840: Les Discrets – Prédateurs (2017)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For most of their career, Les Discrets has been intrinsically locked with Alcest.

Both projects are pioneers in the blackgaze scene. Les Discrets bandleader Fursy and Alcest mastermind Neige played in the supergroup Amesouers (Neige has also played bass for Les Discrets on certain tours). They even shared drummer Winterhalter—who also played in Amesouers.

But when Winterhalter decided to work full-time with Alcest, Les Discrets was left without a drummer. Instead of try to replace him to write more hard-hitting, epic metal, Fursy decided to use the opportunity to change gears. And while the resulting album is a major change from earlier albums, it maintains the same delicate and beautiful balance between darkness and hope.

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Record #838: Joy Divison – Substance: 1977-1980 (1988)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For as ubiquitous as they are in pop culture, it’s almost a shock to remember that they only released two studio albums. Their trademark sound, marked by melodic basslines, robotic drums, stabbing guitars, and Ian Curtis’ distinct baritone drew up most of the post punk blue print, but they also had a huge impact on new wave, goth rock, and indie rock (as nebulous as that term is, it’s impossible to listen to bands like The National, Arcade Fire, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, etc and not hear shades of Joy Division).

And while Substance is best celebrated for “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” their only Platinum single, this compilation serves as a career-spanning chronicle of one of the most important bands in pop music history.

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Record #832: In Parallel – Broken Codes (2018)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If you were looking at the resumés of the members of In Parallel to try to discern what they might sound like, you might be thrown for a loop. Sure, there might be enough shoegaze and post-punk devotion in Hopesfall and Celebrity’s catalogs that it would make sense, but you might expect Broken Codes to have some of their sharper edges as well.

But listening to the gauzy haze of guitars, drum machines, and syrupy smooth vocals, it’s hard to wish it was any grittier. This is the kind of trancelike, dreamy rock that is best consumed by letting it wash over you.

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Record #831: Iggy Pop – The Idiot (1977)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Iggy Pop lost himself for a while in the mid ’70s. His heroin addiction had proven too large a beast to manage, leading to the breakup of The Stooges in 1974. He tried his hand at a few musical ventures, auditioning to replace Jim Morrison in The Doors and to join KISS. Both were as unsuccessful as his stints in rehab.

In 1976, he reached out to his friend David Bowie, battling his own addictions, for help. The two moved in together into a Château near Paris and Bowie offered to produce an album for him. The resulting record, The Idiot, stripped away the proto-punk fury of Pop’s previous band in favor of Krautrock-influenced electronic textures—a sound that Iggy would describe as “James Brown mixed with Kraftwerk.”

In that way, The Idiot isn’t just a great record in Iggy’s catalog, but it’s also the spiritual prequel to Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy.

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Record #826: Diiv – Is The Is Are (2016)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Few records have hit me with the same immediate and enduring affection as Diiv’s Oshin. That record’s blend of post punk, shoegaze, Krautrock, and surf rock hit me like a truck full of bricks at first listen, and remains one of the richest albums in my collection with every repeated listen.

So it might seem odd that I didn’t devour their sophomore album, Is The Is Are, with as much voraciousness.
But that error is all mine, because the sophomore record takes the same elements and stretches them to fit an ambitious double album that is far more personal while remaining just as alluring.

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Record #818: The Cure – Pornography (1982)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s taken me until my mid-30s to realize something that should have been obvious: the Cure really is one of the best bands in the world. Yet approaching their immense discography now, and not as a teenager when I no doubt would have spun their albums on repeat, has proven to be a daunting task.

Of course, I’ve loved Disintegration for a few years now, but sorting through the rest of it, I feel rudderless in a sea of gothy pop songs. Recently, I decided almost on a whim to order a copy of Pornography, their fourth record, and one of their darkest.

And it’s appropriately titled: like pornography, this record is almost exploitatively intimate, often uncomfortable, yet basely alluring.

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