Customer Reviews

Boys Don't Cry

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

OK, so technically this isn't The Cure's first album. Well, it is, and it isn't. It culls the best tracks from their actual debut album, "Three Imaginary Boys", removing some of the filler ("Meathook", "It's Not You"), and replacing it with their early singles (most notably, "Killing an Arab" and the title track). Here's a rundown:

1. Boys Don't Cry (2:35)

Right from the opening chord sequence, you can tell this one is a winner. It's a perfect pop song - even though the lyrics are written from the point of view of a broken hearted man, the bouncy melody of the song overshadows them. You'll be too busy tapping your foot or bobbing your head to even notice Robert's sadness.

2. Plastic Passion (2:14)

This was originally a B-Side of the previous song. It may seem pretty flat the first time you hear it, but after a couple listens, the jerky bass lines it builds its foundation on will grow on you.

3. 10:15 Saturday Night (3:38)

An early masterpiece that seems to foreshadow where The Cure was headed musically. The lyrics paint a wonderful picture of sitting in isolation late at night, waiting for a phone call that you know won't come. The minimalistic musical backdrop further adds to the lonely and desolate feeling of the song. One of the best on the album.

4. Accuracy (2:16)

Another song that will most likely seem flat upon the first listen, but slowly seeps into your subconscious as you listen to it more. Lyrically, it seems to be about seduction of a lover.

5. So What (3:01)

This one is a little silly, but I still enjoy it for that reason alone. The lyrics seem to be taken from various advertisements ("Cake Icing and Decorating Set, Special Offer! Only 3.30!"), and are sung/shouted in a sarcastic manner. It's a little deeper than it may seem on the surface, actually.

6. Jumping Someone Else's Train (2:56)

A definite standout on the album. Musically, it's very new wave: energetic drum beat/bass lines and a jangly guitar riff. The lyrics are great too, relating to how people conform to society's trends, and losing their identity in the process.

7. Subway Song (1:59)

A very weird song, but cool. It's basically just a repeating bass line, with a haromica in the background, and spoken word lyrics from Robert. The harmonica gives it a blusey feel, but at the same time, it's sort of creepy. I always picture myself in a NYC city subway at 2 in the morning, surrounded by weirdos, when I listen to it. It ends with a deafening scream, that always scares me, no matter how many times I listen to it!

8. Killing An Arab (2:22)

Along with the title track, the most recognized song on the album. Due to the title, the song was controversial upon it's initial release. However, it's lyrical content is taken from "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. The harmonic minor melodies of the song give it a Middle Eastern feel amongst the punkish backdrop. A Cure classic.

9. Fire in Cairo (3:21)

The cartoonish representation of the album's cover sort of paints a picture of this song, which is an Egyptian fantasy of sorts. Musically, it kind of reminds me of Murmur-era R.E.M, which is a compliment. The chorus, in which Robert spells out the title in a melodic way, will be in your head for the rest of the day.

10. Another Day (3:43)

My favorite song on the album, and one of my favorite Cure songs altogether. Unlike most of the songs on this album, there's really no New Wave or Punk overtones to it. It's very moody and depressing with lyrics such as "I stare at the window waiting for the day to go..winter in water colours, shades of gray".

11. Grinding Halt (2:49)

This is probably the weakest song on the album. It's not bad by any means, but it sort of interrupts the flow between tracks 10 and 12. It should've been placed in the first half, which is a little more playful.

12. Three Imaginary Boys (3:14)

My second favorite on the album. Along with the aforementioned "Another Day", this one has a much darker feel to it (both lyrically and musically). Robert's closing words, "Can You Help Me?" leave the listener hanging in isolation, which sets the tone for their follow-up, 1980's masterpiece, "Seventeen Seconds".

And that pretty much sums it up. Most people consider this an anamoly in The Cure's catlogue, but I think it's absolutely essential. Songs like "Killing an Arab", "So What", "Accuracy", "Grinding Halt", and "Jumping Someone Else's Train" show off their punk/new wave beginnings, whereas "10:15..", "Another Day", "Subway Song", and "Three Imaginary Boys" show them experimenting with the dreamier (but gloomy) soundscapes that they'd become famous for.

Best Tracks: Another Day, Three Imaginary Boys, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing an Arab.

Back in 1979, three muscians who detested what was on the radio got together and formed a band that called themselves Easy Cure. Soon, the "Easy" was dropped and the rest is history. " Boys Don't Cry " was the first release from the legendary Cure. It's a good solid debut from Britain's greatest import. While I personally liked the three albums that followed better ( "17 Seconds" , " Faith ", and " Pornography ", respectively), this was a great album. Songwritting master- -mind Robert Smith cafted the beginning of a legacy with cuts like " Killing an Arab ", " 10:15 on a Saturday Night ", and " Jumping on Someone Else's Train " . The album has a dry, errie feeling on it rarely captured by a three piece band. Completlely disregarding all of the trends, Smith, Micheal Dempsey, and Lawerence " Lol " Tolhurst set the stage for gloom driven music to gain a degree of success. Smith sticks to simple, chorus laden rhythm guitar and tuneful basic leads, creating a melodic, and really original sound; and Dempsey has an inventive and busy bass groove going on underneath ( he was, however, replaced by the incomperable Simon Gallup an album later, and his style fits the Cure more comfortablely ). A masterstroke for sure, laying ground for even more compelling work in the years to follow.

-- James Kaenan-Barbour

Album number one (or at least the US edition of it) by The Cure is a far cry from all later albums, even their second, Seventeen Seconds, let alone something like Disintegration. However, its important to remember that Robert Smith is the only member of this original trio that has survived the distance to where they are now. However, although Boys Don't Cry is far from the Cure's best as some would tell you - Robert Smith's songwriting is still in its infancy and the production is weedy - it is nevertheless an essential component in the fascinating metamorphosising collective that is The Cure.

The obvious highlights are the better known singles - the vicious, punky 'Killing An Arab' which mixes flat punk nihilism with a Middle-Eastern guitar motif, the more dense and warm 'Fire In Cairo' and the poppier classic title track. Throughout the album, there is a punky influence, occasionally, as on 'So What' (not on the original LP, but on the original UK version 3 Imaginary Boys) it is actually the singular and abiding genre. However guitars are not usually of constant prescence, the album often being driven only by bass and drums with guitars as very much a lead instrument which interplays with vocals and drops in and out. There's none of the dense layers of sounds that trademark their later albums - its always the basic rock instruments and often the sound is basic or even slightly empty sounding.

However, this suits the tone of the songs, which occasionally becomes a 'dont-[care]' attitude, a strange idea to think of with Smith who wrote such emotionally revealing songs later in his career (largely absent here, though closer '3 Imaginary Boys' is a hint at a more personal, emotional direction). He also sometimes adopts a faux-Cockney 'punk' accent, which is of slight amusement, on tracks like the aforementioned 'So What' and 'Jumping Someone Else's Train', but the voice is nevertheless unmistakably his, with that timbre that unites all Cure recordings when there is little else to tie them together.

In summary, this is a very good album, if not their best as some would tell you. If you want to own a good range of 3 or 4 Cure albums that show off their different sides, this might be one to own, though its not the one to start with unless short, melodic poppy/punky songs are much more your thing than more complex tracks.

This is the US version of the first Cure album, "Three Imaginary Boys", and basically replaces three album tracks with three singles all of which are included on the "Staring At The Sea" compilation.

So my advice is, whatever you do, don't buy this album - buy "Three Imaginary Boys" and "Staring At The Sea" instead!

Basically the same as their actual debut '3 Imaginary Boys' with the addition of the singles "Killing an Arab" based on Camus' "The Stranger" and the uptempo, anti-conformity ditty "Jumping Someone Else's Train". Too bad they dropped the cover of Hendrix' "Foxy Lady". The title track is amazing; I always to compare it to Bauhaus' "She's in Parties" as one of the best post-punk, pre-Goth masterpieces. It's soaked in reverb and echoes, dreamy and dark, distant and edgy. The disc is a must for fans and non-fans would like it as well. It's easily more accessible than the bleak efforts that followed. If you have this then the British debut '3IB' is unnecessary unless you are a true Cure completist (disclosure - I have both).

This was the American equivalent of the British release Three Imaginary Boys and featured a totally different Cure than most of the band's audience came to know and love. Instead of moody, atmospheric pop that became the band's staple, this album was classic "two-guitars-and-a-drum-kit" rock, stripped down, with few frills. The album also contained a song almost universally condemned by the media: "Killing An Arab". According to the band's leader, Robert Smith, the song was actually an ode to the book The Stranger. The controversy over "Killing An Arab" amounted to nothing, and this underrated album remains largely forgotten.

This album is fantastic. Very raw and you drift into a different time. The CD apparently has more songs and sound clips than the cassette I have.
This CD gives you the etiology of why you love the Cure.

This disc is very much worth a listen or two...or three...or sixty. I still have the original cassette, but it's seen better days. So I bought the CD, as well.

What I find interesting is that the track listings are different. My original cassette has the song "Object" in place of "So What," and an extra track called "World War," bringing the total number of songs to 13, as opposed to the 12 that you receive on this edition of the album. I was slightly disappointed by this, as "World War" had been one of my favorite songs from the album. But I've grown to accept this difference, and I still love the CD. Plus, "So What" is a nice little song, in its own right. I just never understood the change. Perhaps, someday, someone will be able to explain it to me.

All that aside, this edition is, as I've said, certainly worth the money. As long as "Fire in Cairo," "Another Day," and "Three Imaginary Boys" are still intact, it's pretty priceless and shows the enormous potential that The Cure had when they started out. Potential which rose to soaring heights by 1989, then drifted into maudlin repetitiveness. Let's face it...every Post-"Disintegration" Cure album is not worthy of their reputation, each having a FEW good songs, at best. The Cure have been running on fumes ever since the '90s began. But this was before all that. This was 1979. And God...does it sound good.

The songs on this album are nowhere near as elaborate or epic as those found on later Cure albums. In fact, all of the songs on "Boys Don't Cry" are briefer than the INTROS from most of the songs on "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" or "Disintegration." They're also very stripped down, being that there were only three members in the band in 1979. This makes "Boys Don't Cry" seem very different indeed than the brilliant albums they susbequently released in the '80s. This album is, however, brilliant...and if you listen closely, you can hear that epic quality brewing beneath the surface.

Robert's vocals on "Boys Don't Cry" are not what you'll be used to if you've just recently picked up "Disintegration" or (God Forbid) "Wild Mood Swings." His vocal style was still evolving at this time. And...well...ever heard "Song 2" by Blur? The vocals in that song remind me a great deal of Robert's vocals in the "Boys Don't Cry" days. They weren't as deep or ominous as they would later become, but they were very effective in evoking the particular feelings that we get from the songs on this album. After all, if "Three Imaginary Boys" doesn't make you a bit uneasy, then you're probably a serial killer.

All in all, this album is increible and I recommend it highly. I've only given it 4 stars because I don't feel that it is the absolute BEST Cure album...therefore, to give it 5 would not be fair. What it IS, however, is a fantastic album that you should listen to immediately, if you haven't already.

And if anyone can explain the change in the track listing to me, I'm all ears.

First of all, the music is awesome. This is one of the more unique entries in The Cure's catalog. Never again would they sound so loose and raw as with this debut. It leans heavier on the punk side, but just below the surface of the music's rough veneer is Robert Smith's genius as a pop-song writer. Boys Don't Cry is the superior US version to Three Imaginary Boys, the original UK debut, for its stronger song list.

My main reason for writing this review is to let potential buyers know that this CD is NOT part of the Rhino reissue series of the mid-00's, although the timing of its release might suggest as much. The fine print and copyright info on the back says this import is of Australian origin, and the release is credited solely to Fiction Records. It appears to be a repressing of the original CD from back when, judging by design cues like the spine. Unlike the Rhino reissues there are no lyrics, no liner notes, and no rare or unseen photos of the band. The booklet only folds out to a very bland 2 page spread of track titles (and running times) and the personnel of musicians. The cover looks a bit washed out or scanned perhaps, like the colors could've used more contrast.

I have never owned this album before, so I couldn't tell you for sure if it is a sonic improvement over previous pressings. To my ears everything sounds clear without being overtly loud or compressed (as is the unfortunate fate of many remasters nowadays).

Some many not care about the lackluster packaging, the music is worthwhile in itself.

4 stars for the music (the audio quality and the songs themselves).
1 star for the packaging.

This CD should be required listening because it is fun, bluesy, with a good beat that makes you want to dance.