I think I like the US comp Boys Don't Cry better, but Three Imaginary Boys is a solid post-punk album. The title track, "Fire In Cairo", "Another Day""Object" are all fantastic songs and the rest are mostly listenable though I could do without the likes of "Foxy Lady" and "MeatHook".
The first vinyl I bought by them in 1985 at the age of 11 in the supermarket (you could do it those days). No titles written anywhere on the record or on the cover just symbols for the tracks and the heart attack effect on Subway Song. There is a song written thanks to a pack of sugar. There was my “never mind the bollocks” with melodies saved. 10:15 has that kitchen sound too... Changed my life forever. I strongly recommend the deluxe editions with nearly all the tracks from the period (so you don’t have to choose between Boys don’t Cry and 3IB) but 2 tracks are removed “plastic passion” and “killing an Arab” is absent for absurd political reasons.
One thing I like about this album is that listening to it, I think the band that made that album could have gone a lot of different directions in addition to the one they did follow. I love the direction they went, but to me, Seventeen Seconds sounds much more like The Cure as they came to be known, while Three Imaginary Boys feels more open to some other, possibly equally interesting directions they could have gone musically.
It's a pretty good debut but I prefer the filler-free Boys Don't Cry. Kind of like how I prefer the U.S. version of The Clash.
Kind of this. Jumping Somebody Else's Train and a couple of other songs aside, I think of the first proper Cure album as Seventeen Seconds but in saying that, didn't they grow up quick?!
Another vote for the "Boys Don't Cry" version- much better sequencing and the tracks they swapped out made it flow a lot better (and if it had included their version of "Foxy Lady" the budding 16 year-old goth in me might have completely passed on the band!). The end of "Subway Song" still gets me.
Boys Don't Cry also had superior artwork. I'm with Robert Smith, the Hoover and lamp shade are stupid looking!
It captivated me when I first heard it in 1985, and I prefer it over Boys Don’t Cry. I agree the deluxe edition is well done and sounds good, but not as dynamic as my old single CD that is now long gone.
The Cure is one of my favorite bands, and this first album is fantastic and addictive to me, I love its simplicity. Great pop-new wave-postpunk songs like Object, the title track, Another day rank among my favorites by them
Love it! One of my favorite albums generally. Kinda sad they didn't continue that style on the albums after that (though I love the others as well, especially Seventeen Seconds). I have an original Fiction UK pressing on vinyl and the deluxe CD set.
Certainly more charming than the following gloomy ones. Consensus say they are better but I rate the debut higher than consensus.
Boys Don't Cry/Three Imaginary Boys are/is a fantastic album period of The Cure and really unique in their repertoire. No album of The Cure is sounding like that one. Without keyboards they were absolutely a different band than the doomy/goth period and the more poppish albums after. Their first album was really rocking and that guitar will return sometimes at later albums (like the song 'Primary'), but not enough for me.
For those defending the Boys Don’t Cry version, I prefer 3IB. I recently listened to the whole Cure catalogue in chronological order. For the first time I noticed that the Boys Don’t Cry single (including it’s excellent b-side) sounds different to the 3IB album. Nothing else they had done to that point was so poppy. I like it when a band has classic songs as singles only.
I'm firmly in the camp that prefers Boys Don't Cry. It's a more solid and consistent album than 3IB. I like 3IB, but stuff like "Foxy Lady," "So What?", and "Meathook," while fun, sound more like b-side material than songs that should be on an album. (Not that there's anything wrong with their b sides, of course - The Cure did a lot of amazing b sides in their prime.)
