The Cure's "Wish" finally get the deluxe edition treatment. Track listing on page 20!*

I was under the impression the UK will get the vinyl first and that the American release is in late Jan.

 

My Amazon.ca pre-order says Jan. 27th.

 

The picture disc version is out this Friday for RSD. There must be a huge collectors markets for these, or maybe Robert loves them.

 

Super Deluxe Edition gave it a very mixed review.

The Cure / Wish 3CD deluxe edition review – SuperDeluxeEdition

 

Amazon is saying mine should arrive on Friday, so only a couple days to go!

 

I really think this is a missed opportunity to compile the live material from the Wish tour. Both Show and Paris are fantastic and are seriously in need of (vinyl) reissues.

I just remembered that I ordered the Lost Wishes cassette back in July. Doesn't seem like it's shipped yet.

 

Two things stand out from that article...

1) The Big Hand has vocals! Hmm...so, IS it the Picture Show version which has always been thought of as an instrumental, or is it another version entirely? And, if the latter, where is the PS version?! Intriguing.

2) Smith reinventing history again saying he was never happy with the mastering. I've mentioned here before, an ex-Fiction employee said years ago that Smith had Wish mixed over and over and over. Yeah mixing isn't mastering, but I don't believe for one moment he relinquished control suddenly. He is such a fibber.

 

The article talks about how Smith had "other commitments" and couldn't focus on mastering - not that he gave it up.

 

That is fair enough. I don't believe him.

 

Are you calling Mister Robert Smith a liar Sir???

 

Given that Smith has told us the new album is coming pretty much every year, I think it's fair to assume he's an unreliable narrator.

 

Hot on the heels of my ponderance over The Big Hand (see up the page) I see that four hours ago as of the time of me posting this, the official Cure YT site appears to have uploaded the demo themselves and then swiftly removed it too:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...z40FegQIARAH&usg=AOvVaw0lHw3qp9AaQuVtTgPp-8mh

The stats show four lucky people got to view it. Gaaawh!

 

Amazon has shipped my copy of the triple CD. I'm pretty excited to give this a listen.

 

I wouldn't be too surprised if Robert recorded new vocals over old demos on this set. He's done it with a few of the deluxe editions so far.

 

The Glove, that’s it.

 

Didn't he said he didn't do it at the time though or am I remembering it wrong? I mean, to me it's obvious the vocals we're new but I thought I read otherwise and I was perplexed...

 

My Udiscover order shipped for the vinyl...US order.

 

Severin claimed that Robert used "sound soap" (I believe that was the term he used) to clean up old guide vocals. It later turned out Robert re-recorded those vocals. I can't remember if Severin knew that or not. This is one of those things that if everyone was honest and upfront saying "hey, Robert went back and recorded new vocals to kind of show what this album COULD have been" then I don't think anyone would have had a problem with it. Acting like they were vocals from 1983 when it was obviously a much older Robert was highly misleading when they could have just said what they were to begin with.

 

It's on Spotify in Europe/UK if you want to spend the night with it and be ready for the "dynamic compression" moaning tomorrow morning.

 

I think all of the Cure deluxe editions have been missed opportunities.

The way I’d have done this one is:

Disc 1 - remastered album
Disc 2 - All era b-sides and Lost Wishes
Disc 3 - Demos and alternate takes
Disc 4 and 5 - Complete unreleased live show from the tour (there are better shows than Show/Paris)
DVD - Cure Play Out, era music videos and TV performances

I’d follow the same formula for all the other albums too. I -hate- the random hodge podge mix tape style bonus discs with live track here and there mixed in with demos. It is so half assed. The Cure were an incredible live band and it’s a shame that that wasn’t well represented in these reissues. Head over to archive.org and search to find many excellent shows.

Also the Entreat remix on the Disintegration deluxe was atrocious. Totally ruined it. The original mix was far far better and all it needed was the missing tracks added.

 

Listening at low volume right now to the 30th Wish and the remaster is not bad at all... It's actually close to the original. A bit louder, a bit clearer but nothing too drastic. I didn't think Wish needed a remaster sound wise (I still don't) but right now, at low volume, it is quite okay. We'll see tomorrow at high volume If I am still fine with it...

Looking at Miles Showell (the mastering engineer) webpage, I see that he also remastered Japanese Whispers is 2021... I don't really follow LP releases so I guess It was some sort of RSD special...

Oh, and, haven't listened to it in a long time, I somehow forgot what a mighty great album Wish is! The last great one...

 

Severin was coy initially, but later flat-out admitted on his FB page that they were new vocals.

 

This is up on YT now.

It isn't 'the Picture Show version with vocals' by any stretch. It starts off sounding like it, but the guitar coming in on the left is earlier and different, then the higher octave Bass VI part simply doesn't happen.

The keys, bass, drums and some of the Bass VI sound the same, so presumably the Picture Show version was an edit and mix of this demo.

I'm happy to hear this version (I do like the weird howling noises), but after 30+ years there is still no clean full length Picture Show instrumental version. Seriously?

Robert, talk about totally misreading a room...

 

I really do not understand the negativity around this release. It's in line with what they have done with all other "deluxe" editions. Lots of demos and some curiosities. This one is actually better than others with the cassette only songs finally available on CD (kind of Faith/Carnage Visors repeat).
We know the B sides are on Join The Dots, we know we won't get "audiophile mastering", we know there are always some omissions.
What did you expect?
Reading that CD2 is "a slog" is ridiculous. If he had made a 30 minute CD2, people would moan about the missed opportunity, now that it's crammed there are boring things. Hint: CD2 on these releases is not "an album" it's an archive.
Anyway, later I will listen to it but I am ok with the contents.

 

The answer follows your question, haha.

The content of some of the releases has been disappointing, given what is available versus what was used.

Take The Big Hand for instance. Robert simply must know fans have been crying out for years for a full PS instrumental version of it, yet he leaves if off. There was room for both versions of it, even if it meant losing something as inconsequential as another remix of FTEOTDGS, for which we had a remix of just a couple of years ago on Torn Down.

I agree with those who say the deluxe editions are like messy mix-tapes. It's all odds and sods stuff, like instead of one live track why not add a disc or two of a full show? Instead of one or two Wish era remixes, put them all on.

Other bands are happy to put out 5 or more CD reissues, and fans are happy to buy them, while Robert continually puts out fragments of what is in the archives, despite fans crying out for everything.

It's nice to have this stuff, but...I mean seriously, no instrumental of The Big Hand?