Bloodflowers
by The Cure

From HoldenM TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/09/2023 18:07 | #299056

In some ways, I prefer this to Wild Mood Swings, an album that, for all of its curious choices, I am mostly won over by. Bloodflowers doesn't really have any strong highlights like every other Cure album up to this point has--in fact, "Where the Birds Always Sing" might be my least favorite track on any of their studio albums. Where it shines is as a unified experience. Bloodflowers is a cohesive collection of songs that almost feels like what should have come after Disintegration. It's a moody and sleek, having soaked up plenty of '90s aesthetics. Yet, for the first time, the songwriting doesn't rise to the standard of The Cure's output at this point. Even when the band is content to let tracks linger at the same ebb for several minutes, the foundation is so strong that it doesn't matter if it's otherwise stagnant. Here, The Cure is a little strained for ideas. That said, Bloodflowers is not a disaster by any means, and it's still better than what most artists going as long as The Cure are capable of producing at this point in their careers.

My own experience is that this was the first The Cure album I listened to - lent to me by a friend in 2005. I had it on repeat in my car for several weeks - and it grew on me in ways that I cannot explain. I went on the various song journeys with Robert and felt a deep personal connection...so much so, that every road trip I and my friend now go on ~ and that is quite often, ~ Bloodflowers always travels with us. I have Bloodflowers in my top 10 albums of all time. With musical preferences, quite often it is all in the 'timing' and how the music connects us to significant others & events in our lives.

It was a tough listening to get through the whole of this Cure album with no break. Firstly, the album has a playing time of well over 60 minutes and secondly, many of the songs are pretty similar and hard to distinguish from each other. Most songs are also quite long and as there are only rare surprising chord changes and musical surprises along the way it has to become a very tiring experience.
There are absolutely no tracks that have the lightness and ease of many of the Cure's early songs and don’t expect a new "Friday I'm in Love". Most of it sounds like depressed lament, often accompanied by noisy guitar.

Best are the tracks where the acoustic guitar is allowed to give some air to the otherwise heavy sound. The pretty good opening track "Out of This World" is one of those and "There is no if" is another. These two are the only tracks I might consider including on a Cure playlist. A disappointing and depressing album.

https://www.angelfire.com/nv/Badfinger/BANDcure.html

From Brandon8 TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/25/2022 04:23 | #292192

After several listens this one is not taking. Unfortunately the production is not the best and the songs don’t offer many surprises. I’ve heard this performed live and it was better but none of these songs are a challenge to the band’s past work.

Underrated Cure album. My favourites are Maybe Someday and Where the Birds Always Sing. Also like 39. (Edited)