CD Review: The Cure — Bestival

The Cure
Bestival
Sunday Best Recordings

By Ellen Eldridge

The immediate warmth of the bittersweet opening paragraph to “Plainsong” opens the two-CD set with, “‘I think it’s dark and it looks like rain,’ you said/’And the wind is blowing like it’s the end of the world,’ you said/’And it’s so cold it’s like the cold if you were dead,’ and then you smiled for a second,” and returns Cure fans to Disintergration. Fans need to scroll ¾ of the way down the discography page to get to this 1989 release, but many agree this defining album stands as one of the best. Bestival collects the live experience of the Cure show at the Bestival held at Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight, England. This annual event has steadily grown since 2004, and The Cure brings it to the United States.

Think of your favorite 32 Cure songs, and the dizzying amazement of hearing them live over two and a half hours! This is the sort of live set that impresses faithful fans of a band over three decades old. With songs like “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” and “A Forest” from the late ’70s and early ’80s mixed with a very heavy dose of Disintergration, Bestival feels more like a love letter to those faithful fans. Looking over the track list while listening (something only the fans owning Bestival can do that the fans live couldn’t do without an ability to see the future), I’m hard-pressed to find a song released after 1993’s Paris. In fact, Bestival feels like an extended Paris adding similarly toned songs to the setlist:

CD 1
01. Plainsong
02. Open
03. Fascination Street
04. A Night Like This
05. The End of the World
06. Lovesong
07. Just Like Heaven
08. The Only One
09. The Walk
10. Push
11. Friday I’m In Love
12. Inbetween Days
13. Play For Today
14. A Forest
15. Primary
16. Shake Dog Shake

CD 2
01. The Hungry Ghost
02. 100 Years
03. End
04. Disintegration
05. Lullaby
06. The Lovecats
07. The Caterpillar
08. Close to Me
09. Hot Hot Hot!!!
10. Let’s Go to Bed
11. Why Can’t I Be You?
12. Boys Don’t Cry
13. Jumping Someone Else’s Train
14. Grinding Halt
15. 10:15 Saturday Night
16. Killing An Arab

Listening to Bestival on a rainy winter day can definitely darken moods, but wallowing in those depressing feelings can give a catharsis to long-time fans. If you loved The Cure during those dark times in life, love them now through bringing Bestival home. All profits from the sale of this album will go to the Isle Of Wight Youth Trust, showing us that The Cure did not put another live album out for money; they did it because after all these years they still hold that sentimental passion for feeling – however far away.

The Cure made “Boys Don’t Cry” available for pre-listening on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/sundaybest/boys-dont-cry-the-cure/s-f2NJe