Shallow Rewards

On the Cure’s definitive 1987 double album, the death rattle of punk guilt, and the coronation of Robert Smith as a pop culture icon.

On the shaky start to the Cure’s Imperial era, their ascension to alternative rock royalty, and the concessions required to right Robert Smith’s foundering career in the mid 1980s.

Bringing the Shallow Rewards Cure podcasts up to date, this episode covers the last twenty years of the band: the 2004 self-titled LP, 4:13 Dream and my first impressions of the material likely to feature on the forthcoming Songs of a Lost World.

On the unexpectedly estimable Bloodflowers, Robert Smith’s legacy-saving last gasp as a songwriter; its tragically dated brick wall + Pro Tools production; and Smith’s egotistical severing of ties with everyone who’d helped fashion the Cure in its glory days.

On the tragic collapse of the Cure following the career-topping Wish, the various distractions that beset Wild Mood Swings, and how the persistent obstinance Robert Smith had relied on for so long finally failed him.Here’s the Vox article I reference in the last third of the show.

On the Cure’s surfeit of activity between Disintegration and Wish; the 1992 smash album’s highs and lows; and how for many fans, Wish remains a disappointment when set against the material that preceded it. Further to the podcast, please enjoy an essay I wrote on the subject, and an attendant remix of Wish, from 2011.

Over a few drinks, and Stephen Kijak’s calamitous Shoplifters of the World, Elliot Busch-Wheaton returns after a five-year hiatus to discuss the legacy of the Smiths and Morrissey in America.

On Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ brief, turbulent marriage; the side projects that outshone their combined efforts; and how from fall 1982 to fall 1984, Robert Smith lost the plot in order to find it again. Pursuant to this era are a few essays I contributed to a tumblr called One Week One Band eight years ago: MINUTIAE & MADNESS: THE CURE IN 1982LIKE AN ANIMAL: ROBERT SMITH IN WONDERLANDTHE LOOKING GLASS GIRL A Spotify playlist is available here.

On the rabid, raging fin de siècle of the Cure’s vaunted goth trilogy, Pornography; whether it is the singular statement the band and critics have increasingly claimed; and the murkier reality of Robert Smith’s many extracurricular entanglements in 1982. A Spotify playlist available here.

On the great grey Anglican monolith that is Faith, the Cure’s “difficult third album”; the inescapable shadow of Joy Division’s Closer; being branded “the new PF”; and whether any twenty-one year-old should be held to account for the quality of their poetry. A Spotify playlist is available here.

On the Cure’s second album, the impossibly crisp Seventeen Seconds; its debatable debts to Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire and Gary Numan; and the arrival of Robert Smith as a modern songwriter, but not yet a persona. An accompanying Spotify playlist is available here.

On the improbable endurance of XTC, a band signed during the punk frenzy that would bring song-craft back to the fore in the early 1980s. Following a fractious period of financial instability and pressure from Virgin records, the band went on strike in the early 1990s, unable to wrest themselves from one of the worst contracts ever signed.

On the improbable endurance of XTC, a band signed during the punk frenzy that would bring song-craft back to the fore in the early 1980s. Following a fractious period of financial instability and pressure from Virgin records, the band went on strike in the early 1990s, unable to wrest themselves from one of the worst contracts ever signed. While there are conflicting accounts of the Elvis Costello/Stephen Stills incident, I mistakenly state it occurred during EC’s “first time in America,” when it was his third tour if I recall correctly. This is both factually wrong and in part seeds undeserving sympathy for Elvis. His age and drug abuse stand, but my invocation and retelling of this moment should be weighed against the facts.

On Chan Marshall’s stereotyping by the press, her aborted concept album about Kurt Cobain, and the uncomfortable reality of genetic exceptionalism.

On Def Leppard’s unparalleled ascent, and the curious album they recorded after being displaced by grunge in the mid-1990s, Slang. Their 1992 LP Adrenalize was the last successful stadium rock release, and kept The Cure’s Wish from reaching #1.

On the Cure’s uneven 1979 debut, its debts to pub, punk and prog rock, and the importance of older siblings. An accompanying Spotify playlist is available below; please listen on random as this is a broad primer, rather than mix-tape storytelling. Apologies for the uneven sound during the first two sessions that make up the podcast; I had to pick up new gear, and three years on from my last wave of material, I was pretty rusty in all phases.

Adult Swim Creative Director Jason DeMarco returns to discuss the state of anime, and the future of Toonami with me and Jake Cleland. // @Clarknova1 @sawngswjakec

Christmas single No. 2: audio commentary for the Cure’s in Orange film from 1986 (currently on YouTube). Essentially, this is a two-hour ramble on the band’s legacy. Merry Christmas, everybody!

I talk with Jason DeMarco—VP and Creative Director of Adult Swim—about his Williams Street imprint, old anime, and Run the Jewels. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shallowrewards.substack.com

A wandering and wondrous walk through glam, indie, music journalism with my generation's most prolific author, Simon Reynolds.