That playlist is great.

I think the average Cure fan would only include songs from Kiss Me, Disintegration, and Staring at the Sea (their collection of singles). A long time fan (like myself) would feel obligated to include a few deep cuts, just to let everybody know they were a long time fan. A long time fan who was completely honest and secure in their list and not afraid of being accused of not being a long time fan wouldn't include those. But I did because I'm a coward.

Understood. I usually try to think about what songs could possibly be "about" and until you gave your take on what it could be, I never really thought about it before.

In my new efforts to bring value to this BBS and to support a man who has done more to make this BBS a fertile place for social discourse than any other, I have created a Youtube playlist called Flack's Top Ten The Cure Songs. While I initially thought I'd go "weird" with it and start peppering it with pop punk in an attempt to trick you all into listening, I decided instead to play it straight, just like how Robert Smith would have wanted?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnL4WylPCAhS68e52FJ3TgXGskwEcAcbs

There are at least three songs on your list I have never heard before. I was thinking, hey, I like enough The Cure songs where I could rank them. But you know the deep tracks, my friend.

I do like Fascination Street. I believe it's about Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. It's... just a little too on the nose for The Cure for me. I guess my top 10 Cure songs all make me feel something. I enjoy Fascination Street, I just don't connect with it. But it's a great song, fantastic song.

Flack. Flack! I need your take on Fascination Street. Please.

I know I was mean to Billy in the other thread but he started it and was asking for it. We don't do that here. Is Fascination Street your THANG at all?

Haha cool. Yeah I know when I make my list I'll probably forget something as well.

Dangit! Lullabye is a fantastic song. I could insert it at 4.5.

My friend. I mean this with nothing but sincerity and love. And a deep desire for content on this BBS. I would have thought that Lullabye would have been #2 and Fascination Street #1. I think this needs to be addressed. Fascination Street is one of the greatest songs that ever existed. Although looking back, I forgot about it. But it should have been in the top 20 of my list. I am editing the spreadsheet now.

I will now listen to the songs I have not heard of before. Perhaps they will change the opinion I have above?

10. A Strange Day (Pornography)

Pornography's a dark album that's tough to get into. According to the band, they lived in the studio for three weeks while recording it, piled garbage around themselves, and took copious amounts of LSD, rinsed down with alcohol. Robert Smith once said his two options were to kill himself, or record this album. I'm 99% sure this song is about tripping ("Going away on a strange day"). Musically it's not terribly complicated; it's more of a window as to what was to come later.

09. Secrets (Seventeen Seconds)

Seventeen Seconds was the band's second album and I think "A Forest" is probably the song that really captured the sound they would ultimately adopt, but Secrets is this weird little song with clean production that kind of stands out. I like the layered vocal delivery and the thick reverb that contrasts with the bright, crystal clear guitar. Robert Smith is the king of writing shiny songs and slipping in lyrics like "Remember me the way I used to be."

08. Close To Me (The Head on the Door)

The video to this song features the band stuck inside a box playing tiny toy instruments, some puppets, and eventually, an octopus.

07. Like Cockatoos (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me)

I love how this song takes a full minute and a half to get to the lyrics. If you listen to the way it builds in the beginning (and deconstructs in the end) it's really a lesson in song writing. Also, this:

[i]"She walked out of her house and looked around at all the gardens that looked back at her house, like all the faces that quiz when you smile. And he was standing at the corner where the road turned dark a part of shiny wet like blood the rain fell black down on the street. And kissed his feet she fell, her head an inch away from heaven and her face pressed tight and all around the night sang out like cockatoos."[/i]

06. Why Can't I Be You (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me)

I really didn't want this to be on my list but how can you deny it? Just skimming through folders, I clicked on this track and was found myself toe-tapping like the first time I heard it. What I love about this track to this day is that there's no jealousy in the lyrics; it's literally three minutes of unabashed adulation. With horns.

05. Lovecats (Staring at the Sea)

One of the most ridiculous videos ever (which constantly gets pulled from YouTube for some reason). It's got a great bass line, jazz piano, and a chorus that's impossible not to sing along with.

04. Lovesong (Disintegration)

I was a junior in high school, laying in bed when I heard this song for the first time. I was so excited that The Cure had released a new album that I called my friend who had introduced me to Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. "If they're playing it on the radio, it's over," he said. Whether they're singing about depression or love, The Cure's pretty raw. This song says everything that I wanted to say and couldn't.

03. Boys Don't Cry (Staring at the Sea)

Another classic sing-along. "I would say I'm sorry if I thought that it would change your mind." So relatable.

02. Just Like Heaven (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me)

I've tried to forget her smile, but can't. I remember what I was wearing the night she called, invited me over to her place. I thought we were going to watch a movie. We did more than that. As I laid on my back in the darkness, I told her I loved her. On the way home I cried because I never wanted to leave. The next day, I bought her some flowers and called her apartment to see if I could come by. Her boyfriend answered the phone.

Just Like Heaven is a song about a guy who falls asleep next to his love and wakes up in the morning to find she's gone. I listened to it on repeat once for about three days straight.

01. How Beautiful You Are (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me)

This is the most depressing song of all time. It makes me cry just thinking about it. If it comes on and other people are in the car, I skip it.

[i]And this is why I hate you
And how I understand
That no one ever knows or loves another
Or loves another[/i]