Perfect As Cats

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered the album Perfect As Cats, a 2-CD tribute to The Cure put together by indie label Manimal Vinyl. I’m by no means a Cure connoisseur, I only know the more well-known singles and two albums recommended by a friend: Seventeen Seconds, released in 1980 and Disintegration from 1989. I also bought their latest album, 4:13 dream. I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but after a few listening times, it started to grow on me and now it feels like I’ve known the album all my life. To my inexperienced Cure-ears, 4:13 dream sounds more poppy and upbeat than the two albums I’m familiar with, especially the catchy single ‘The Only One’. But I do like the album. The opening song, ‘Underneath the Stars’ is brilliant, building suspense for two minutes and fifteen seconds until you finally hear Robert Smith’s voice, singing Floating here / Like this with you / Underneath the stars / Aligned for 13 billion years / The view, it’s beautiful / And ours alone tonight / Underneath the stars. Ok, it sounds a bit cheesy when you read it like this, but the song’s really nice.

Anyway, back to the tribute. It’s great, you should get it! Personal favourites are Bat for Lashes’ A Forest, Gangi’s Fire in Cairo, Voyager One’s M, Corridor’s The Kiss, Mariee Sioux’s Love Song, Jesu’s Funeral Song, and – what really blew me away – Lewis and Clarke’s version of Disintegration.

Click here for the complete playlist and a downloadable mp3 of Bat For Lashes’ version of A Forest. Don’t worry, it’s legal.