This is my favorite Cure song, and the version I’m recommending is one of the best-sounding electric-music recordings ever. I like the music even though I never really understood the whole emo/goth thing; that’s OK, I can like Dub without getting Rastafarianism, and Bach while puzzled by Lutheranism.
The only Cure music I own is a 1990 set of remixes called Mixed Up which I have listened to many many times; the songs are all good the production job is fantastic. I blogged about it back in 2007, dive in if you want more details.
Here’s what I wrote about Fascination Street back then: Oh my goodness, the opening is heroic and symphonic and danceable all at once; spires of sound topple into shifting textures of tone and resolve into mainstream guitar-and-drums rock flourishes. Amazing. Then the vocals, well yeah, they’re whiny all right (and i'm begging to drag you down with me to kick the last nail in), but he’s not holding anything back, and he’s in the groove and on the beat; there’s genuine rock-&-roll desperation in the lyrics and it ends up soulful. Then the big instrumental freight train comes back, with the drums and guitars and synth bouncing off each other, fast and loud and still with lots of room between the notes. Oh, those drums-and-voice interludes.
This is the 114th in the Song of the Day series (background).
Links · Spotify playlist. This tune on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify. There’s loads of live video; here’s a good one from 2002 and with better bass from 1996. But you really want to listen to the Mixed Up version.
