Track Listing
1. Reflection
2. Play For Today
3. Secrets
4. In Your House
5. Three
6. Final Sound
7. Forest
8. M
9. At Night
10. Seventeen Seconds
1. I'm A Cult Hero - Cult Hero
2. I Dig You - Cult Hero
3. Another Journey By Train (group home instrumental demo 1980)
4. Secrets (group home instrumental demo 1980)
5. Seventeen Seconds (live in Amsterdam 1980)
6. In Your House (live in Amsterdam 1980)
7. Three (alternative studio mix 1980)
8. I Dig You (live at The Marquee 1980) - Cult Hero
9. I'm A Cult Hero (live at The Marquee 1980) - Cult Hero
10. M (live in Arnhem 1980)
11. Final Sound (live in France 1980)
12. Reflection (live in France 1980)
13. Plan For Today (live in France 1980)
14. At Night (live in France 1980)
15. Forest (live in France 1980)
| Details | | Number of CDs: | 2 | | Recording Type: | Mixed | | Distributor: | Universal Music | | Recording Mode: | Stereo |
Album Notes
U.K. remastered version packaged in plastic O-card with booklet and exclusive notes and photography.Within the space of two short years the Cure mysteriously transformed themselves from a more accessible Wire/Buzzcocks hybrid into the grandiose-haired gloom merchants they resembled for decades. While the international success of singles like "Boys Don't Cry" might have pointed to a continuation of the same formula, Smith decided to take the band into choppier waters. SEVENTEEN SECONDS marked the start of the Cure Phase II. Somewhat reminiscent of bands like Siouxsie & the Banshees (a group Smith played with for a few albums), SEVENTEEN SECONDS is not an album for the faint at heart.The addition of perennial favorite Simon Gallup on bass and the short-lived but effective Mathleu Hartley on keyboards expanded the Cure's previously sparse sound, adding layers of texture that complemented Smith's longer, less accessible songs. While "Play for Today" hearkens back to the bands poppier days, "Seventeen Seconds" and "Secrets" show that the band was not about to turn back from its new approach. "A Reflection" is eerily beautiful, but the album's true highlight is the perky-but-sad "A Forest." Perhaps one of the least-known but most influential records of the early 1980s, and a sign of things to come down the road.
Editorial Reviews
3.5 stars out of 5 - [With] clipped guitars, staccato bass, drums that crackle with tension and icy background keyboards that hum like defective air conditioning.Spin (p.109) - [The album] finds Robert Smith starting to get his 'Phantom of the Opera' on...Q (6/00, p.65) - Ranked #65 in Q's 100 Greatest British Albums - ...A clean, contemplative, at times desolate guitar record that...tapped into a peculiarly suburban paranoia....their career as Goth ambassadors was launched.Uncut (p.124) - 4 stars out of 5 - Poised and atmospheric, there's a Nick Drake-like organic clarity to SEVENTEEN SECONDS...
Rolling Stone
| |
|
All rights reserved.
