Seventeen Seconds

by

The Cure

Edit

I first heard the eerie notes of Seveneteen Seconds back in the winter of 1983...it was then I became hooked on The Cure. This album is so tight, so fresh, so well done, any music collection would be incomplete without it. The next two albums after this one- "Faith" and "Pornography"- are excellent albums (I have a review of "Pornography") but this one...this one just has that magical and mysterious sound that glows on a dark night. Perfect listening setting? A cold, late December night, a light snow falling, a slight breeze bringing the naked tree limbs to life. Just slap on the headphones and start walking. Before you know it, you're floating. One thing I have always loved about this CD is that it comes off so smooth...the music is so smooth and crisp it just slides through your ears.

Top tracks on "Seventeen Seconds"? The classic "A Forest", "In Your House", "The Final Sound", and of course "Play For Today". Every track is great, but if I had to pick'em, there they are.

There are some eerie sounds....dark lyrics...but there are also hints of the quirk-Cure too....it's just not as obvious....there are layers and layers for your musical being to explore. It's a treat for any music lover. "Seventeen Seconds" is one of the most intense and visually stimulating records ever made.

If you're new to the Cure, you problably know them as a "gloomy" goth band. Well, if you pick up their first CD(Three Imaginary Boys), you would never have known. Their second album, Seventeen Seconds, took the band to a very dark place. Of coure, they got MUCH darker on the next two albums.

This is known as the first part of "The Dark Trilogy", which is followed by Faith and Pornography. The early Cure records that kind of stand by themselves. They aren't as produced as later offerings, with a more low-key sound than usual(the exception being Pornography).

The album IS very low key, and original CD pressings(and perhaps record pressings too) really ruined the sound of this album. The voice was too low, the drums were much louder than the rest of the instruments...it was a mess. It took me many years to really appreciate this CD, thanks to the god-awful sound reproduction on the old CDs. Well, they fixed it, thank god. The instruments have been raised up closer to the drums. The voice sounds louder in certain songs(At Night), and everything just sounds more "full", unlike the old pressing. It really has made all the difference in the world.

The CD is pretty solid, with only a couple of weaker tracks. "A Forest" is amazing as usual, as is "At Night". Songs like "Secrets" and "Play For Today" are great as well. "In Your House" sounds far less repetetive now that you can hear the damn keyboards!

A very low key and gloomy album, but not so much as Faith. I really like this one a lot, because it is gloomy, but not so sluggish as Faith, and has more hooks. A really big step in the right direction for The Cure.

If you're new to The Cure, and have been thinking about picking this up, get this one over the Deluxe Edition. Far cheaper, and the deluxe edition only has a couple of songs that a really worth owning. If you have the old CD pressing, and have always been frustrated with the sound, pick this up. Of coure, the voice on "Secrets" is still really low, but that's the way i'm guessing it was intended("keep quiet")

Sam M.