90's Jams #16: The Cure "Pictures Of You" (1990)

Much like the "Personal Jesus" entry, serious ass cheating was involved in order to get this into the 90's Jams: Disintegration was released in '89, with "Pictures Of You," the 4th and final single, released in March '90. One version of the single includes a 12-inch remix version which is 30 seconds longer, but the edits are not as good. One version includes the shortened 4:45 single edit, which removes most of the intro. So we are definitely referring to the 80's album version (sorry about that) but it WAS released as a single during the 90's, and so it's here on the 90's Jams.

The distinction is kinda huge though. Disintegration is one of those albums where its atmosphere is key to the whole record, with The Cure's trademark lengthly intros serving as an entrance to a world of darkness and layers upon layers of dense production. Its intro is the most important moment of "Pictures Of You," an elongated plunge into longing and regret in the midst of a shower of bleakness, appealing beyond the teenage emo types who once ate up this shit and started dying their hair and all that fun stuff... Robert Smith was approaching 30 when he wrote "Pictures Of You," and its subject matter within the context of its album sounds as though it's from a 30-year-old perspective, a grim reminder that wisdom doesn't necessarily alleviate sadness. But once again, it's the world created by its production that makes this record so special.. Expensive stereos with really good speakers become worth their pricetag for songs like this.

2010's Greatest Hits #20 to #11

| #100 - 91 | #90 - 81 | #80 - 71 | #70 - 61 | #60 - 51 |
| #50 - 41 | #40 - 31 | #30 - 21 | #20 - 11 | #10 - 1 |

We took a quick look through Pitchfork's top 100 "tracks" of the year. Yeah... "tracks." Real cool, guys. So it turns out that our "greatest hits" share a few songs with theirs.. which is not incredibly typical, and makes us seem all the more boring. In truth, the only boring songs are the 80 or so from the P4k's "tracks" that we don't share. So in case anyone was wondering, the P4k list is shit. And ours is THE shit. Truth.

20 No Age “Common Heat”
Lots of awesome bands do this thing where, somewhere in the first half of their third album, there's one song that somewhat stands out, representing some unexpected atypical formula deviation. In this respect, "Common Heat" shares sonic parallels with The Strokes' "Ask Me Anything" from 2006's First Impressions Of Earth, sharing a musically subdued nature to present the theme of late-20’s distress. The Strokes’ only lyric of its first chorus, “I’ve got nothing to say” is only interrupted towards the end with “I’m in utter dismay.” No Age agrees, repeating “I’m in trouble.” "Nouns Part 2" would have been welcomed by fans with open arms, but instead, Everything In Between receives its own separate weight, due in no small part to the shadow cast specifically by this song, acting quite possibly as the key (or glue... or gel...) to the entire record. Also, "There's no way I can get out of debt now.." A lyric like this could easily have been thrown in as some type of economic commentary, but it cuts deeper.. There's pain involved with money issues, contributing to the moments when you actually feel your soul begin to crush itself... "Everyone around me knows..." Yes, because we're all in this together.


19 Justin Bieber feat. Raekwon & Kanye West “Runaway Love (Remix)”
A brief Twitter thread sparked the creation of Kanye’s most unheralded triumph of 2010, combining elements of mash-ups and remixes in one huge summery badass package of fun. Somewhere between RZA’s drum sampling and Kanye’s new piano section (a somewhat ingenious improvement from the original “Runaway Love”) surfaces a return to the same sunshine heard in early 90’s pop hits like Tevin Campbell’s “Round And Round” or Shanice’s “I Love Your Smile.” The results are brilliant enough to wonder if there's any shot of Top 40 production returning to this anytime soon.


Also narrowly missing out on the top 100 was Bieber’s 2nd best song of 2010:


18 Lady Gaga “Alejandro”
The common critique regarding "Alejandro" confuses plagiarism with inspiration. Granted, it really does sound like the three big singles from Ace Of Base's The Sign combined with Madonna's (somewhat annoying) "La Isla Bonita." The big difference lies in "Ale-Alejandro's" intricately complex song structure, which is probably LGG's most underrated talent. After hitting such an enormous artistic and commercial homerun with last year's "Bad Romance," her momentum has only increased. Now waiting for the leak of Born This Way with eager anticipation...


17 BEAK> “Wulfstan”
This band was co-formed last year by one of the members of Portishead, and they're now prolly the best Krautrock band of the past 2 decades, if not longer. Their record came out last November, and while it still kicked ass throughout 2010, mindfuck moments such as the apocalyptic brick-wall-explosion bass-guitar attack on "Ham Green" unfortunately missed out due to being released in late-'09. A similar but more groove-oriented bass attack appears in their only new song of 2010, the A-side “Wulfstan,” along with generous amounts of balls-tripping chants. Here’s hoping BEAK> sticks around long enough to release more original stuff at some point soon. P.S. This is def not a popular opinion, but we’re kinda loving this way more than the last Portishead record.


16 Robyn “Hang With Me”
If "Be Mine" and "Dancing On My Own" were both about watching a love interest from afar, "Hang With Me" might be considered the prequel to these, in which she gets some action from her desired love interest (double score!), although it sounds like she has to lie in order to make it happen, telling him it's ok for them to be just friends, and "don't fall recklessly headlessly in love with me" even though that's exactly what she wants to happen. Also, the "single" version of "Hang With Me" is the one referred to here.. The one from Body Talk Part 2 with the lovely synths (as opposed to the sorta-ok "acoustic" version on Part 1). The newer version is somehow reminiscent of "I'll Fly With You" which is only really noteworthy since no one has heard or thought about that song in probably ten years.


15 El Guincho “Bombay”
Disassociating this song from its retardedly brilliantly outstandingly NSFW-defining promo video has become somewhat of a challenge. But here goes nothing: El Guincho figured out how to beat Panda Bear at his own game. The beachy-fun summer-pop vibe is there, and the "weed" aspects are there, but the reverb is turned down (as opposed to Panda Bear who is drenched in reverb) so it sounds initially less "weed" and more "beach," which is way cool. Also since many Americans are lazy and stupid and have little-to-no time or desire to learn whatever language he's speaking, it becomes enjoyable to imagine he's singing about the same amount of lovely summeriness that the music conveys. Or maybe he's singing about titties and guns, like in the video.. Yeah, see right there.. it's a challenge. Fuck it. I just spent 10 minutes Google-image searching for a picture of the girl from the video who holds the sparklers. I'm thinking about asking her to bear my children. If anyone can help out with this, please leave a comment with the info.


14 The-Dream “Yamaha”
Fun facts regarding The-Dream: He writes songs for Bieber. He hails from the Hotlanta. He worships Prince, to the extent that most of his best songs are Prince homages, such as “Yamaha,” yet another one of these epic future-classics with multiple choruses and refrains, as opposed to a strict verse/chorus structure, with each new section better than the one before it. Also, more sick drums... The-Dream's interests veer towards the artistic and monetary aspects of the music biz, and not so much superstardom (or else there would probably be a video for "Yamaha"), which is good for those of us who enjoy our R&B talent shining brilliantly under the radar. Oh, and also he stole my wife away from me. He's a right bastard, that Dream...


13 Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith “Not In Love”
“Not In Love” will probably not be signaling a new direction for The Cure in the same way that “Wrong Number” incorrectly suggested in the late 90’s, although it’s probably the best song Robert Smith has sung since then, if not earlier. As for Crystal Castles, congratulations on justifying your career past hipster cred. Also, what's up with all the outstanding covers in 2010? It was that kind of year... (as opposed to a shitstorm of godawful covers, which usually happens every year...)


12 Japandroids “Heavenward Grand Prix”
Once upon a time, The Pixies also started a song with "HEY!" The Pixies years were a very strong period for music, when it wasn't uncommon for outstanding rock bands to follow a near-perfect album with even more brilliant non-album tracks. Remember those crazy pre-internet days (lmao) when quality control meant something? Obviously, the ways music gets released has changed, and by today's standards, Japandroids aren't (yet) quite huge enough for their B-sides to be heard. So in the interest of maximum exposure, three apparent throwaways from the Post-Nothing sessions emerged as A-Sides in 2010, with "Heavenward" displaying their most breathtaking dynamic changes, and an intro build-up that almost forces the listeners to close their eyes. Perhaps "thrill of living" music is finally back, nicely demonstrated by this song along with "Crazy/Forever" and "Sovereignty." With due respect to The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins, these are the new makeout jams.


11 Caribou “Sun”
Most of our feelings for "Sun" echo our assessment of its video. It's good to know people still listen to stuff like this, or that musicians still actually make this kind of music. Although this song's most intriguing aspect has to be its lyrics, the word "sun" repeated at least 170 times. So profound. So much meaning. The music conveys nighttime far more than daytime or sunlight.. However, it def also sounds like "warp-speed through outer space" so the "sun" referred to in this song might not necessarily be our own. Although far less superficially complex, this is 2010’s "Windowlicker." The outros are similar too.


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| #50 - 41 | #40 - 31 | #30 - 21 | #20 - 11 | #10 - 1 |

90s Jams #53: The Cure "End" (1992)

Rock's all time heaviest album trilogies: Rubber Soul/Revolver/Pepper ... Bends/OKC/KidA ... Right up there with these is surely the immense sequence of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration and Wish. The true masterpiece of these trilogies is usually the 2nd release, as is the case with Disintegration. And although Wish remains one of the great unheralded 90's rock albums, the lightness of "Friday I'm In Love" (while a great single in itself) seemed to taint the rest of the album. Similarly, "High" and "A Letter To Elise" are both great, but "Lovesong" and "Pictures Of You" just hit the mark that much closer.

As is the case with "Friday I'm In Love," their happiest moments were pure joy. But delving into the album tracks on all 3 of these records reveals the true depths of tortured despair... Wish closes with "End," which just might be the darkest and most tortured song The Cure ever recorded, which would really be saying something.

80s Jams #02: The Cure "Just Like Heaven" (1987)

Robert Smith said he considers "Just Like Heaven" to be one of the band's strongest works, and called it "the best pop song the Cure have ever done". Several high-profile fans have expressed their appreciation of the song. Musician Ben Folds told Blender "everything about it—the songwriting, the music—is state of the art. It’s as good as it gets. Anytime I hear it on the radio or a mix tape, I jump around like a freak." J Mascis said his band Dinosaur Jr's affection for the song inspired them to record a cover version that was released in 1989. On 16 July 2006, "Just Like Heaven" was played as a wake-up call for the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery on their flight STS-121 at the request of astronaut Piers Sellers' family; Sellers told Mission Control Center that the song reminded him of "the wild, happy, drinking-beer years of my youth." -- Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Like_Heaven_%28song%29

80s Jams #16: The Cure "Disintegration" (1989)

Blasting along at a quick, roaring pace but completely drowning in sorrow and collapse while it does so, the title track to the Cure's masterful 1989 album in some ways encapsulates the album as a whole -- accessible but ultimately harrowing destruction. Beginning with the sampled sound of shattering glass that immediately blends into an energetic Boris Williams drum line and higher-pitched bass motif from Simon Gallup, "Disintegration" almost pitilessly portrays a relationship tearing itself to pieces in drama and soul-wrenching grief. Relentlessly building to a final, blasting climax, "Disintegration" remains a monstrous, compelling listening. -- Allmusic http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:apfixxyjld0e

80s Jams #23: The Cure "All Cats Are Grey" (1981)

Nearly any track from the Cure's astonishing Faith album could be singled out as particularly strong or striking even for them, but "All Cats Are Grey" has a better claim than most. A lengthy number, with drummer Lol Tolhurst's simple but effective work, softly echoing and bouncing from speaker to speaker as the song progresses, it's one of the band's best codifications of bleak mood as surprising, close warmth, musically and vocally. -- Allmusic http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:gpftxzl5ldhe