After a tepid nineties, Robert Smith and his band reclaim much of the sound that had made them famous on an album that is pure luxury, despair, and voluptuousness.
Facing the poor reception of Wild Mood Swings, what better reply than to come back with a manifesto declaring what The Cure is capable of? It was either that or retirement, and Robert Smith, as hesitant as he could be, decided it was still too early to leave the stage—even if the contract with Fiction was about to run out. It was time to resurrect what had made the group great, to reconnect with the raw and painful sound of their early days. And Bloodflowers handles that with the panache of those who already know they have won the battle.
The opening track, titled Out of This World, testifies to the inner turmoil of a man who, now in his forties, keeps seeking, day after day, a meaning to his life. It is beautiful, dark, and crackling with electric sparks. With its eleven minutes and fourteen seconds, Watching Me Fall leaves no room for doubt: The Cure is indispensable, in all its melancholy and mood swings. And with those extra guitars. Weren’t they accused of not using enough guitars on Wild Mood Swings? Here you have them—plenty of them! Despite these subtle jabs, everything here is pure luxury, despair, and voluptuousness.
Delightful Return to Existential and Emotional Rock
If one appreciates the pared-down, taut feel of There Is No If…, one then dives back with pleasure into the existential and emotional rock of 39, The Last Day of Summer, The Loudest Sound or Where the Birds Always Sing. All of them testify to that guitar tone that made The Cure a myth whose influence many rock bands born at the very start of the 2000s would claim—from Bloc Party to Interpol.
Played live in 2002 with Pornography and Disintegration (and released on DVD as Trilogy), Bloodflowers was designated by Robert Smith as the record that completes his own conception of the trilogy—which remains, however, for any true Cure fan, the trilogy formed by Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography.
