Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Cure: Entreat Plus (Rhino/Elektra/2012).


 Entreat is a live album that was recorded at London's Wembley Arena in July of 1989 in support of the bands' monumental and very successful Disintegration album. In fact Entreat is essentially the Disintegration album, in sequence, live.

Songs on Entreat Plus had previously had been released in dribs and drabs, namely on the Lullaby and Pictures Of You singles. And then in 1990 eight songs had been culled and released in the UK-only as mini-album Entreat. However all 12 songs from Disintegration had been performed at these Wembley shows and were amongst the most in-demand to be released from the band, for some time.

In 2009 the tracks were finally mixed by Robert Smith for the triple-CD reissue of Disintegration and for a subsequent vinyl-only release. After a few delays, it was finally released as a very-nice 180-Gram double-vinyl set on Elektra/Rhino for Record Store Day 2012.


If you are a fan of The Cure, this release is highly recommended. It's a beautifully-recorded
set, tastefully-performed and somehow manages to retain the integrity of the studio recordings - which is no easy feat. "Fascination Street", "Love Song", "Lullaby" and "Pictures Of You" are all given fine readings here.
Even Robert Smith's vocals - which can sometimes be stubbornly and willfully erratic (like a child
manipulating a temper-tantrum) are right on the mark. Alcohol was a main-factor in his live vocal performances in the mid 1980's. Here he sounds sober enough to execute everything perfectly. As are the members of The Cure, who were now without one-time-drummer-turned-keyboard-player Laurence Tolhurst.

This was basically The Cure at their peak, creatively. And they were seemingly at the peak of their powers live and Robert Smith as a songwriter seemed to be able to do no wrong.

Highly Recommended for the Cure fan.

Here's The Video Review:



Special Thanks to: Denver Gillette and Zorro Zero.

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