One of my favorite albums of all time is getting the deluxe treatment, so, in spite of my distaste for anything The Cure has done in, oh, about twenty years, I’m actually looking forward to this. The Cure’s 1989 masterpiece, Disintegration, will be released as a three-disc set, remastered and sequenced by Robert Smith himself. The first disc will reprise the original album but in remastered form. Disc two compiles all the outtakes and b-sides from that era, while the third disc features an extended version of the Entreat live album, which chronicled the band’s legendary stay at Wembley Arena in July of 1989. If I could pick a time to have seen The Cure at any point in its career, it would be from July of 1989. The live version of “Disintegration” at Wembley may be the band’s finest moment ever captured on tape. Truly unbelievable. Naively, at the time, I believed Robert Smith during all the promotional rounds for Disintegration when he swore that Disintegration would be the band’s final album. What a legacy it would have been had he kept his word. Instead, we got two decades of rehashed rubbish.
Disintegration: Deluxe Edition:
CD1 (remastered album):
01 Plainsong
02 Pictures of You
03 Closedown
04 Lovesong
05 Last Dance
06 Lullaby
07 Fascination Street
08 Prayers for Rain
09 The Same Deep Water as You
10 Disintegration
11 Homesick
12 Untitled
CD2 (rarities):
01 Prayers for Rain (RS Home Demo [Instrumental])
02 Pictures of You (RS Home Demo [Instrumental])
03 Fascination Street (RS Home Demo [Instrumental])
04 Homesick (Band Rehearsal [Instrumental])
05 Fear of Ghosts (Band Rehearsal [Instrumental])
06 Noheart (Band Rehearsal [Instrumental]) *
07 Esten (Band Demo [Instrumental]) *
08 Closedown (Band Demo [Instrumental])
09 Lovesong (Band Demo [Instrumental])
10 2 Late (Alternate Version) (Band Demo [Instrumental])
11 The Same Deep Water as You (Band Demo [Instrumental])
12 Disintegration (Band Demo [Instrumental])
13 Untitled (Alternate Version) (Studio Rough [Instrumental])
14 Babble (Alternate Version) (Studio Rough [Instrumental])
15 Plainsong (Studio Rough [Guide Vocal])
16 Last Dance (Studio Rough [Guide Vocal])
17 Lullaby (Studio Rough [Guide Vocal])
18 Out of Mind (Studio Rough [Guide Vocal])
19 Delirious Night (Rough Mix [Vocal]) *
20 Pirate Ships(RS Solo, Rough Mix [Vocal]) *
CD3 (Entreat Plus — Disintegration performed live at Wembley Arena in 1989):
01 Plainsong *
02 Pictures of You
03 Closedown
04 Lovesong *
05 Last Dance
06 Lullaby *
07 Fascination Street
08 Prayers for Rain
09 The Same Deep Water as You *
10 Disintegration
11 Homesick
12 Untitled
* Previously unreleased
4 responses so far ↓
1 K // Apr 2, 2010 at 2:32 pm
The Disintegration tour show I saw as a tween changed my life. I’m usually not a fan of these sort of collections, but in this case I am really looking forward to that rarities disc. Thanks for the tip.
2 Eric Greenwood // Apr 2, 2010 at 6:30 pm
i begged my parents to let me go to atlanta on a school night to see the prayer tour in september of 1989. they did not cave. so, as consolation, they got me tickets to a wish-era show for my high school graduation. not quite the same.
3 Mult Lingue // Apr 13, 2010 at 11:33 am
I am looking forward to hearing the previously unreleased live material from the concert which became Entreat. However, I am disappointed that this 3 disc set is not actually a complete treatment of Disintegration. Notably missing are the original versions of B-sides such as Out of Mind, Babble, 2 Late, and Fear of Ghosts. The demos and outtakes are of interest, but why not include the original versions too?
4 Jesse Yani // Apr 15, 2010 at 11:02 am
Disintegration is one of my favs but how could you say 20 yrs of “rehashed rubbish” proceeded. I could listen to the Wish album from start to finish. So the other albums are not up to par but you can still find the true essence of the cure on some of the songs. Here are a few
Underneath the Stars from 4:13 Dream
The Promise from The Cure album
Lost from The Cure album
The Last day of Summer from Bloodflowers
Want from Wild Mood Swings
Strange Attraction from Wild Mood Swings
Bare from Wild Mood Swings