The Cure, "Seventeen Seconds," Rare 1988 US Reissue, Ultrasonic Clean, NM
$
71
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Description
Dr. John's Spin Factory is proud to offer a like-new and excellent sounding copy of The Cure's 1980 album, Seventeen Seconds. The album up for sale is the 1988 US reissue on Electra/Asylum records known for excellent pressings and great sound. And because of the ascendence of the CD in the late 80's (you know, "perfect sound forever," LOLOL), there weren't many vinyl copies pressed. The current copy, which I purchased new in the late 1980s has probably been played all of two or three times in all the years between then and now. As for its contents, this record represents a unique entry among The Cure's releases. Here to explain why is Pitchfork Magazine's staff writer Nitsuh Abebe. (Note: The following comes from a 2005 review of a Rhino 2-disc set that contains Seventeen Seconds and two other albums, Faith and Pornography. It's a bit long. And, if you're a Cure fan, well worth your time.):
Between 1980 and 1982, the Cure switched lineups, switched producers, made friends with the pop charts, and steadily toured Europe. They also got drunk, got weird, got in fistfights with one another, took loads of drugs, walked off tour, and generally danced through some surreal Kabuki version of the Libertines' recent press. We're looking for a word and the word is "tumult."
Which makes it kind of striking that they also, during those same years, released three remarkable records that represent the first phase of their many-phased career. These albums are the latest in Rhino's series of two-disc deluxe-package reissues: Stylish smoke-and-mirrors new-wave on "Seventeen Seconds," dark pop drama on "Faith," and all-out emotional assault on "Pornography."
What’s so remarkable about them? Start with "Seventeen Seconds," which is a perfect example of the kind of record that's been subdivided out of existence-- a lying-in-bed-dreaming record, a guitar record that make no distinction between pop pulse, rock catharsis, and the atmospheric space we now mostly get from computers. With this album, it's all three at once-- all the austere, spooky grace of Robert Smith's Asian-art fixations gathering up to inhabit a clean, minimalist new-wave package. Album-accounting types might get antsy over how many of these tracks are about building mood, slinking along as the exact opposite of today's amaze-me-now aesthetics. But even the shiftiest of iPod types, buried beneath the covers some morning, will remember that an album like this doesn't work any other way. The sound is like a bare room with four guys in black occupying just enough space to let you wander on your own, and when they stop slinking around and let the pop move-- see "Play for Today"-- they do it with incredible elegance, winking and posing from behind the smoke machine.
I would add the following: If you're looking for a type of modern music that is fundamentally different from what you'll likely hear on 99.9% of the radio stations in this country and has the potential to truly transport you and your ears, look no further.
Good luck... May every day bring you as much wonderful and satisfying music as you have the time to listen!
Dr. John
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