Faith (The Cure album)
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Faith is the third studio album by English alternative rock band The Cure, released on 14 April 1981 by record labels Fiction and Polydor. Preceded by the single "Primary", the album was a moderate success commercially but was received ambivalently by critics. Faith saw The Cure continuing in the gloomy, gothic rock vein of 1980's Seventeen Seconds.
Background and "Carnage Visors"
Following the tour for Seventeen Seconds, The Cure returned to Morgan Studios on 27 September 1980 to record a new album.[2] During this session, recordings of songs "All Cats Are Grey" and "Primary" were attempted, but neither ended up on the album. Robert Smith was hoping the tracks would sound "funereal", but instead he said "they just sounded dull".[2] Several other studios were tried: Red Bus, Trident, The Roundhouse and Abbey Road.[2]
Much of Faith was written in the studio.[2] At least two songs on the album, "All Cats Are Grey" and "The Drowning Man", are inspired by the Gormenghast novels of Mervyn Peake.[2] Faith is the first album by The Cure to feature six-string bass guitar; the song "All Cats Are Grey" features Smith on keyboards and piano, with no guitar at all. The front cover, designed by former and future member Porl Thompson, is a picture of Bolton Priory in the village of Bolton Abbey in the fog.[2]
The instrumental piece "Carnage Visors" (an antonym for rose-coloured spectacles; originally available only on the long-play cassette release) is the soundtrack of Carnage Visors, a short film by Ric Gallup, Simon's brother, that was screened at the beginning of shows in place of a support band on the 1981 Picture Tour, and featured animation of several dolls in different positions and stances.[2] The film has since disappeared, and only Lol Tolhurst, Robert Smith and Simon Gallup own copies of it, though during a televised interview in the mid-1980s the host of the program surprised the band by playing a clip of the film on set.[3]
Release
Faith was released on 11 April 1981.[2] It reached number 14 in the UK charts.[2]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| Melody Maker | favourable[4] |
| NME | negative[5] |
| Pitchfork | 8.8/10[6] |
| Record Mirror | negative[2] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [7] |
| Sounds | [8] |
| Stylus Magazine | A−[9] |
Faith received an ambivalent response from critics on its release. Sounds gave the album a rating of four and a half stars out of five. Reviewer John Gill felt that the two fast tracks "Primary" and "Doubt" were reminiscent of their previous work, with a "sense of strong, haunting melody". However, he noted that the rest of the album was different, describing it as "a modern-day Dusseldorf" with a "Neu!-ish sense of smudged melody, soft tones flowing around a languorous, groaning bass", also evoking the Sixties of the [Pink] Floyd and the Doors. Gill finally said: "Faith requires a personal act of involvement, the reward being a sense of belonging."[8] Melody Maker found the record "impressive", hailing its "richness and deceptive power". Writer Adam Sweeting hailed Faith as "a sophisticated exercise in atmosphere and production". He concluded "It's gloomy, but frequently majestic, never using brute force where auto-suggestion will do. You may not love it, but you'll become addicted to it."[4]
NME reviewed the album with a picture of the band and a caption saying: "Gloomy? Gothic? Us?". Writer Ray Lowry lambasted Faith and wrote that "it says absolutely nothing meaningful". In the end, Lowry found that "this is just the modern face of Pink Floydism."[5] Record Mirror panned the album, writing "The Cure remain stuck in the hackneyed doom-mongering that should have died with Joy Division", ultimately calling it "hollow, shallow, pretentious, meaningless, self-important and bereft of any real heart or soul".[2]
In their retrospective review, AllMusic called Faith "a depressing record, certainly, but also one of the most underrated and beautiful albums The Cure put together."[1]
Legacy
"Primary" was covered by The Dandy Warhols for the 2008 Cure tribute album Perfect as Cats: A Tribute to The Cure. The drone metal band Nadja covered "Faith" on their 2009 cover album When I See the Sun Always Shines on T.V.
Live performances
In 2011, The Cure performed the album in its entirety over two dates for the Vivid Live festival at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia. The performances, billed as The Cure: 'Reflections', were recorded for potential DVD release.
Reissue
Faith was reissued in the UK on 25 April 2005 (26th in the US) as part of Universal Music's Deluxe Edition series. The new edition features a remastered version of the album and the Carnage Visors soundtrack on disc one, while disc two contains demo and live tracks as well as the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes". It features a few never-before-released tracks (in demo form; all instrumentals), while each song on the first disc except "Carnage Visors" has an alternate version on the second disc, whether it be a demo or live rendition.
A one-disc edition of the reissue was released on 5 September in the UK and 4 April 2006 in the US. The CD, released in the standard jewel case rather than a digipak, features the original album, but does not contain the bonus disc. It also excludes the song "Carnage Visors".
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Robert Smith; all music is composed by The Cure (Smith, Simon Gallup and Lol Tolhurst)
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Holy Hour" | 4:25 |
| 2. | "Primary" | 3:35 |
| 3. | "Other Voices" | 4:28 |
| 4. | "All Cats Are Grey" | 5:28 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Funeral Party" | 4:14 |
| 2. | "Doubt" | 3:11 |
| 3. | "The Drowning Man" | 4:50 |
| 4. | "Faith" | 6:43 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Carnage Visors: The Soundtrack" | 27:51 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Faith" (Robert Smith home instrumental demo 8/80) | 2:56 |
| 2. | "Doubt" (Robert Smith home instrumental demo 8/80) | 1:09 |
| 3. | "Drowning" (group home instrumental demo 9/80) | 1:52 |
| 4. | "The Holy Hour" (group home demo 9/80) | 4:48 |
| 5. | "Primary" (Morgan studio out-take 9/80) | 4:22 |
| 6. | "Going Home Time" (Morgan studio guide vox out-take 9/80) | 3:31 |
| 7. | "The Violin Song" ('Faith' studio guide vox out-take 2/81) | 3:38 |
| 8. | "A Normal Story" ('Faith' studio guide vox out-take 2/81) | 3:04 |
| 9. | "All Cats Are Grey" (live "somewhere", "Summer 1980/1981") | 5:37 |
| 10. | "The Funeral Party" (live "somewhere", "Summer 1980/1981") | 4:38 |
| 11. | "Other Voices" (live "somewhere", "Summer 1980/1981") | 4:45 |
| 12. | "The Drowning Man" (live "Australasia", "Summer 1980/1981") | 5:48 |
| 13. | "Faith" (live at Capitol Theatre, Sydney, August 1981) | 10:23 |
| 14. | "Forever" (live "somewhere", "Summer" 1981) | 9:19 |
| 15. | "Charlotte Sometimes" | 4:13 |
Personnel
- The Cure
- Robert Smith – vocals, guitars, keyboards, synthesizer, piano, six-string bass guitar, bass guitar, production
- Simon Gallup – bass guitar, production
- Lol Tolhurst – drums, programming, production
- Production
- Mike Hedges – production, engineering
- David Kemp – engineering
- Martyn Webster – engineering assistance
- Porl Thompson – album cover design
Charts
Singles – Billboard (North America)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | "Primary" | Club Play Singles | 25[10] |
References
- ^ a b c True, Chris. "Faith – The Cure: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards: AllMusic". AllMusic. AllRovi. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Apter, Jeff (2005). Never Enough: The Story of The Cure. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1844498271.
- ^ "The Cure – Carnage Visors – 45 Seconds Clip ! – YouTube". YouTube. 20 March 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
- ^ a b Sweeting, Adam (18 April 1981). "The Cure's Funeral Party". Melody Maker.
- ^ a b Lowry, Ray (18 April 1981). "Cure: Cancerous?". NME.
- ^ Abebe, Nitsuh (12 May 2005). "The Cure: Seventeen Seconds / Faith / Pornography | Album Reviews | Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
- ^ "The Cure: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
- ^ a b Gill, John (25 April 1981). "Faith, Hope and Reverse Psychology". Sounds.
- ^ Parrish, Peter (27 June 2005). "The Cure – Faith – Review – Stylus Magazine". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
- ^ "The Cure – Awards: AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
External links
| Studio albums | |
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| Live albums | |
| Compilations | |
| Remix albums | |
| Extended plays | |
| Singles |
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| Other songs | |
| Video albums | |
| Tours | |
| Related articles | |
