Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - Dark Publications

Location: Home » music » General » Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

Similar Items:

•	The Head on the Door
•	The Top
•	Pornography [Deluxe Edition]
•	Seventeen Seconds [Deluxe Edition]
•	Faith [Deluxe Edition]

Editorial Reviews:

Album Description
This is The Cure's landmark album, featuring 18 previously unreleased tracks.

Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A superb upgrade for a fantastic record. August 18, 2006
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

In my assessment the album where it all finally came together for the Cure, "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" is a triumph-- a double album of startling diversity and quality. While it's best known for it's pop singles (particularly "Just Like Heaven"), there's quite a bit more that this album has to offer.

Noneteless, I'll start by talking about the pop songs-- on "The Head on the Door", rhythm section Simon Gallup (bass) and Boris Williams (drums) provided a deep, pop groove over which textures could be arranged by leader/vocalist/guitarist Robert Smith and guitarist Porl Thomspon (both, as well as Lol Tolhurst, also contributed keyboard performances to the album). And "Just Like Heaven" is the best example of this-- a great beat, a nice, bright bassline hinting at funk, shimmering acoustic guitars, descending keyboard motifs, and a great electric lead guitar hook open the way for Smith's positively ecstatic vocal. It's no surprise it's a hit, it deserves to be, it's a great song. As nice as it is though, it's really overshadowed by the bouncy "Why Can't I Be You?"-- driven by a horn arrangement that in other hands could have been tacky, the piece is filled with energy over a frantic acoustic guitar riff and a superbly bizarre vocal by Smith.

But pop is really only one side of this, this is a band known as a goth band, and opener "The Kiss" reminds us why. Throbbing bass, fierce lead guitars, and an extended opening lead into a vocal assault by Smith among the most potent and confident he's done. Also of note in this vein is morbid droning piece "The Snakepit", with Smith's carefully half-spoken vocal providing a dramatic atmosphere. Again though, the Cure isn't a band just about goth and pop, tackling cooled off '60s psychedelia ("The Catch"), deep funk (the absolutely fantastic "Hot Hot Hot!!!"), world music tinged mood pieces ("If Only Tonight We Could Sleep", "Like Cockatoos") and texture driven punk songs ("Icing Sugar") among others. And remarkably, nothing is subpar-- it's all fantastic stuff.

The deluxe edition only makes things better-- restoring "Hey You!" to the album (deleted from early CD issues due to length considerations on 74 minute CDs) and a second disc of demos, alternate mixes and live tracks. This set of demos proves quite revealing not just to the creative process behind the pieces but the input of the rest of the band other than Robert Smith-- Smith's home demo of "The Kiss" illustrates this nicely-- it's a synth heavy number that benefitted drastically from Thompson's more aggressive guitar stylings. The live tracks are a big add, sonically they are superb (best of anything released so far on the deluxe edition) and the performances are great. The entire package has been remastered and sounds a lot better than the previous CD issue.

"Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" doesn't get quite the acclaim that "Disintegration" or "Wish" gets, but I've always found it to be the stronger album, managing to be both accessible and obscure. Highly recommended.

5 out of 5 stars

CLASSIC. SUCH A STRONG RELEASE. September 19, 2006
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

Oh man, this album is amazing. Last time I listened to it was probably a few years ago on the original CD w/o "Hey You!" It's awesome to have this masterpiece album remastered with much better sound in its originally intended form of all 18 tracks (Amazon has omitted "Torture" by mistake, but let me reassure you, it's there in all its edgy glory). The build-up intro of "The Kiss" is unparalleled except for say, other Cure songs like "Open" or "Want." When the first vocals of the album burst upon you (OH KISS ME KISS ME KISS ME!!! YOUR TONGUE'S LIKE POISON, SO SWOLLEN IT FILLS UP MY MOUTH!!!) you know you're in for a sick ride. You've got your classic singles "Why Can't I Be You?" and "Hot Hot Hot!!!" along with the most famous of all, "Just Like Heaven." But this is only the icing on the cake. "How Beautiful You Are..." and "One More Time" are both amazing non-single tracks, to compliment the rest of the album. Also, if I were to ever have the opportunity to make a movie, I'd definitely have "Fight" as the soundtrack to a sick, crazy, violent fight scene...it'd be perfect. I won't go into all the other tracks...just buy it and experience one of the best albums ever created. It's so diverse, from crazy-cuckoo happy to dark, angsty, edgy, and anthemic. Throughout it all, there's always great melody and passion. Robert Smith is a genius and this release is one of The Cure's strongest...it showcases extreme talent and versatility.

PS ~ The bonus disc is awesome for hearing a lot of the songs as they were first presented and comparing them to their end results that made it onto the album...a very nice insight.

5 out of 5 stars

Ripping review August 26, 2006
6 out of 13 found this review helpful

Okay, let's forget about the album, I hardly need to review Kiss Me again, jeesh. And I'm going to forget the bonus tracks. Are they interesting? Yeah. A steady diet on my playlist? No way.

So, the question is how has the music improved from the "standard" CD? Methodology? Simple, I ripped the new CD using Winamp, and to be fair, re-ripped the old one, using the same settings. I kept neither one, because some kid on usenet did an even better job than me . . . hey, that's fair, I bought this, so quiet now. I'm not about to cheat Bob out of steaks and brandy. In any case, I made a new playlist in Winamp and flipped back and forth between the rips.

Results? More presence and punch in the new versions vs. the old. Is it startling? No, and it's possible that I could have tweaked the settings to bring up the old version to sound similar. Limitations? Well, good sound card, an X-Fi, but a run of the mill system, HK 3400 into Ascends and a Sony subwoofer. Also totally wrecked 55 year old ears.

Recommendation? You have to buy it, because Bob needs the money for steaks and brandy. Kidding, Cure fans have to own all this stuff, but the problem is the bonus songs are for collectors only, and the original was really mastered well enough that this doesn't help much. Now, even a percentage point of improvement will be worth it for the holy of holies, which presumably comes next, but what's Bob going to do three years from now? Offer a remastered Bloodflowers? Where does this end? I will forgive him the price, because he gave us Trilogy cheap, and we owe.

4 out of 5 stars

Somehow Better the 2nd Time Around...and Not Just for Audio Improvements August 29, 2006
5 out of 9 found this review helpful

Even though I have never been a fan, and I know little more about them than what I've heard on their various CD's, I've been asked to write reviews for eight different albums by the Cure. My indifference makes me an outsider, so Cure fans hate my reviews, while everyone else simply ignores them. To me, it's an ironic conundrum - writing these reviews provides a form of self-torture that is actually very Robert Smith-ian in its own way. If anything, that should help me to understand the band a bit better, and maybe it is working, because in the process, I've grown to like "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me." I bought this album upon its release in 1990, but I never appreciated it. To me, it droned on endlessly, meandering from song to song with no sense of structure to support any of it. I still think of it that way, except now I hear the droning as an advantage, and I appreciate its lack of structure for the diversity it provides.
A 2-CD set may be a bit much, especially when the `bonus' disk contains little more than vocal-less demo recordings. By the time you hear Smith's caterwaul on track 10 ("A Thousand Hours"), it's genuinely disconcerting, so you may want to permanently glue the `bonus' disk inside the package. The original album is a different story entirely. The leadoff track, entitled "The Kiss," best encapsulates my change of heart. My impression from 1990 had me wondering "Christ, what is he kissing, a sea monster?" Today, it still sounds ominous, but for some reason, it also sounds somewhat enticing, like a sensual attraction toward something forbidden. "Catch" is completely different and actually catchy, especially for the Cure. It is also extraordinarily gentle for a band that is so obsessed with chaos. It even has violins!
The inconsistency that I suggested earlier causes the album's mood to veer all over the place, and the predictably morose drone of "If Only Tonight I Could Sleep" is telltale of what I do not like about the band - a dull, uninspired one-chord drone, with the slight novelty of sitars and such providing only marginal interest. Luckily, things snap back to attention almost instantly with "Why Can't I Be You." Lyrically, the song fits the band's formula, except they disguise their self-loathing with an upbeat, double-time rhythm and poppy horn charts (played on keyboard) that could have been borrowed from Madness. Speaking of surprises, did you ever in your wildest imagination picture the Cure as a funk band? Me either, but "Hot Hot Hot!!!" is almost convincing, in a pasty, `80s English sort of way. "Hey You" rocks out and even has a saxophone solo, while "Just Like Heaven" is almost happy, even!
Perhaps I subconsciously felt compelled to retain my prejudice against the Cure (was it ever a secret?), but little by little, "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" wore me down. The sheer quantity of material might have something to do with it, because 18 tracks is a LOT of music, and yet the band keeps things interesting throughout. Previously, I dismissed the Cure as a band capable of conveying one mood (depression) with expertise, but this album broadens their palette considerably. Here, they reach out for new territory and they deserve credit for it, especially since they succeed most of the time. They still sound like a dour bunch of doughboys, but at least I now know that they are capable of more than one mood.B+Tom Ryan

3 out of 5 stars

karaoke anyone?? another eh.. expanded editon January 9, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

While i've been listening to the Cure since my first dreary day encounter when all i thought about was sinking slowly into madness. The long awaited deluxe edition, original remasters, or whatever you want to call it has arrived. The packaging is great it seems almost like a mini box set with linear notes, (although i've said this again i hate Digipaks, they are rather hard to keep immaculate: why does Rhino feel the need to do away with jewel boxes when doing a remaster??) The album of course Brilliant. What more can you say. It's probably my second favorite since we all know nothing will surpass disintegration as the ultimate album to have ever. With that said, a die hard cure fan will love anything the cure will throw at them, maybe it's just me but i was dissapointed with the second disc. Whilst reading the package you seem to think that you are getting rare demo's and you are...to a point. The first nine tracks are intrumentals which they conveniently reveal to you INSIDE the package. Had they put this outside I would have paused and pondered on weather to buy it. It's nice to get a glimpse into the beginning recording process and what the final product sounds like but did they have to do all nine tracks? You actually get three vocal studio rough mixes. Then it closes with 6 live bootlegs. I don't know about you but i hate live versions on expanded editions. To me it's like going to a concert and the band lets the audience sing your favorite songs for them half the time. Don't get me wrong, The Fight, was probably the best cut on the second disc, but you can't help but long for the vocal arrangement on the instrumentals. That would have gave this set five stars. I can only cringe and wait to see what they are going to do with the long awaited disintegration.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic

T-shirts, Posters

Pentagram T-shirts, bags, etc...

Gothic Posters