Bestival Live 2011 | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | 2 December 2011 | |||
Recorded | 2011 | |||
Length | 140:40 | |||
Producer | The Cure, Keith Uddin | |||
The Cure chronology | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | (77/100) [1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
BBC Music | (favorable) [3] |
Consequence of Sound | [4] |
Drowned in Sound | (7/10) [5] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [6] |
Pitchfork | (5.8/10) [7] |
PopMatters | [8] |
Uncut | [1] |
Bestival Live 2011 is a live album recorded by English rock band The Cure during Bestival 2011 music festival in September 2011. It was first released in Germany on 2 December 2011, before being released in the UK on 5 December 2011. [9] It is the band's first live album since Paris, which was released in 1993. [10]
All profits from the sale of the album went to the Isle of Wight Youth Trust. [3]
Ned Raggett of Allmusic gave the album three and a half stars and felt the album was "an understandably honest reflection of the Cure in the popular mind as their commercial high point recedes further into the past, but given Smith and the band's other contemporaneous activities, it's an incomplete portrait." [10]
Popmatters praised the album, saying. "They've written material that holds up through the looking glass of time, and Bestival is ultimately a testament to a band running through the hits with some level of gusto and verve, making them seem fresh and exciting so many years removed from their gestation." [11]
Pitchfork gave the album a score of 5.8, and criticised the fact the band chose to change the title of "Killing an Arab", due to controversy, ""Killing an Arab" was misinterpreted by the same people Smith lashed out against on Cure's very embarrassing political rant "Us or Them" as being racially insensitive post-9/11, but it's just profoundly depressing to hear the song rendered all but completely meaningless when the mass setting should make it all the more resonant." and thought, "the Cure feel like less of a band than a traveling museum or theme park celebrating their past with the occasional new exhibit or ride to stoke interest. In other words, a completely user-driven experience en masse" [12]
The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member, though bassist Simon Gallup has been present for all but about three years of the band's history. Their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), along with several early singles, placed the band at the forefront of the emerging post-punk and new wave movements that were gaining prominence in the United Kingdom. Beginning with their second album, Seventeen Seconds (1980), the band adopted a new, increasingly dark and tormented style, which, together with Smith's stage look, had a strong influence on the emerging genre of gothic rock as well as the goth subculture that eventually formed around the genre.
Disintegration is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Cure, released on 2 May 1989 by Fiction Records. The band recorded the album at Hookend Recording Studios in Checkendon, Oxfordshire, with co-producer David M. Allen from late 1988 to early 1989.
Paris is a live album recorded by The Cure at Le Zénith de Paris, in October 1992 during their Wish tour, but released in October 1993. The band announced the album in July 1993.
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"Hot Hot Hot!!!" is a single by British rock band the Cure released on 8 February 1988. It is taken from their 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. The song reached number 45 in the UK, whereas it was more successful in Ireland where it reached number 18, and in Spain where it reached the Top 10.
"Lullaby" is a song by English rock band the Cure from their eighth studio album, Disintegration (1989). Released as a single on 10 April 1989, the song is the band's highest-charting single in their home country, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart. It additionally reached number three in West Germany and Ireland while becoming a top-10 hit in several other European countries and New Zealand. The music video, directed by Tim Pope, won the British Video of the Year at the 1990 Brit Awards.
"The 13th" is a song by English rock band the Cure, released as the first single from the band's 10th studio album, Wild Mood Swings (1996), on 22 April 1996. The song reached the top 20 in several territories, including Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Wallonia. It charted the highest in Hungary, where it reached number two, and in Italy, where it peaked at number five.
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