The Cure Hypnagogic States EP Review
4:13 Dream Tracks The Only One, Perfect Boy & Freakshow Remixed
Oct 7, 2008
In a career spanning nearly 30 years, The Cure have gone through several line-up fluctuations and musical directions, but have consistently poured buckets of cheery gloom onto the music scene with each release.
Along the way they've delivered doomsday records such as the highly appreciated Disintegration and the poppy Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me as well as the heavy guitar sound of their last record, 2004’s self-titled release. But just when fans of the band think they know what to expect from a new disc, The Cure shred their music through the hands of remixers.
On Hypnagogic States, The Cure deliver “The Only One”, “Freakshow”, “Sleep When I’m Dead” and “The Perfect Boy”, all part of a marketing campaign that consisted of releasing one new track plus a B-side in the months leading up to their new album, to remixers, and in return get staggering results.
The Only One
The first of the four tracks released from 4:13 Dream, “The Only One”, was also the strongest of the four singles. Remixed by 30 Seconds to Mars, the track takes on a new life as a trippy trance romp that blows the lid off the original cut. Transforming the slower pace of the original track into a sparse and spacey electro-acoustic single with dreamy overdubs not only makes this single highly enjoyable but bests the original song by light-years.
Hypnagogic States contains a second remix of “The Only One” which closes the EP. The second remix, by 65 Days Of Static, emphasizes the weirdness of the song by incorporating fluttering electronics, repetitive vocals and trance beats before blowing the whole project up mid way through into a wall of noise.
Freakshow
Jade Puget of AFI and Blaqk Audio feed “Freakshow” into their hard drive and churn out a hard hitting electro thumper complete with a muted horn that begs for dance floor rotation. By comparison, the original version, released in June, sounds like a half baked demo.
Sleep When I’m Dead
Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance and Julien-K dress “Sleep When I’m Dead” in old school 80’s synths and a pulsing, yet urgent sound that fits the song stronger than the original coating, breathing new life into an old corpse.
The Perfect Boy
While “The Perfect Boy” wasn’t a perfect single choice, Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy add a breezy drum beat, guitars and simple synths reminiscent of high school sock hops a la “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. A highly unlikely sound for The Cure, but works far better than the original mix.
Exploding Head Syndrome
The final cut on the EP, "Exploding Head Syndrome", a 22 minute mash up of all four tracks, wears thin early. The 65 Days Of Static remix doesn’t lack ambition and shines in moments of brilliance like at 9:36 when the track kicks into high gear for a dark techno remix of “Sleep When I’m Dead”, which should have been released as a separate single, but compared to the other mixes on the EP, this track appeals mostly to completists.
The Cure frontman Robert Smith and Keith Uddin wrote all four tracks on HypnagogicStatesand pledge to donate all royalties from the sale of the specially priced EP to The International Red Cross.
The new Cure album, 4:13 Dream, is scheduled for release in October 2008.
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