1. The CureSeventeen Seconds
I remember being 13 when I went into a record store for the first time. I had heard The Smiths on the radio and I wanted to go and buy their album. We got the bus into town, and I was going to buy the cassette of their debut record but they didn’t have it in the shop so I bought a Cure record called Japanese Whispers instead. I was getting into The Cure and The Smiths at the same time and a year or so later, when I made the switch from cassettes to vinyl, this was the first Cure record I got on vinyl, Seventeen Seconds. It’s my favourite Cure album. It’s stayed with me all this time.
For a Cure record it is very minimal, quite small and intimate. I love the production. Obviously, it’s got maybe the biggest hit on it ‘A Forest’, but it’s in the context of the record. It’s definitely a record where all the tracks have the same feel, production wise. You can sort of feel where they were doing a lot of songs with the same kind of elements, like ‘Play For Today’ is really similar to ‘A Forest’.
The record reminds me of being a teenager. It reminds me of being in my bedroom in my parents’ house in Oxford and reminds me that I have pretty good taste. I still like it. I still love it actually. We were very lucky with Ride to do some gigs with The Cure over the last few years. All the times we’ve played them, I’ve always gone to see them afterwards. There was one time I remember at Bestival going out into the crowd, standing in a group of friends and hearing ‘A Forest’ and just thinking back to the record, it’s one of those moments when you feel lucky.
