One of the most powerful things about music is that it is the soundtrack of our lives. Fellow music fanatic Sharon Hepworth started a music challenge on Twitter for the month of July. Each day, fans around the world will select a song from their life and describe what it means to us. These are my songs. #SoundtrackToYourLife
Day 5
If I had to pick just one band to listen to for the rest of my life, The Cure would be it. They are a band that embodies every human emotion in their music. I first discovered them in high school. My friend’s older sister was listening to all the cool music and exposed me to “The Love Cats”, “Why Can’t I Be You?”, “Let’s Go To Bed”, “Boys Don’t Cry”, and countless more classics. But, for me, the Disintegration album will always be the most endearing discovery for me. It was the first album that I heard at the actual time of its release. Even before I got my own copy, select tracks were playing on Long Island’s WDRE, a radio station that has shaped my life’s soundtrack in a big way. One of those great WDRE tracks was “Fascination Street”.
This was one of the first songs I heard from Disintegration, and I’ve loved it from the beginning. It has held up remarkably well over time. This one’s a true banger. Sonically The Cure are in full force here, there’s little nuance, and there’s plenty of force. The instrumental layering that The Cure is so good at here isn’t subtle. On “Fascination Street”, the guitars shimmer and swirl – and erupt in intervals. The keys play a more atmospheric and complementary role on the track – doing just enough and highlighted by those unforgettable arpeggios. The driving force of “Fascination Street”, of course, is the rhythm. Boris’ drumbeats are nearly stumbling over one another while Simon’s bass line crawls insistently inside your head and stays put. Robert doesn’t start singing until the 2:22 mark, and rightfully so. He nails the vocals, but the instruments are the elements that create the thrilling mood of a reckless, liberating night in New Orleans.
“So just pull on your face. Just pull on your feet. And let's hit opening time down on Fascination Street.”