Blue Sunshine - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Album Description
This album was originally released in 1983 as the one-off collaboration between Robert Smith and Steve Severin. Includes 16 bonus rarities.

Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Robert *did* in fact re-record vocals on disc 2 August 13, 2006
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

There is no mention of it in the liner notes, but if you listen to Robert's voice on the second disc, you will realize that he re-recorded the vocals... it's his modern-day voice (around 1996-present).... any true Cure fan has already figured this out. This re-release is less than a week old, so you'll start to hear reports about this soon enough. There's nothing wrong with Robert re-recording the vocals, but he undoubtedly did, and to a small extent it's misleading in that it's making Cure fans believe that this is the "lost Cure album from 1983".

Demos can be rough and unfinished... in this case they are and honestly that's fine and charming... but Robert's vocals on the second disc are all brand new. He clearly sounds much older on the second disc than his 24-year-old self on the first disc.

Also, the recording quality of his voice is vastly superior on the second disc than it is on the two tracks he sings on the original album. This is not the "lost" Cure album Robert and Rhino Records advertising have made it out to be.

Bottom line is: if you enjoyed the Glove's one and only album back in 1983, then this re-release (original album on Disc 1) sounds amazing. The artwork is on par with all of the other Rhino reissues of late (Cure and Depeche Mode included).

However, if you are going into this thinking that Robert recorded guide vocals for Jeanette Landry in 1983, and released it on this set, then you may be disappointed.

2 out of 5 stars

Not as Fun as It Appears to Be August 24, 2006
6 out of 19 found this review helpful

The Glove is actually a mock-up band consisting of The Cure's Robert Smith and Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees, with help from a female vocalist named Jeanette Landray. The band name is lifted from the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine," which featured a blue glove as the `muscle' for the Blue Meanies. They also borrow some artwork from the Beatles project, and take more than a little inspiration from the psychedelia of this project, with a natural tendency toward the "Blue" (read `dark') side of the equation. The original album was released back in 1983, so it is understandable why numerous fans of the Cure or the Banshees may be unfamiliar with the existence of this project. Now that is re-released as a 2-disk deluxe package, that may change, although I don't think they were missing much.
As side projects go, "Blue Sunshine" is reasonably interesting and a bit fun, especially when compared to the gloomy dirges of each member's `day' gigs, but it is hardly a ray of `blue sunshine'. Severin and Smith wanted to create something distinctly different from their usual fare, but their success rate is nominal at best. The difference lies in their approach to creating the music more than it does in the overall sound. The arrangements make the difference, featuring a semi-psychedelic approach to song structure that is simply too whimsical for either of those bands. Sitars, dulcimers, electric marimbas, and a traditional Japanese instrument called a Koto weave in and out of the recording, giving the project an unusual sound, but not enough to retain the listener's interest. That would require memorable songwriting, and "Blue Sunshine" just isn't up to snuff. Despite the aural hjinks, none of the songs here are particularly memorable. Psychedelic stylings cannot compensate for mediocre songwriting and uneven production (although Pink Floyd did get away with it for years...), which may explain why this release languished in obscurity as long as it did. More than anything else, "Blue Sunshine" resembles a bad Annie Lennox album (something that Lennox herself has never done), with Robert Smith providing a guest warble or two.
Lyrically, the subject matter stays pretty close to the Banshees and the Cure's penchant for the dark, dismal, and dolorous, and it hardly makes a difference who handles the lyrics. On "Orgy," the Severin-penned lyrics state that "A disease is under my fingernails, it stains me like a tattoo," while the Smith-penned "Like an Animal" goes on about a "Tuesday in the sun, nothing could be worse. Not now, not ever not anymore..." Oh, there is psychedelic imagery to colorize things a bit, but the grainy, dull black-and-white songwriting never coalesces into anything memorable. "Blue Sunshine" may be occasionally interesting but it is peripheral at best. It is also ultimately (and utterly) forgettable.CTom Ryan

5 out of 5 stars

Strange Music October 1, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

OK...This is my favorite album of all time. There is nothing like it. NOTHING!!! I think Robert Smith is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Steve Severin is also great, of course. I have every album from the Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees...BUT...this is still my favorite. Acid had a good effect on these two. Extreme psychedelia at it's finest. I love 60s psychedelia, too.. but this is better. I listen to it every day. So original with excellent sounds! When i first heard the female vocals on this album, i was disappointed because it wasn't Robert Smith, but they grew on me. I would have liked to hear Robert's 80s voice on these tracks. That would be a 10. He sounds a little worn out these days. I like the extra instrumental tracks on the 2nd CD. I always wished they were tracks of their own, and now i have them. The new RS vocals suck, but I'm elated with the improved main CD. I have to give it 5 stars because it's so good!!! If you want to enter a new dimension, listen to this. If you only like standard pop sounds, forget it.

2 out of 5 stars

The Smith/Severin pyschedelic experiment. August 17, 2006
3 out of 10 found this review helpful

In the early 1980s, the Cure's Robert Smith was pulling double duty as guitarist with Siouxsie and the Banshees. In 1983, he and Banshees bassist Steve Severin, both fans of '60s psychedelia, took their stab at it with a project titled The Glove. At the 11th hour, Fiction Records prevented Smith's vocals from being used, and instead a vocalist named Landray (who was at the time dating Banshees drummer Budgie) handled the vocal duties. The resulting album, "Blue Sunshine", is a bit of a mixed bag. Some folks love it, I find it to be seriously lacking. AT thet least, this reissue, which collects the entire album, b-sides from its singles, and adds a disc of some additional demos and pieces with evidentally rerecorded vocals (though its stated as a demo) by Smith, sounds fantastic with its new remastered sound.

But again, the album itself-- the music tends to be mildly interesting oddball psychedelia, some of its interesting enough ("Like an Animal" features a ringing bass, churning acoustic guitars and walls of synths, "The Green City" has layers of guitars creating quite a swirling atmosphere), but largely it tends to either be a bit uninspired (scratching violins on "Orgy") or mangled by Landray's vocals (the otherwise lovely "Punish Me With Kisses", frantic "Sex-Eye-Make-Up"). Remarkably, the rerecorded (or demo?) vocals by Smith feel completely out of place, leading me to agree that these are not the original recordings. In the end, the material is ok, but it's not anything to get excited about, and for an album recorded immediately after "Pornography", it lacks that record's intrigue.

Invariably, nothing I say or don't say will change anyone buying this one, but "Blue Sunshine", even with Smith's vocals, is far from the great, lost Cure album it's sometimes touted as.

3 out of 5 stars

CAVEAT EMPTOR: bonus disc is *not* original material August 11, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

First of all, I am a rabid cure fan. I've been looking forward to listening to this bonus disc for months, since I first read about the "RS vocal demo" tracks. I rushed out to buy this and the three new Cure reissues the day it was released.

I rushed home and threw in the bonus disc, expecting to hear unheard gems from 1982/3. Not the case. The "RS vocal demo" tracks on this disc have *clearly* been re-recorded, and are modern Robert Smith, not period pieces. This should be fairly obvious to anyone familiar with the back catalogue, but for comparison, simply listen to the original tracks with Robert Smith vocals to realize how inferior the new versions are. Additionally, the backing tracks have at the very least been re-mixed, as there are many variations from the originals (ex. the piano on "a blues in drag" is now lacking the gorgeous, over-processed delay sound that makes the album version; "this green city" lacks the crazy guitar solo), although not in "demo" form, and not for the better.

So, I am severely disappointed. In fairness, I have not listened to the remastered album yet (I've been too busy with the bonus discs), but I expect that the quality will be excellent and worth the price of admission. But, I feel like I was mislead. All I've really gleaned from this reissue so far is the knowledge that I would rather not hear Robert Smith re-record modern versions of his older material. As if these bonus tracks and the Blank & Jones version of A Forest were not enough, I could have figured that out on my own...

I'm not saying don't buy this disc, just know what you're getting into...

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