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| Bloodflowers | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Cure
Label: Elektra / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $2.84
You Save: $16.14 (85%)
New (23) Used (37) Collectible (1) from $2.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  260 reviews
Sales Rank: 15637
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.6 x 0.5
MPN: 62236
UPC: 755962236218
EAN: 0075596223621
ASIN: B00004GOVO
Release Date: February 15, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Average Used music CD with artwork and case * * We carefully inspected this * Great customer service * Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Cure, Back on Form at Last! February 29, 2000
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
It was with great trepidation that I listened to 'Bloodflowers'. The last couple of Cure albums have not been what I consider their usual high standard. 'Wish' did have some outstanding tracks I admit but it also had some pretty forgettable ones, and as for 'Wild Mood Swings', well, no matter how many times I listen to it I just can't work up any enthusiasm. Thank God 'Bloodflowers' sees the return of classic Cure. The unmistakeable trademark sound of those guitars gives me goosebumps and sends my senses spinning into heaven. Although I think its good for groups to explore different kinds of music there is nothing The Cure do better than songs full of torturous emotion that leaves my spine tingling. Comparisons have been made with 'Disintegration' and 'Pornography' and its easy to see why. Although none of the songs quite grabs me like 'Fascination Street' or 'One Hundred Years' I have a feeling the album will grow on me. Already 'Maybe Sometimes' has been filling up my head since I first heard it, its a fabulous track. This album sees them returning to the great music that I have grown up with. Up until recently there were always tracks that I loved and tracks that I just liked but there were never any that I didn't like. This is the case with 'Bloodflowers'. 'The Last Day of Summer' is beautiful and I can feel the rest of the world disappear when I hear the opening bars of '39'. I'm pretty sure The Cure will carry on for eternity, I hope so anyway, because there is no other group in the world to match them.
 An introverted album for a reflective kind of soul February 24, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Bloodflowers does not seem to be an album meant to be played out in a public place but instead, like all my favorite albums, makes sense when listened to alone, selfishly, where it can be explored by your mind. Indead it is hard to rate with stars from one to five, it is just an album thats on its own level. This opus by Smith and Co. exists on its own terms and is probably more suited to an individual who knows who the cure is. The album is rigid in feeling but what a feeling it is. Seeping with bittersweet melodies from acoustic guitars and keyboards to dread and sadness from harsh basses and calculated drumming, Bloodflowers really never disappoint. Out of this world opens with a slow fade in which sets the album's mood and tone with a somber beat and a heart tugging acoustic strum. Then Robert begins to pour out his heart and with his sad and wonderful voice lets the listener know this will not be an easy listen but somehow needs to hear. This album is very mystical operating on a level that is really hard to compare to other albums that I own and have heard, and I own and have heard A LOT of albums. Bloodflowers is pure feeling, which tries to reach the core of the listen. This is why it is better to hear alone where reflection can occur. When Watching me fall comes in, it is eleven pressured minutes of menacing guitar that sounds harrowing all at once. Robert's voices matches the mood with desperation with an undertone of anger and as the music towers, his bloody-murder wails accent the music which comes crashing down drowning the listen in tension and release. Where the birds always sing moves in with intricate melodies while still having pop sensibility that pushes the album forward and is one of those songs that can be listened to outside the album. It has the great lyric, "the world is neither fair nor unfair" and Robert's sadness continues to move into different forms. Maybe someday is another great stand-alone song that injects a very anti-commercial album just at the right moment to give a focused attitude and deliberate direction creating an anthem-like feel. But not too much because when you think the cure are about to launch into a guitar solo, they do great keyboard washes instead. The last day of summer and there is no if... are the more mood setting pieces that add to the album as a whole. The first is a sad song with sweeping keyboards and a guitar solo that holds it together and the later song is the most experimental with simplistic acoustics and keyboards with a mid-break instrument change up to electric guitars that propels Bloodflowers along to The loudest sound. This song is fabulous with content carnival plinking, moving guitars, and keyboards that can only be described as waves crashes in the universe. It has a grand guitar solo and, as all great songs, climaxes with Robert and the band creating tension at the end. The album then shifts mood to 39 with menacing keyboards, cutting guitars, and dense production as Robert rants and screams with multiple guitar solos creating the feeling of urgent dread. The final epic is Bloodflowers, which starts out with tribal drumming, and a deathly somber Robert singing about the end. The guitars and bass are grim with strain that explode into crashing cymbals and a guitar solo that...I can't even describe. The song is...incredible. What makes this album worth listening to is the fact that it flows and is multifaceted. Each song complements each other, which makes it somewhat easier and more intense to listen to then past cure albums (pornography and disintegration). The overall production is just in your face and can be literally a wall of sound or quiet as a mouse. The album is uncompromising with songs in average length of six minutes creating stirring moods of sadness and desperation rarely captured to audio in such grand artistic fashion. Bloodflowers is another crucial album by THE CURE.
Astounding Work February 22, 2000
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I never thought that Robert Smith could top Disentegration, or any of the earlier work. Wild Mood Swings and Wish were good but not as good as the Earlier Stuff. I got this CD on release day and have not stopped listening to it since, the depth of the lyrics and the atmosphere created by his music bring take me back to why I always have liked the Cure. This CD is Vintage. The Trademark layered acoustic and electric Guitars are so beautiful and his words really feel genuine like Robert is sitting next to me and telling me about his life. If you ever liked the Cure please do not miss this. Although the whole CD has a certain atmosphere there is much variety, starting with the soft mood of "Out of this world" and then transitioning to the harder edged "Watching Me Fall" and later with "The Loudest Sound" and "39". I agree with many reviewers here that the title track "Bloodflowers" has to be one of the greatest, most emotional songs I have ever heard. Reflective and Beautiful this song and CD will stay in your head for a long time.
 Wilting May 14, 2000
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
This plodding album amply illustrates why Robert's carreer ran out of steam. Laziness with vocals and undisciplined playing for starters. While every track on Pornography is different, being almost cinema for the ears, this album is basically the same song played over and over again creating a homogeonised dirge. Musicians seem to go in circles, ending up with the same psychedelia and naff prog rock they were arguably trying to escape from in the punk era. There were already signs that old red lips was running short of ideas on the over-rated Disintegration which bluffed it with a lot of atmospherics in place of hooks. This album has a compelling quality, but you keep wanting to reach for the skipper. Since CD's were introduced, artists unwisely tend to extend songs and albums beyond their capacity and our patience. I think he just got bored with the whole thing. If only he hadn't kept saying 'if only.' Recicled ideas abound such as sleazing around in bed on track 2. Album ends on duff note with 'Bloodflowers'. Best track: 'Maybe Someday.' Call it a day, Bob.
Another dose of melodic melancholy February 18, 2000
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
You like them. You're not sure why (I mean, it's not the 1980's anymore and it's not like you're a huge Smiths fan or Depeche Mode fan), but .. it's that sound - that sound of his. Yeah, Robert Smith is back. This album (like the reviews have noted) is close to "Disintegration" in mood. There are no uptempo pop songs on this album. The average tune is over 5 minutes long. I've always been impressed by his lyrics. I think Robert Smith (along with Dave Matthews) is one of the great romantics, up there with "Astral Weeks" Van Morrison and early Tom Waits. He is blessed with the same gift for atmosphere as Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, as well. If you liked "Untitled" and "Pictures of You" off of "Disintegration", you'll love "Out of This World" and "The Loudest Sound". Actually, so many people are saying that "The Loudest Sound" is his best. I disagree.. I think "Out of This World" is probably the best track here. Should you buy it? Definitely.
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