Seventeen Seconds (Seventeen Seconds - The Cure)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Seventeen Seconds - The Cure
Date:	26/05/08 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Introduces and defines the gothic rock sound that subsequent albums would perfect.

Disadvantages: Very few songs stand out from the general soundscape.

'Seventeen Seconds' is a great step beyond its predecessor 'Three Imaginary Boys' released only a year earlier, introducing the Cure's atmospheric gothic sound and arguably making for their defining record, or at least the one that contains their definitive song. With its hypnotic guitar jangle, cold electronic drum beat and foreboding narrative, 'A Forest' is the pinnacle of eighties gothic rock, and still a staple of the band's live set that usually sees the song's length stretched out beyond all proportion.

The main failing of this album is that every other song tends to sound like an inferior version of exactly the same thing, opting for a consistent tone and atmosphere rather than a collection of instantly memorable songs, a balance the Cure would achieve to varying degrees of success through the rest of their career. Newcomer Matthiew Hartley is essential to the effect, his keyboard and piano filling out the atmosphere so that the rest of the band can retreat to more subtle rhythm duties, and Robert Smith's high drawl is occasionally pushed so far into the background, the listener's not sure whether they're just imagining his presence.

Without the distracting solos and daft lyrics, this is strikingly mature compared to the previous album, but also runs the risk of being far too dull for a mainstream audience. Had it not been composed and recorded in such a hurry, this likely would have been the band's masterpiece.

1. A Reflection
2. Play for Today
3. Secrets
4. In Your House
5. Three
6. The Final Sound
7. A Forest
8. M
9. At Night
10. Seventeen Seconds

Summary: The Cure's second album (1980).