Cure - Sleep When I'm Dead (Mix 13)
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Free Music Notes for Sleep When I'm Dead (Mix 13)
Free Music Review: "Give it to the wonderful, wonderful me..."
Hit: 5 Stars
"Sleep When I'm Dead" is The Cure at their best in almost every way. Kind of a cross between "Shiver and Shake" and "Possession" style sound. This one could be one of my all-time favorite Cure songs now. The only thing that could top it would be a slower 6 to 8 minute Disintigration-style epic along the lines of "Pictures of You", "Prayers for Rain", "Closedown", or "Same Deep Water as You". I have a feeling they are holding some awesome ones like that back, maybe the upcoming single "The Perfect Boy" will deliver on that front??
The b-side "Down Under" has a lot to offer as well. Very ethereal, wide open, and expansive tune. A little Big Country-esque musically (which is not a bad thing) but Robert's atmospheric vocals make it entirely Cure. Can't wait for the next one!
Free Music Review: Best one of the singles
Hit: 5 Stars
"Sleep When I'm Dead" is definitely the most Cure-like of the new singles, and a little adventurous even. Sure, as with all of the singles the sound quality lacks, is far too compressed, and lacking character, but song-wise this is definitely the best. Plus, "Down Under" is one of the best recorded new songs I've heard!Free Music Review: The best single so far
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the best single so far. A Cure fan will not be disappointed. The B side is excellent as well. By the way...the Billboard chart this week for Singles (Sales) shows the three Cure singles in the top ten and Sleep When I'm Dead is in #4.Free Music Review: Sleep when I'm Dead
Hit: 5 Stars
Both songs are great! I personally like the second song better however they are both great!Free Music Review: Not sleep-inducing, at least!
Hit: 4 Stars
Of all the new released singles by The Cure, Sleep When I'm Dead is the most lackluster, in my mind. I really really like the somewhat derivative-but-still-charming The Only One, and I love the post-punk funk of Freakshow.
But this isn't to imply that Sleep is a bad song at all. It's just that, to my ears, it's the least inspired single lyrically and structurally. The high-pitched vocals are delivered with potent urgency, which gives fire to the song, and the rhythmic throb lends the tune an almost dark wave/disco feel. And of course, Porl's wah guitar is again fiercely prominent.
Some people have lamented that the studio version of Sleep When I'm Dead is rather inert, and does not match the raw energy of the live song. But I prefer the studio version because it is more dreamily textured. I like the paradox of sounds - the ethereal vocals melting within a cauldron of guitars and percussion. Interestingly, but certainly not crucially, the original song is an actual relic from the "Head on the Door" sessions. And indeed, it does sound a bit like Head's "Baby Screams" meshed with Kiss Me's "Torture." But let's not dwell on comparisons - a rather sloppy tactic of the unimaginative.
Lyrically, the song is a mixture of comical surrealism (childlike references to animals abound) and snooze-inducing banality ("take one for the team"). There are, however, a few interesting lines, such as "THAT'S A GREEN EYED PANIC CLIMB TO THE EDGE OF NOWHERE," the weird sense of which could have been exploited more throughout the song, to give eager lyric-dissectors more tools to work with. However, I can appreciate that the lyrics likely have more import that I am able to discern at this point.
Despite my reservations, Sleep When I'm Dead is a savory, mercurial song that begs to be turned up to illegal levels to absorb its full impact.
B-side Down Under is the second best song of the entire batch, in my assessment (Freakshow b-side All Kinds of Stuff being the best). It is dreamily remiscent of Wish b-sides like This Twilight Garden. Texturally, the song almost sounds like it's imitating the lyrical content, which involves the sea somehow - either symbolically or otherwise. The song is practically "drowned in sound" - swimming amidst a guitar mimicking sea-creature sounds, and floating bass-lines. It's really the most complex of all the songs, musically and lyrically. The lyrics are likely sexual in nature, although compulsive analysis has yet to confirm this. Lines like, "Disguise the stroke/entice them out/call out their number" are highly evocative, and perhaps the song truly is about an incident of "aqua-erotica." But the lyrics are opaque enough in other areas as to defy tidy deconstruction. Or perhaps I lack discernment. Anything is possible, really.