Bloodflowers is the eleventh studio album by English rock band The Cure. It was first released in Japan on 2 February 2000,[2] before being released in the UK and Europe on 14 February 2000 and then the day after in the US by Fiction Records and Polydor Records. Initially the album was to be released in 1999, as it had been completed by May that year, but the record company wanted it to be released “post millennial fever.”[3]
Singer and frontman Robert Smith chose to not release any single from the album, against the will of the record company, which Smith has said was an act of "revenge" due to his dissatisfaction towards the lack of promotion the band's previously released compilation Galore (1997) received from the record company due to conflicts of interests.[4] However, "Maybe Someday" and "Out of This World" were issued as promotional singles to radio in the UK, US, Canada and numerous territories in Europe.
Background
The album had no commercial songs in mind during recording. Recording sessions were smooth and productive, Robert Smith said "Bloodflowers was the best experience I've had since doing the Kiss Me album. I achieved my goals, which were to make an album, enjoy making it, and end up with something that has real intense, emotional content. And I didn't kill myself in the process." He also said that "at the demo stage" they had more commercial songs in mind for the album but "they just sounded so shallow."
Smith also took more control of the album's sound, directing the band to produce a certain sound and mood for the album. The only song which had direct input from another member was "The Last Day of Summer" which was composed by bassist Simon Gallup. This led to more strict recording session than their previous album Wild Mood Swings (1996), due to Smith dominating the creative decisions on the albums, "I saw them both (Simon and Roger) looking at each other murmuring "Oh shit, this thing is happening again...“ but I think the result justifies this. Therefore we had a lot of stress in the band and in the end I stood there alone. All the others were gone because they got the feeling I wouldn´t listen to them. So I had to record the vocals alone. As they came back and listened to it they thought it was fantastic.“"[5]
Smith also had a shorter running time in mind, due to their previous release Wild Mood Swings having a run time of over an hour, which he remarked "I find that seventy minutes of one artist is, almost without exception, too much." However, he struggled to reach his initial run time, which was 45 minutes, as he struggled to cut down the song's length, due to his satisfaction with their sound.
"I edited the first track, 'Out of This World', down from 6:30 to 4:45, but I was told that the introduction was still too long for radio. But I like that slow development, and I didn't want to impose the three-and-a-half-minute structure on anything I was writing, because it just felt stupid.”
However, Smith had realised "in hindsight, that it's the songs themselves that probably need trimming back, but I think that they benefit from their length. I've done an edit of 'Watching Me Fall' at home, and I got it down to under six minutes [from eleven minutes, thirteen seconds], but it’s just not the same song."[3]
The only song which was not initially written for the album was "There Is No If..." which was written when Smith was 19, but never made it onto an album due to Smith's initial reluctance to use the song calling it "hippy-like", although he felt that the rendition which he recorded for Bloodflowers was suited for the feel of the album.[6]
Release and promotion
No commercial singles were released from Bloodflowers, but two promotional singles were released to DJs and radio stations: "Out of This World", in January (Europe) and May (US), and "Maybe Someday", in January (US) and April (Europe). "Maybe Someday" managed to peak at No. 10 on the Alternative Airplay chart. Bloodflowers was a moderate success, debuting at number 16 on the US Billboard 200. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2001. In subsequent years, Smith identified it as his favourite Cure album in a 2004 Rolling Stone interview.[7]
The second track on the album, "Watching Me Fall" was featured in the end credits of the 2000 horror filmAmerican Psycho.
Bloodflowers received mixed reviews from critics. Entertainment Weekly called it "one of the band's most affecting works".[19]Pitchfork gave a positive review of the album scoring it a 7.5/10, praising the album's sound and concluded, "Bloodflowers contains some classic Cure material, which is more than can be said of their catalog since Disintegration."[15]
Melody Maker titled their review "Goth-Awful!", rating the album 1.5 out of 5.[13]Rolling Stone criticized the quality of the compositions, saying, "[Smith] can write four bad songs in a row, and Cure albums tend to leak filler like an attic spilling insulation" and concluded, "Bloodflowers, is half dismissible droning, an unforgivable ratio considering it's only nine tracks long."[17] Similarly, Trouser Press stated in their review: "The album sounds completely uninspired, as Smith and company go through the motions of Cure-ness."[20]
Les Inrockuptibles wrote that the album featured "endless songs" with "dated sounds".[21]AllMusic noted that although Bloodflowers contained all the Cure's musical trademarks, "morose lyrics, keening vocals, long running times", "the album falls short of the mark, largely because it sounds too self-conscious".[9]
Track listing
All tracks are written by the Cure (Smith, Gallup, Bamonte, Cooper, O'Donnell)
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Out of This World"
6:44
2.
"Watching Me Fall"
11:13
3.
"Where the Birds Always Sing"
5:44
4.
"Maybe Someday"
5:04
5.
"Coming Up" (only on vinyl and Australian, Japanese, Colombian CD editions)
6:27
6.
"The Last Day of Summer"
5:36
7.
"There Is No If..."
3:44
8.
"The Loudest Sound"
5:09
9.
"39"
7:20
10.
"Bloodflowers"
7:31
Bonus track only available through the Internet
No.
Title
Length
11.
"Spilt Milk"
4:53
Personnel
The Cure
Robert Smith – guitar, keyboard, 6-string bass guitar, vocals
