The Cure’s Japanese Whispers is coming to Picture Disc for the first time on 26th March 2021. The announcement follows the band auctioning off a signed guitar amp for the Milk Crate Theatre.
Japanese Whispers is the third compilation album of Cure singles and B-sides released between Nov 1982 and Nov 1983, originally released by Fiction Records. Recorded during a transitional phase after bassist Simon Gallup left following the Pornography promo tour, Andy Anderson joined the band on drums, while former drummer Lol Tolhurst switched to keyboard duties, and Phil Thornalley played bass. The album includes Cure standbys such as Let’s Go to Bed, The Walk, and The Lovecats, as well as the fantastic b-side Just One Kiss.
The Cure made a departure from the more morose and introspective gothic rock of Pornography to a lighter and body of work that has persisted in their subsequent releases. Japanese Whispers (and the following album The Top) show off Robert Smith’s emerging versatility as songwriter and producer. By the mid-80s, Smith had simply gotten tired of wallowing in the darkness and told Rolling Stone in 2004 that he wanted to explore cheerier routes such as those found on “The Love Cats”: “I thought, “This isn’t going to work. No one’s ever gonna buy into this. It’s so ludicrous that I’m gonna go from a goth idol to a pop star in three easy lessons…I suggested that we were going to do something that’s kind of like a Disney take on jazz, based around the Aristocats. And suddenly everything we did started to sell.”
The end result was a more effervescent synth-based pop with cheeky nods to classic jazz. The creative gamble paid off in the end. Japanese Whispers was the first Cure album to enter the US Billboard charts in early 1984 and opened the gate for The Cure to explore wider pastures.
Japanese Whispers as a compilation was skipped in the remaster series, but all 8 tracks were remastered individually as parts of other projects. Three singles were remastered for 2001’s Greatest Hits, while the five remaining tracks were remastered for Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978>2001 – The Fiction Years in 2004.
This pressing will be the first time Japanese Whispers is ever released on picture disc, and made available exclusively at The Cure Store & Rhino Store.
You can pre-order your copy here.
1LP – Picture Disc
Side A
Let’s Go To Bed
The Dream
Just One Kiss
The Upstairs Room
Side B
The Walk
Speak My Language
La Ment
The Lovecats
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