Bestival Live 2011

This is The Cure’s entire performance as the headliner of the 2011 Bestival. It’s epic: 32 songs ranging from the band’s earliest days (“Boys Don’t Cry” and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”) through the intensity of their mid-’80s period (“The Walk,” “In Between Days”) up through later material (“The End of the World”). It’s a career survey with lots of surprises. The four-day music festival held on the U.K.’s Isle of Wight came to a climax with this inspired set. The group’s extensive catalog lets Robert Smith and Co. wander through a myriad of moods. Keyboardist Roger O’Donnell returns and sets up lush sonic beds for the dreamy “Plainsong,” the eerie noir of “One Hundred Years,” and the sweet haze of “A Forest.” Hits are filtered through the set. “Lovesong” and “Just Like Heaven” pulse with muscular backing. (It can be argued the drums are too loud in spots.) Since the late ‘70s, The Cure has stayed true to its musical pursuits, becoming one of the world’s most acclaimed alternative bands.

The Cure's first official live record since 1993 can best be viewed as a testament to the band's longevity and stylistic breadth, but while Besitval speaks highly of the group's professionalism, it rarely catches spark.

The Cure could be found in a mix of holding pattern and seemingly constant activity in 2011, with an irregular series of world-wide performances of the band's first three albums and a slew of guest appearances and one-offs by Robert Smith on his own and with other performers standing in for either new or reissued albums.

Bestival Live 2011 (recorded live at England’s Bestival festival in September—hence the clever title) is an overwhelming 32 tracks of classic Cure.