Blue Sunshine

OMG! I remember when I first heard this back when it was originally released. Great album and it's good that it's available via iTunes. I still have the album! LOVE!

This album has always been so close to being something fantastic but never quite there. It is close to the B sides from the early days that were strange and wonderful but leaves out the wonderful. The bonus RS vocals are recent, be not deceived.

Of all the re-issues Robert Smith has been involved in, this is the Mac Daddy of them all. The Cure remasters are awesome, but THIS is what us hardcore fans had been waiting for since 1983. Blue Sunshine was an amazingly overlooked album in it's time and deserved a much better fate than it got. Severin and Smith worked very well together, It's a shame they didn't do more...(Sorry Simon). I disagree with other reviewers that the vocals on the demos are recent recordings. They compare very well with Robert's vocals on "The Top" and show the same type of experimentation. It's been awhile since I've read "Ten Imaginary Years", but I remember there being something about them scrapping their first effort because Chris Parry wouldn't let them release it. And why would he bother to re-record "Mr. Alphabet Says" and "Perfect Murder"? It's not like Robert Smith to be redundant..... At any rate, what it all amounts to is that we fans get what is essentially a brand new Cure album! The Demos ARE amazing. When is really comes down to it, who cares when he sang them anyway? These demos ROCK! Check out the demos for "Sex-Eye-Make Up" and "Orgy"

Ah, Blue Sunshine! I'm an old Cure fan, but this is my favorite album of all time, and "Like an Animal" is my favorite song of all time; my favorite lyric of all time, from that song, is the title of this review: no sentiment has ever made me feel more hopeful. I cannot imagine my life without this album. It has provided the essential musical (and muse-ical) background for my life's work, a long fantasy novel. Much other music of all kinds inspires me, but I can honestly say that without this particular album, there would be no novel. That goes especially for "Like an Animal," the most vibrant, brightly-lit, whooshing and uplifting four minutes and forty-four seconds of music to ever have graced my ears; that several thousand pages of fantasy can erupt from a single song is nothing short of a miracle. I agree that Robert's vocals on the "demo" disc sound current, especially on "Like an Animal", but whether they are or not, it is a delight to finally hear the album the way it would have been released had Robert not been contractually obligated not to sing on the majority of tracks (to do so would have made it a Cure album, the record company so judged and so ordered). Of course, Jeannette Landray's vocals, though rather thin, are still powerful to my ear, and I love having both versions of the album at last. It's just fantastic--I'm particularly happy that the demo disc is arranged in the same order as the original album, and that all of the songs are represented. It's nice to have lyrics for "A Blues in Drag" and "The Tightrope", and Robert's howls on the demo version of "Relax" make that phenomenally creepy song even eerier than before. In all, this is a total triumph, more satisfying than any other of the Cure's recent re-releases of their past albums with extra material included. The Glove Blue Sunshine is the pinnacle of psychedelia; may it forever find new ears to dazzle!

This is good and bad. The re-releases, which are obviously recent vocals of Robert Smith to the trained ear, should have been the originals. Why didn't Robert Smith sing the songs in the first place??? As a very long time fan (of The Cure and S and B), I feel taken advantage of.

I sadly wasn't around to see this album happen, but I found it a little while ago buried in the basement. I was a little upset because I had been expecting Robert to be singing all of the vocals. But I love this album like burning. The music is great and you get so into the melodies and layers that you can ignore the singing. I was so happy to see this edition out with Robert's demos. They add to the process. Personally, I think this is one of the greatest things to come out the 80's and it deserves some more attention. If you don't want to buy the whole thing, I would say download the original "Looking glass girl" and then "Mr. Alphabet says" and "Perfect Murder". Mr. Alphabet says is my favorite, but does anybody else think it sounds just a tad like Eleanor Rigby?

Where Steve Severin and Robert Smith ever found vocalist Jeanette Landray for the original version of Blue Sunshine I'll never know, but thankfully her nondescript wavering is absent from this release. Regardless, as a long time fan with a very well trained Cure ear, I honestly believe that this is NOT Robert Smith circa 1983. I am almost certain he has resung over these tracks recently, which I find very deceptive, especially since it's really the hardcore fans who are being sold this re-released package. Shame on you Robert Smith!

I have always wondered if demos existed. Hearing "Punish Me With Kisses" and "Orgy" sung by Mr. Smith gives an insightfull context that was missing. The demos raw four track sound adds a textural ambience that takes us deeper into the rabbit hole. I am so glad this was released. As an old Cure fan this stuff is legend and the long wait was well worth it.

Robert Smith and Steve Severin certainly watched one too many b-movies for inspiration and took a little too much “help”, but the result is a pleasant one-off experimental album. Unfortunately there’s one of those what’s-her-name singers, but even she doesn’t detract from the music and words that are oh-so Smith and Severin. It’s like the Cure and the Banshees morphed in a “The Fly” kind-of-way…creepy, but beautiful to see.