4:13 Dream
| The Cure
4:13 Dream
4:13 Dream is the 13th studio album by English rock band The Cure. It was released on 27 October 2008, through record labels Suretone and Geffen.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
October 31, 2008. But for a "pop" record, a lot of tracks here seem poorly framed, even half-baked, as if Smith's "spontaneous" approach . . . have kept him from putting as much attention into the organization of his songs, the flow of the parts, the clarity of the melodies, the ludicity of the lyrics, or even the firmness of the ideas behind them.
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Consequence of Sound
October 29, 2008. 4:13 Dream is a mildly disappointing effort because it clearly could be a great album but, as aforementioned, it suffers terribly from the production.
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AV Club - Music
October 27, 2008. Though it's billed as the "upbeat" side of The Cure's abandoned double record (the "dark" half is being saved for a future release), 4:13 Dream hardly constitutes Smith's bid for the backyard barbecue.
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Slant Magazine
November 5, 2008. . . . The Cure graduated from college rock to rock superstardom with integrity intact, and the band’s new album, 4:13 Dream, proves that they continuing to make worthwhile music into the 21st century.
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The Guardian
November 8, 2008. . . . for the most part, the Cure's 13th album posits Smith as someone with a renewed zest for life. What Smith sees in goth-metal is a mystery but, sure enough, the final third of 4:13 Dream is studded with the sort of big-haired, suffocating fluff . . . that has blighted his band's reputation in recent years.
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The Washington Post
October 27, 2008. Rest assured, Smith’s wild mood swings on “4:13 Dream” make for a much more engaging listen than anything from 1996’s “Wild Mood Swings.” Or 2000’s “Bloodflowers.” Or 2004’s “The Cure.” In fact, it may even be the band’s best since “Disintegration,” and makes for a bracing, vital addition to an accomplished discography.
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BBC
October 24, 2008. This is classic Cure, weird, wired and wiggy when it needs to be, but never overly glum, harrowing or serious. Time to get the lipstick out again.
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Rolling Stone
October 30, 2008. . . . Smith sounds less like a lovesick prince in 4:13 Dream‘s looping-riff viscera and swallow-you-whole echo, and more like the avenging middle-aged Roger Waters on Pink Floyd’s Animals.
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PopMatters
October 27, 2008. Even so, it's another election year, and as such, it must be time for another album from the Cure, and that album, titled 4:13 Dream, sees the Cure unfortunately spinning its wheels once again.
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Albumism
October 26, 2018. . . . I’ll gratefully celebrate what it is: an enthralling, guitar-driven album featuring Smith’s steady poetic brilliance and the many aesthetic trademarks that make this English band so unforgettable. First and foremost is their exquisite ability to catalyze every emotion into bursting transcendence.
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AllMusic
4:13 Dream may open with the doomed romanticism of "Underneath the Stars," but that slow-crawling mini-epic is a feint, momentarily disguising how this is the Cure's poppiest album since 1992's Wish. Poppy doesn't necessarily mean that 4:13 Dream spills over with fully formed pop songs . . . .
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Paste Magazine
October 31, 2008. Like much of Robert Smith’s work over the past decade, 4:13 Dream is an ambitious mess. The sound is big and unruly: backward tape effects, strangulated psychedelic guitars, Smith wallowing, freaking out, repeating, “You’ve got what I want” with the sublime petulance of a disenchanted old Goth.
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Punknews.org
November 28, 2008. Eight years after they were supposed to break up with swan song Bloodflowers, the Cure returns with their 13th full-length, 4:13 Dream. And while the gloomy yet loving four-piece has been cranking out albums for over 30 years now, there's little for fans to hate about their latest.
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NME
October 24, 2008. Smith repeatedly appeased his unholy gods by releasing Slayer-are-lightweights albums such as ‘Disintegration’ (1989). Since then, he has regularly crept back to the light of the charts and ‘4:13 Dream’ is such an occasion. And one which, given the ’80s revival, is timed to perfection.
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Sputnik Music
October 27, 2008. Classic Cure this is not, but 4:13 Dream is certainly easier to digest than some of the band's previous works.
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Curiouser & Curiouser
November 10, 2008. Unlike its predecessor, the self-titled album, the production on 4:13 is less marred by murkiness and the vocals are more integrated into the music as opposed to lumped gratingly on top of it. . . .. But overall it's a much more palatably mixed effort, and brings out the latent shine of some of the songs . . . .
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Scholars and Rogues
October 31, 2008. 4:13 Dream is Cure-ish enough to satisfy fans and fresh enough to attract new listeners. The Cure’s rock icon status aside, new wave is old hat, and it’s much to Smith’s credit that he keeps pushing The Cure to remain relevant. 4:13 Dream is a dream worth having.
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SPIN
October 30, 2019. For their 13th album, the Cure reverse a long downhill slide with a record that clearly matters — not just to leader Robert Smith, who’s been revising it for years, but to everyone involved, particularly peak-era guitarist Porl Thompson, whose return results in this 30-year-old band’s densest and most detailed effort ever.
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SPEX
November 5, 2008. "4:13 Dream" is a rock-solid album with a few shady, chart-sized glimpses of light, but most fans will probably only search for remnants of canonized hits and hope to listen to those in the encore at the concerts.
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Metal Mole Reviews
January 8, 2019. A Decent record but it did not it finds its way quickly off the stereo after a much reduced time, than last.
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musicOMH
October 27, 2008. As good as 4:13 Dream can be, it never hits the heights of prime Cure, the band of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me or Disintegration.
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Chain Of Flowers
October 9, 2008. "First off, let me preface by saying that this is an album that I find to be best listened to as a cohesive piece of music . . . and the more you listen to it, the more it will immediately grow on you each time…then you can pick your favorites…and the coolest part to me is the total dichotomy of the peacefulness of UTS starting the album to the frantic last two songs…Robert picked a great running order…
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laut.de - Album
October 24, 2008. From this point of view, "4:13" sounds like Robert Smith sometimes unscrewed Porl's volume controller or Jason Cooper pushed Rutesticks into their hands: they can do it differently, but they did not. Of course, The Cure still sound like The Cure and have good quality songs on the pan.
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storiadellamusica.it
Ultimately a return that is more than convincing, agile, fresh and that slips away with pleasure giving us a couple of new classics and many valid and solid tracks. Small flaw the poorly defined mix with all the instruments rather mixed.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
December 14, 2018. Like other Cure albums from the period, '4:13 Dream' tries too hard to replicate the band's best era, but the songs – besides a couple singles – just aren't there.
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Undertherader
November 29, 2008. Robert Smith, the writer of perfect morose pop music has, with his band “The Cure” crafted an almost gem of an album. Starting off with a bang, it unfortunately runs out of fizz in the later stages.
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Hard Rock
April 21, 2017. Opening with the luminous “Underneath The Stars”, 4:13 Dream promises a more traditional experience after the train wreck that was The Cure. After the opener, the album loses some ambition and settles for being a collection of odd pop constructs that harkens back to Wish.
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Prindle Record Reviews
it's basically Wish II: Wishier. Unlike their surprisingly unorthodox 2004 release, 4:13 Dream sounds exactly like The Cure is expected to sound: full of thick fuzzy/echoed guitars, moods both jubilant and suicidal, catchy simple hooks and Robert Smith's caterwauling. There is no hint of stylistic progression to be found.
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Contactmusic.com
November 13, 2008. . . . The Cure haven't changed much in the last 20 years. or if they have, it is not evidenced here. There are the same shimmery guitars, the same bombastic choruses, the same people asking if the engineer slipped on the reverb button again.
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Reflections of Darkness
October 31, 2008. Well, maybe it’s certainly not the killer album everyone was expecting, but it’s definitely not the crap album some people want to make it.
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Norfolk Daily News
October 31, 2008. Through their many guises over nearly 30 years - from Goth rock to dense pop - Smith and The Cure offer a nice balance to all their personas on "4:13 Dream."
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metal.de
Entitled "4:13 Dream" is THE CURE report four years after their self-titled album and a total of 13 times in fresh and more playful form back to the business stage.
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The Student Playlist
December 30, 2018. Essentially, it didn’t really prove anything other than that Robert Smith, despite being three decades into a career, still knew how to make a Cure album. However, Smith described 4:13 Dream as the most “intense… difficult… fraught” album he’s ever made, perhaps explaining why we’re still waiting for another in 2018.
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Nouse
October 30, 2008. The portents for this album were never good. After the ditching of their atmospheric keyboardist and long-standing lead guitarist some people hoped that this was another in a grand history of reinvigorating Cure lineup shakeups; unfortunately, this has not proven to be the case. Ultimately, this album rarely rises above mediocrity; as much as it pains me to say it, this is a disappointing effort.
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PopDose
November 12, 2008. 4:13 Dream is not quite the masterful pop of Head on the Door, or the dense atmospherics of Disintegration, but at times it comes close to combining the two.
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Adrian's Album Reviews
'4:13 Dream' suffers from the same problem all post-wish Cure albums have suffered from - it struggles to find a real reason to actually exist.
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Archa Sung
November 17, 2008. If you want something new to listen to from The Cure, then you might want to check this album out. Hardcore Cure fans are probably going to enjoy this album no matter what, but the casual might want to check out some of the songs before hand.
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IOL Entertainment
February 18, 2009. Neither here nor there. After 14 studio albums (this is their first album in four years), there's a very recognisable Cure sound - the strangulated sound of a despairing Smith whining over layered guitar and keyboards with a dominant, quite melodic bass
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Stereogum
You can tell the band are enjoying the act of creation again, and Smith’s affectionate squeal is in top shape. If there’s a downside, it’s in the undercooked melodies; for all the sugar-coated fun, hardly anything sticks to your ribs.
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The List
November 12, 2008. . . . but moments of 4:13 Dream feel only half thought out and as a result sound disconnected. It works, when Smith’s vocals get wild and untidy, but that’s only half the story.
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WMPG
January 23, 2013. This album makes me look forward to their next effort, so I can applaud that one as well, because I believe the Dream is real – that The Cure can (and will) still make some truly good music.
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mlive.com
November 6, 2008. But a Cure record being a Cure record, there's two minutes of flab for every minute of transcendence. Smith, still trying to recreate the magic of "Disintegration," stretches his material too thin to come anywhere near accomplishing that. But the Cure on "4:13 Dream" remains slightly too good to be written off.
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The Oklahoman
November 7, 2008. This iteration of The Cure rocks more organically — keyboards barely figure in "4:13 Dream” — but Smith has been there and done that so much better before. No matter how aggressive the disc sounds, half-cooked ideas are still half-cooked, no matter whether they are played at top volume or whispered.
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Virgins and Philistines
This, their thirteenth album, did not bring any musical revolution in 2008 and I am pretty sure that many of you forgot that this LP actually existed. A quite good one I must say although it sounds as if Robert Smith did not really decide if he wanted to make a gloomy and heavy record or a light and poppy one.
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