Back in thee year of 2005, The Cure or actually probably their record label decided to start on the long, tiring quest of re-issuing and re-mastering each of the bands studio albums and making them easily available at any and all music stores. The nice thing about these deluxe editions is that they are digitally remastered from the original master tapes to give them optimal sound and they also come with great packaging, an extensive booklet with rare photos and writings, plus a whole second disc with various rarities from the time period of each albums release.
1981 marked the originally release of, 'Faith' and just before then short lived member Matthieu Hartley had just left the band, and Robert Smith was going through some rough times. He had a religious upbringing and he started to attend church thinking it might bring some comfort and help him fill that void in his life. This is just a hunch but I’m guessing it didn’t help much cause Faith continues on where ‘Seventeen Seconds’ from the previous year left off, but it wasn’t really until this album that Robert Smith found the sound he would continually revisit throughout The Cure’s many years together. With this album The Cure’s sound became increasingly darker, depressing and Gothic rock/Post punk sounding, which actually probably wasn’t the sound Robert was shooting for, but that was the result of this release, anyway.
Predominantly all the songs are very slow with vibrant bass, minimal guitar riffs, gloomy synth washes, and Robert’s depressing and unique voice. This especially holds truth for the dismal songs, ‘All Cats are Grey’ and ‘The Funeral Party,’ which are the type of songs that just make you think, ‘damn…life really sucks.’ The only real exceptions are with, ‘Primary’ & ‘Doubt,’ which are faster paced and mighty catchy Goth rock songs. Faith is a tough album to get into though due to its unnaturally depressing nature.
This re-issue also contains a twenty seven minute song called, ‘Carnage Visors: The Soundtrack,’ which is apparently some song that was only available on the original cassette version of the album. There’s also all the material on the second disc, but most of it is just unpolished demos, which are barely audible, and probably won’t even appeal to the biggest Cure fans out there. Nevertheless its interesting to hear at least a few times. The only really truly mesmerizing songs on this second disc are the live versions, which thankfully have good sound quality and are played with much conviction. So if you’re thinking of buying this re-issue and expecting some lost treasures than don’t get your hopes up cause you probably won’t find them here. However if you don’t own the album getting the re-mastered version is certainly a better idea than buying the original.
The Cure has remained as one of my absolute favorite bands since I was about twelve years old, and Faith is indeed an absolute essential within the Gothic rock/Post punk musical evolution and scene. If you haven't heard it or you thought The Cure was this or that then buy this album and be proved wrong by the overwhelming emotional gloom and doom that is Faith.
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