Seventeen Seconds

At the end of the Cure's 1979 UK tour supporting Siouxsie and the Banshees, Robert Smith spoke less and less with bassist Michael Dempsey. Early versions of "Play for Today" and "M" had been performed at a few concerts, but Dempsey did not like the new musical direction that Smith wanted to take. Smith commented: "I think the final straw came when I played Michael the demos for the next album and he hated them. He wanted us to be XTC part 2 and – if anything – I wanted us to be the Banshees part 2. So he left". Smith would go on to say that "Seventeen Seconds was the most personal record that we’ve ever done, strangely enough"{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=SPIN |date=2019-07-19 |title=The Cure: Our 1987 Interview |url=https://www.spin.com/2019/07/the-cure-robert-smith-kiss-me-kiss-me-kiss-me-july-1987-interview/ |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=SPIN |language=en-US}}

Playing guitar with the Banshees for two months and learning their songs opened up another horizon to Smith. "It allowed me to think beyond what we were doing. I wanted to have a band that does what Steven Severin and Budgie do, where they just get a bassline and the drum part and Siouxsie wails".{{cite magazine |title=Glass Half Empty |magazine=The Word |issue=114 |date=August 2012 |last=Fitzpatrick |first=Rob |pages=74–79}} Smith was also particularly influenced by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, and Captain Beefheart at the time.{{Cite web |last=Grow |first=Kory |date=October 18, 2019 |title=The Cure's Robert Smith Looks Back: 'I've Never Thought About Legacy' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/cure-band-robert-smith-interview-40-live-893005/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009232012/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/cure-band-robert-smith-interview-40-live-893005/ |archive-date=October 9, 2024 |access-date=April 19, 2024 |website=Rolling Stone |quote=When we reached the end of the Three Imaginary Boys period with the three-piece, I was a different person and I wanted to do something different. I thought I’d outgrown that trio. I wanted to play the keyboard and other forms of music had influenced me when I was growing up. I listened to early Pink Floyd, because my older brother used to play it all the time. So I was looking back at other influences and I was drawing on things like Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, and Captain Beefheart.}} The records to which Smith was frequently listening during the composition of the album were Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake, Isle of Wight by Jimi Hendrix, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison and Low by David Bowie.{{cite magazine |title=Bad Medicine |magazine=Uncut |issue=33 |date=February 2000 |last=Oldham |first=James |pages=37–43}}

Smith wrote the lyrics and music for most of the record at his parents' home, on a Hammond organ with a built-in tape recorder. Interviewed in 2004, producer Mike Hedges did not recall any demo tracks, with the band generally playing the track in the studio before laying down a backing track to which overdubs were added.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec04/articles/classictracks.htm |title=Classic Tracks: The Cure 'A Forest' |magazine=Sound on Sound |date=December 2004 |access-date=18 October 2012 |last=Buskin |first=Richard}}

Two members of the Magazine Spies, bass guitarist Simon Gallup and keyboardist Matthieu Hartley, were added to the band's lineup.{{cite AV media notes |title=Seventeen Seconds |others=The Cure |publisher=Universal Music Group |edition=deluxe |year=2005 |type=CD booklet |last=Black |first=Johnny}} Gallup replaced Dempsey, which relieved Smith as he felt Dempsey's basslines were too ornate. Hartley's synth work added a new dimension to the band's newly ethereal sound, although he would later clash with Smith over complexity; Hartley enjoyed complex chords but Smith wanted single notes.

Money was short, so the album was recorded and mixed in seven days on a budget of between £2,000 and £3,000, which resulted in the band working 16 or 17 hours a day. Smith stated that as a result, the track "The Final Sound", which was planned to be much longer, was cut down to 53 seconds because the tape ran out while recording and the band could not record it again. The album, mostly a collection of downbeat tracks, features ambient echoing vocals {{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11706-seventeen-seconds-faith-pornography/ |title=The Cure: Seventeen Seconds / Faith / Pornography |website=Pitchfork |date=12 May 2005 |access-date=18 October 2012 |last=Abebe |first=Nitsuh}} with the sonic direction driven by its drum sound.

Retrospectively, Seventeen Seconds has been considered an early example of gothic rock.{{cite book |title=The Dark Reign of Gothic Rock: In the Reptile House with The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and The Cure |last=Thompson |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Thompson (author) |publisher=Helter Skelter Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=1-900924-48-X |page=70}}{{cite book |title=Never Enough: The Story of The Cure |last=Apter |first=Jeff |publisher=Omnibus Press |year=2006 |isbn=1-84449-827-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/neverenoughstory00apte}} Its "gloomscapes" are considered to be "a sonic touchstone" for the forthcoming movement. The track "The Final Sound" is "so positively gothic you could almost be fooled into believing that it was lifted from the soundtrack of some Hammer horror gorefest". The album has also been described as new wave{{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11887-the-top-the-head-on-the-door-kiss-me-kiss-me-kiss-me-blue-sunshine/ |title=The Cure / Robert Smith: The Top / The Head on the Door / Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me / Blue Sunshine |website=Pitchfork |date=25 August 2006 |access-date=8 January 2016 |last=Abebe |first=Nitsuh}} and post-punk.{{cite web|date=1 April 2020|title=The Cure perform post-punk gem 'Play For Today' live 1980|url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-cure-robert-smith-play-for-today-live-video-1980/|access-date=7 January 2023|website=Far Out Magazine}}

Seventeen Seconds was released on 18 April 1980. It reached No. 20 on the British album charts. The record was repackaged in the US in 1981 (on the A&M label) with Faith as Happily Ever After, available as a double LP. In 2005, the album was remastered as part of Universal's Deluxe Edition series, featuring bonus live tracks and demos as well as studio material by Cult Hero, a 1970s-style progressive rock band along the lines of Easy Cure that featured Smith's postman Frank Bell as lead singer. Seventeen Seconds charted in the United States for the first time in September 2020, when it debuted at No. 186 on the Billboard 200 album chart.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-cure/chart-history/tlp/ |title=The Cure Chart History (Billboard 200) |magazine=Billboard |access-date=13 September 2020}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/seventeen-seconds-mw0000194817 |title=Seventeen Seconds – The Cure |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=28 January 2013 |last=True |first=Chris}}

| rev2 = Blender

| rev2score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite magazine |url=http://blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3479 |title=The Cure: Seventeen Seconds |magazine=Blender |issue=41 |date=October 2005 |access-date=2 November 2015 |last=Wolk |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Wolk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051123005820/http://blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3479 |archive-date=23 November 2005 |url-status=dead}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3score = B{{cite magazine |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2005/04/11/ew-reviews-latest-album-reissues |title=EW reviews the latest album reissues |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=11 April 2005 |access-date=7 January 2016 |last=Sinclair |first=Tom}}

| rev4 = The Guardian

| rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/20/popandrock.shopping14 |title=The Cure, Seventeen Seconds |newspaper=The Guardian |date=19 May 2005 |access-date=12 November 2012 |last=Sweeting |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Sweeting}}

| rev5 = Mojo

| rev5score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Death became them |magazine=Mojo |issue=139 |date=June 2005 |last=Perry |first=Andrew |page=116}}

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 7.5/10

| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev7score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite book |chapter=The Cure |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Sheffield |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor-last=Brackett |editor-first=Nathan |editor-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&pg=PA205 205–06]}}

| rev8 = Smash Hits

| rev8score = 8/10{{cite magazine |title=The Cure: Seventeen Seconds |magazine=Smash Hits |volume=2 |issue=9 |date=1–14 May 1980 |last=Cranna |first=Ian |page=29}}

| rev9 = Sounds

| rev9score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Garden gnomes |magazine=Sounds |date=26 May 1980 |last=Sutcliffe |first=Phil}}

| rev10 = Uncut

| rev10score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Power of three |magazine=Uncut |issue=97 |date=June 2005 |last=Martin |first=Piers |page=124}}

}}

The album's songs have been described by critics as featuring vague, often unsettling lyrics and dark, spare, minimalistic melodies. Some reviewers, such as Nick Kent of NME, felt that Seventeen Seconds represented a far more mature Cure, who had come very far musically in less than one year.{{cite magazine |title=Why science can't find Cure for vagueness |magazine=NME |date=26 April 1980 |last=Kent |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Kent}} Ian Cranna of Smash Hits wrote that the band were creating more ambitious music, while still retaining their "powerful melodic intensity". Chris Westwood of Record Mirror was less enthusiastic, viewing the album as "a sidewards step" rather than a progression; he found the material "biteless, a bit distant", showcasing a "reclusive, disturbed Cure, sitting in cold, dark, empty rooms, watching clocks".{{cite magazine |title=The Cure: Seventeen Seconds / Monochrome Set: Strange Boutique |magazine=Record Mirror |date=26 April 1980 |last=Westwood |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Westwood (author) |page=19}}

Simon Reynolds said the album was "translucent-sounding", with shades of the Durutti Column, Young Marble Giants and Another Green World by Brian Eno.{{cite book |title=Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 |title-link=Rip It Up and Start Again |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=2005 |isbn=0571215696 |page=429}} AllMusic writer Chris True said that while Seventeen Seconds had come to be largely overlooked in later years apart from its single "A Forest", it nonetheless represented an important development for the Cure, capturing them becoming "more rigid in sound, and more disciplined in attitude", and anticipating the bleak lyrical themes that would become more apparent on subsequent Cure albums.

Seventeen Seconds was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.{{cite book |title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |title-link=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |editor-last=Dimery |editor-first=Robert |publisher=Universe Publishing |edition=revised and updated |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7893-2074-2}} The authors note: "Like the album's cover art, which is little more than an abstract blur, the bleak, minimalist sound of Seventeen Seconds-era Cure is subtly suggestive." Attention is drawn to the "beguiling bleakness, both in its brief instrumentals and the more pop-oriented tracks (such as the sharp, hook-laden 'Play for Today') that hark back to their earlier work." In 2020, Rolling Stone included Seventeen Seconds in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list.{{cite web|url= https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-1980-1075743/|title=The 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 What came out of all this was, arguably, the greatest year for great albums ever|publisher=Rolling Stone|date=11 November 2020 |access-date=12 November 2020}}

{{track listing

| headline = Side A

| all_lyrics = Robert Smith

| all_music = The Cure (Smith, Matthieu Hartley, Simon Gallup and Lol Tolhurst)

| title1 = A Reflection

| length1 = 2:12

| title2 = Play for Today

| length2 = 3:40

| title3 = Secrets

| length3 = 3:20

| title4 = In Your House

| length4 = 4:07

| title5 = Three

| length5 = 2:36

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Side B

| title6 = The Final Sound

| length6 = 0:52

| title7 = A Forest

| length7 = 5:55

| title8 = M

| length8 = 3:04

| title9 = At Night

| length9 = 5:54

| title10 = Seventeen Seconds

| length10 = 4:00

}}

{{track listing

| headline = 2005 CD Deluxe Edition bonus disc

| title1 = I'm a Cult Hero

| note1 = vinyl single by Cult Hero, December 1979

| length1 = 2:59

| title2 = I Dig You

| note2 = vinyl single by Cult Hero, December 1979

| length2 = 3:40

| title3 = Another Journey by Train (AKA 44F)

| note3 = group home instrumental demo, January 1980

| length3 = 3:12

| title4 = Secrets

| note4 = group home instrumental demo, January 1980

| length4 = 3:40

| title5 = Seventeen Seconds

| note5 = live in Amsterdam, January 1980

| length5 = 3:59

| title6 = In Your House

| note6 = live in Amsterdam, January 1980

| length6 = 3:32

| title7 = Three

| note7 = alternate studio mix, February 1980

| length7 = 2:45

| title8 = I Dig You

| note8 = Cult Hero live at the Marquee Club, London, March 1980

| length8 = 3:36

| title9 = I'm a Cult Hero

| note9 = Cult Hero live at the Marquee Club, London, March 1980

| length9 = 3:21

| title10 = M

| note10 = live in Arnhem, May 1980

| length10 = 2:56

| title11 = The Final Sound

| note11 = live in France, June 1980

| length11 = 0:26

| title12 = A Reflection

| note12 = live in France, June 1980

| length12 = 1:39

| title13 = Play for Today

| note13 = live in France, June 1980

| length13 = 3:46

| title14 = At Night

| note14 = live in France, June 1980

| length14 = 5:37

| title15 = A Forest

| note15 = live in France, June 1980

| length15 = 6:28

}}

Note

• The US and UK cassette versions feature different cover art, with some tree branches at left and a reddish blob at the bottom, and have an alternate track order, with "A Forest" appearing as track 2 on Side A, switching places with "Play For Today" appearing as track 2 on Side B:

{{track listing

| headline = Side A

| title1 = A Reflection

| length1 = 2:12

| title2 = A Forest

| length2 = 5:55

| title3 = Secrets

| length3 = 3:20

| title4 = In Your House

| length4 = 4:07

| title5 = Three

| length5 = 2:36

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Side B

| title6 = The Final Sound

| length6 = 0:52

| title7 = Play for Today

| length7 = 3:40

| title8 = M

| length8 = 3:04

| title9 = At Night

| length9 = 5:54

| title10 = Seventeen Seconds

| length10 = 4:00

}}

The Cure

• Robert Smith – guitars, vocals
• Simon Gallup – bass
• Matthieu Hartley – keyboards
• Lol Tolhurst – drums

Production

• The Cure – production
• Mike Hedges – production, engineering
• Chris Parry – production assistance
• Mike Dutton – engineering
• Nigel Green – engineering assistance
• Andrew Warwick – engineering assistance
• Andrew Douglas – photography
• Bill Smith and the Cure – cover art{{cite AV media |type=LP liner notes |title=Seventeen Seconds |date=1980 |publisher=Fiction Records |id=2383 574 }}

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{{col-2}}

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{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|title=Seventeen Seconds|type=album|artist=The Cure|relyear=1980|certyear=1986|region=France|award=Gold|source=infodisc|access-date=November 18, 2021}}

{{Certification Table Entry|title=Seventeen Seconds|type=album|artist=The Cure|relyear=1980|id=1981-10-09|source=newchart|access-date=2024-11-20|region=New Zealand|award=Platinum}}

{{Certification Table Bottom}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.radio3net.ro/dbartists/supersearch/U2V2ZW50ZWVuIFNlY29uZHMgKEZpY3Rpb24p/Seventeen%20Seconds%20%28Fiction%29 Seventeen Seconds] (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• {{Discogs master|20278|type=album}}

{{The Cure}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:The Cure albums

Category:Fiction Records albums

Category:1980 albums

Category:Albums produced by Mike Hedges

Category:Elektra Records albums

Category:Rhino Entertainment albums

Category:Albums recorded at Morgan Sound Studios