Faith (The Cure album)

Faith
Studio album by The Cure
Released	11 April 1981
Recorded	September-November 1980, Morgan Studios
Genre	Post-punk, gothic rock
Length	36:54
Label	Fiction, Polydor
Producer	The Cure, Mike Hedges
The Cure chronology
Seventeen Seconds (1980) Faith (1981) Pornography (1982)
Singles from Faith
"Primary" Released: 20 March 1981

Faith is the third studio album by English alternative rock band The Cure. It was released on 11 April 1981, through Fiction and Polydor Records. Faith is often seen as the midpoint in The Cure's unofficial "Dark Trilogy" that begins with 1980's Seventeen Seconds and concludes with 1982's Pornography.

Background and Carnage Visors

Following the tour for Seventeen Seconds, The Cure returned to Morgan Studios on 27 September 1980 to record a new album. During this session, recordings of songs "All Cats Are Grey" and "Primary" were attempted, but neither ended up on the album. Robert Smith was hoping the tracks would sound "funereal", but instead he said "they just sounded dull". Several other studios were tried – Red Bus, Trident, The Roundhouse and Abbey Road.

Much of Faith was written in the studio. At least two songs on the album, "All Cats Are Grey" and "The Drowning Man", are inspired by the Gormenghast novels of Mervyn Peake.

It is the first album by The Cure to feature six-string bass guitar; the song "All Cats Are Grey" features Smith on keyboards and piano, with no guitar at all.

The front cover, designed by former and future member Porl Thompson, is a picture of Bolton Priory in the village of Bolton Abbey in the fog.

The instrumental piece "Carnage Visors" (an antonym for rose-coloured spectacles; originally available only on the long-play cassette release) is the soundtrack of Carnage Visors, a short film by Ric Gallup, Simon's brother. It was screened at the beginning of shows in place of a support band on the 1981 Picture Tour, and featured animation of several dolls in different positions and stances. The film has since disappeared, and only Lol Tolhurst, Robert Smith and Simon Gallup own copies of it, though during a televised interview in the mid-1980s the host of the program surprised the band by playing a clip of the film on set.

Release, critical reception and legacy

Faith was released on 11 April 1981. It reached number 14 on the UK album chart.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Pitchfork	8.8/10
Record Mirror	negative
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Piero Scaruffi	6/10
Sounds
Stylus Magazine	A−

Faith received an ambivalent response from critics on its release. Sounds gave the album a rating of four and a half stars out of five. Reviewer John Gill felt that the two fast tracks "Primary" and "Doubt" were reminiscent of their previous work, with a "sense of strong, haunting melody." However, he noted that the rest of the album was different, describing it as "a modern-day Dusseldorf" with a "Neu-ish sense of smudged melody, soft tones flowing around a languorous, groaning bass", also evoking the Sixties of the [Pink] Floyd and the Doors. Gill finally said: "Faith requires a personal act of involvement, the reward being a sense of belonging." Melody Maker found the record "impressive", hailing its "richness and deceptive power". Writer Adam Sweeting hailed Faith as "a sophisticated exercise in atmosphere and production". He concluded "It's gloomy but frequently majestic, never using brute force where auto-suggestion will do. You may not love it, but you'll become addicted to it."

NME reviewed the album with a picture of the band and a caption saying: "Gloomy? Gothic? Us?". Writer Ray Lowry lambasted Faith and wrote that "it says absolutely nothing meaningful". In the end, Lowry found that "this is just the modern face of Pink Floydism." Record Mirror panned the album, writing "The Cure remain stuck in the hackneyed doom-mongering that should have died with Joy Division", ultimately calling it "hollow, shallow, pretentious, meaningless, self-important and bereft of any real heart or soul".

In their retrospective review, AllMusic called Faith "a depressing record, certainly, but also one of the most underrated and beautiful albums The Cure put together."

In the years 2000's, "Primary" was covered by The Dandy Warhols for the Cure tribute album Perfect as Cats: A Tribute to The Cure.

Live performances

In 2011, The Cure performed the album in its entirety over two dates for the Vivid Live festival at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia. The performances, billed as The Cure: 'Reflections', were recorded for potential DVD release.

Reissue

Faith was reissued in the UK on 25 April 2005 (26th in the US) as part of Universal Music's Deluxe Edition series. The new edition features a remastered version of the album and the "Carnage Visors" soundtrack on disc one, while disc two contains demo and live tracks as well as the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes". It features a few never-before-released tracks (in demo form; all instrumentals), while each song on the first disc except "Carnage Visors" has an alternate version on the second disc, whether it be a demo or live rendition.

There also exists a one-CD reissue. It was released on 5 September 2005 in the UK and 4 April 2006 in the US. The CD, released in the standard jewel case, rather than a digipak, features the original album, but does not contain the bonus disc. It also excludes the song "Carnage Visors".

Track listing

All lyrics by Robert Smith, all music by The Cure (Smith, Simon Gallup, Lol Tolhurst).

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Holy Hour"	4:25
2.	"Primary"	3:35
3.	"Other Voices"	4:28
4.	"All Cats Are Grey"	5:28

Side two
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Funeral Party"	4:14
2.	"Doubt"	3:11
3.	"The Drowning Man"	4:50
4.	"Faith"	6:43

Cassette bonus track
No.	Title	Length
5.	"Carnage Visors"	27:51

2005 CD Deluxe Edition bonus disc: Rarities 1980–1981
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Faith" (Robert Smith home instrumental demo)	2:56
2.	"Doubt" (Robert Smith home instrumental demo)	1:09
3.	"Drowning" (group home instrumental demo)	1:52
4.	"The Holy Hour" (group home demo)	4:48
5.	"Primary" (studio out-take)	4:22
6.	"Going Home Time" (studio out-take)	3:31
7.	"The Violin Song" (studio out-take)	3:38
8.	"A Normal Story" (studio out-take)	3:04
9.	"All Cats Are Grey" (live "somewhere", "Summer 1980/1981")	5:37
10.	"The Funeral Party" (live "somewhere", "Summer 1980/1981")	4:38
11.	"Other Voices" (live "somewhere", "Summer 1980/1981")	4:45
12.	"The Drowning Man" (live "Australasia", "Summer 1980/1981")	5:48
13.	"Faith" (live at Capitol Theatre, Sydney, August 1981)	10:23
14.	"Forever" (live "somewhere", "Summer" 1981)	9:19
15.	"Charlotte Sometimes"	4:13

Personnel

The Cure

• Robert Smith – guitar, keyboard, six-string bass guitar, vocals, production
• Simon Gallup – bass guitar, production
• Lol Tolhurst – drums, production

Production

• Mike Hedges – production, engineering
• David Kemp – engineering
• Martyn Webster – engineering assistance
• Porl Thompson – album cover design

Charts

Singles – Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1981	"Primary"	Club Play Singles	25

External links

• Faith at Discogs (list of releases)