The “depressing” song Robert Smith wanted to delete from ‘Bloodflowers’
People who don’t understand The Cure, or any great band to emerge from post-punk’s pool of dark wave, for that matter, will often describe the music as “depressing”.
The reasons are all the same ones that are so often misunderstood about goth, both as a musical genre and a general concept. Lol Tolhurst touched upon this in his book Goth: A History, and also when he said that one of the most annoying things a person can possibly do is get it all misconstrued.
In a conversation with The Guardian, he said that one of the things that irks him the most is when people say, “Oh, but the music is so depressing, and you’re so depressed, and people listening must end up becoming more and more unhappy and even harming themselves.'”
On why it irritates him, he added that “nothing could be further from the truth” and that what their music is about, truly about, is capturing the spirit of all of those who were or are “in love with the melancholy beauty of existence”.
Some of these ideas and concepts, for all intents and purposes, are actually fairly depressing, but not in the way that people think. After all, to embrace the “melancholy beauty of existence”, the key is in the first part of that phrase, where the “melancholy” becomes a conduit for experiencing all of the positive aspects of life that you might not have seen had you not decided to embrace the dark along with the light.
And part of what makes The Cure so great – a big part, actually – is that much of the world and words come from Robert Smith’s personal memories and experiences. As one of the most enduring bands to come out of the late-1970s post-punk scene, The Cure captured the spirit of the times by blending Smith’s imagination with themes that resonate far and wide, including losses in love, life, as well as childhood wonderment, societal fears, and existing in the chaotic swirl of all life has to offer.
And if people call that “depressing”, it’s only because it’s real and authentic, with Smith laying his soul bare and providing an honest self-portrait of all the things that made him who he is. Many of his songs are also embellished with additional flourishes or fictional elements to give them their enhanced flavour, but ultimately, the initial seeds are always extracted from real parts of Smith’s own heart and soul.
However, sometimes, even Smith finds his songs a little too dark. As someone who rarely shies away from the deeper or more difficult topics of conversation, like his own personal struggles with depression and anxiety, it probably comes as a surprise that there’s one song in particular that he felt was a little too much. But on Bloodflowers, the singer struggled with ‘There Is No If’, and actually wanted to leave it off the album entirely, but lost against a broader group vote.
His reason was fairly simple: as he explained to Pulse, the song was inspired by the feeling that “there is no way out” and ended up being what he described as “the only really depressing song on the album”. He also said that he usually ignores being outvoted, but everybody who heard the song loved it, so he was forced to reconsider.
The song is fairly blunt, even by Smith’s standards, but something about its existence gives credence to the other, more hopeful tracks in the band’s discography, almost like a glimpse of the foundations of Smith’s mind and his dedication to honesty, even if sometimes, he isn’t sure he even wants to share those parts of himself at all.
