Music / Seventeen Seconds (Album)

Seventeen Seconds, a measure of life.

Seventeen Seconds is the second album by The Cure, released in 1980 through Fiction Records. It established them as one of the most famous bands within the Goth Rock genre. The entire album had to work with a low budget and thus was recorded and mixed in seven days. Still it generated one of their Signature Song hits, "A Forest" and broke them to the mainstream, earning respect from the critics at the same time.

Tracklist

Side One

1. "A Reflection" (2:12)
2. "Play For Today" (3:40)
3. "Secrets" (3:20)
4. "In Your House" (4:07)
5. "Three" (2:36)

Side Two[numlist:6]

1. "The Final Sound" (0:52)
2. "A Forest" (5:55)
3. "M" (3:04)
4. "At Night" (5:54)
5. "Seventeen Seconds" (4:00)

Personnel

• Robert Smith: vocals, guitar, production
• Matthieu Hartley: keyboards, synthesizer, piano, production
• Lol Tolhurst: drums, programming, production
• Simon Gallup: bass guitar, production

Troped in the forest, all alone

• Alliterative Title: "Seventeen Seconds".
• Broken Record: The line "And again" in "A Forest". Live performances may play this up by Robert Smith sometimes adding even more "agains."
• Cut Short: "The Final Sound" was originally planned to be much longer, but cut down to 53 seconds because, while recording, the tape ran out.
• Darker and Edgier: As compared to Three Imaginary Boys. This is their first album to contain their signature Goth Rock sound after "Three Imaginary Boys" was more closer to classic Punk Rock.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • "In Your House"
  I hear no sound in your house. Silence.
  In the empty rooms I drown at night in your house
  Pretending to swim, pretending to swim
  • "A Forest"
  I'm running towards nothing again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and agaiiiin!
• Goth Rock: This album is one of the earliest records in the genre.
• Indecipherable Lyrics: The vocals on "Three" are buried so deep in the mix, that it's pretty much impossible to understand anything on them. You can probably hear "scream" at some point, but that's about it.
• Instrumentals: "A Reflection" and "The Final Sound".
• Loving a Shadow: "A Forest", if interpreted metaphorically, has the protagonist look for a girl who is supposedly lost, only to find out she "was never there". He then realizes, lost himself, he just ran "towards nothing", which we assume is not the first time in his life.
  The girl was never there, it's always the same
  I'm running towards nothing again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and agaiiiin!
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Seriously: try to describe what you see on the cover!
• New Sound Album: While their first album was already not the happiest record around it was "Seventeen Seconds" that established them as Goth Rock.
• Nightmare Sequence: According to at least one interview, Robert Smith said that A Forest was based on a nightmare he had when he was young where he was lost in a forest. However in a later interview, he denies this saying "it's just just about a forest."
• One-Letter Title: "M"
• One-Word Title:
  • "Secrets"
  • "Three", also a Title by Number.
• Record Producer: Mike Hedges. The first of two albums he would produce for the band. Prior to this, he was the engineer for Three Imaginary Boys.
• Shout-Out
  • "Play for Today" is named after a drama anthology series on The BBC.
  • Another song is named after Fritz Lang's M
• Title Track: "Seventeen Seconds".
  Seventeen seconds, a measure of life.
• Tragic Dream: "Seventeen Seconds"
  The dream had to end.
  The wish never came true
• Unrequited Love: "Secrets"
  I wish I was yours
  Strangers
  Nobody knows we love

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