Shallow Rewards

Shallow Rewards
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Town decrier 1975-2025. Celebrating the days of advertised oversampling ratios.

  1. 09/12/2023

    The Cure: The Head on the Door

    On the shaky start to the Cure’s Imperial era, their ascension to alternative rock royalty, and the concessions required to right Robert Smith’s foundering career in the mid 1980s.

    39 min

  2. 01/08/2023

    The Cure: Curiosa, 4:13 Dream and Songs of a Lost World

    Bringing the Shallow Rewards Cure podcasts up to date, this episode covers the last twenty years of the band: the 2004 self-titled LP, 4:13 Dream and my first impressions of the material likely to feature on the forthcoming Songs of a Lost World.

    46 min
  3. The Cure: Bloodflowers

    09/08/2021

    The Cure: Bloodflowers

    On the unexpectedly estimable Bloodflowers, Robert Smith’s legacy-saving last gasp as a songwriter; its tragically dated brick wall + Pro Tools production; and Smith’s egotistical severing of ties with everyone who’d helped fashion the Cure in its glory days.

    39 min
  4. The Cure: Wild Mood Swings

    08/23/2021

    The Cure: Wild Mood Swings

    On the tragic collapse of the Cure following the career-topping Wish, the various distractions that beset Wild Mood Swings, and how the persistent obstinance Robert Smith had relied on for so long finally failed him.Here’s the Vox article I reference in the last third of the show.

    41 min
  5. The Cure: Wish

    07/21/2021

    The Cure: Wish

    On the Cure’s surfeit of activity between Disintegration and Wish; the 1992 smash album’s highs and lows; and how for many fans, Wish remains a disappointment when set against the material that preceded it. Further to the podcast, please enjoy an essay I wrote on the subject, and an attendant remix of Wish, from 2011.

    36 min
  6. The Smiths is Dead

    06/13/2021

    The Smiths is Dead

    Over a few drinks, and Stephen Kijak’s calamitous Shoplifters of the World, Elliot Busch-Wheaton returns after a five-year hiatus to discuss the legacy of the Smiths and Morrissey in America.

    42 min

  7. 02/24/2021

    The Cure: Blue Sunshine, the Banshees & The Top

    On Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ brief, turbulent marriage; the side projects that outshone their combined efforts; and how from fall 1982 to fall 1984, Robert Smith lost the plot in order to find it again. Pursuant to this era are a few essays I contributed to a tumblr called One Week One Band eight years ago: MINUTIAE & MADNESS: THE CURE IN 1982LIKE AN ANIMAL: ROBERT SMITH IN WONDERLANDTHE LOOKING GLASS GIRL A Spotify playlist is available here.

    38 min
  8. The Cure: Pornography

    02/18/2021

    The Cure: Pornography

    On the rabid, raging fin de siècle of the Cure’s vaunted goth trilogy, Pornography; whether it is the singular statement the band and critics have increasingly claimed; and the murkier reality of Robert Smith’s many extracurricular entanglements in 1982. A Spotify playlist available here.

    28 min
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About

Town decrier 1975-2025. Celebrating the days of advertised oversampling ratios.

Information

  • Creator
    Shallow Rewards
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2023
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Shallow Rewards
  • Show Website
    Shallow Rewards