Nine Lives: The Lovecats

The Cure: The Lovecats

[purchase]

When The Cure released The Lovecats in 1983, the song rose to number seven on the British singles chart. So it’s kind of hard to believe that the album it appeared on at the end of that year, Japanese Whispers, was a holding action, a single and flip sides compilation to keep the fans happy until the next official album came out. At that time, The Cure had just changed bass players, and they or their label seem to have decided to release Japanese Whispers because they weren’t sure when the next album would be ready. Even more remarkable: nowadays, Japanese Whispers is only available as an import.

As for the song, The Lovecats may be described as a love song where the lovers are feral cats. Or maybe fans of The Cure really did court each other this way in 1983. Either way, the song sounds like cats, and not just because of the feline vocalizations. It also has a great beat.