THE CURE: "Show" (Fiction)

LIVE ALBUMS give you the opportunity to hear fuzzy versions of songs you're already familiar with, interspersed by the sound of strangers clapping. That's it, basically. Sometimes you'll get a muffled "Hello Sydney!" or "It's great to be back with you wild and crazy Munich people!" thrown in, or a misguided cover version, probably of a Velvet Underground song. Sometimes, if you listen with your ear right up to the speaker, you'll be able to hear the drummer dropping a stick, or the guitarist and bass player arguing. The between-song banter can be one of the most enlightening facets of the live album, but in The Cure's case this doesn't extend much beyond the occasional, purely functional introduction from Robert Smith.

Show was recorded in Michigan during The Cure's recent 'Wish' tour, with roughly half of the songs taken from that album. Most of the other tracks included are well-known singles like 'Lullaby', 'Just Like Heaven' and 'Inbetween Days', and the quality is such that there's really not a great deal to distinguish between the originals and the live versions aside from the fact that Smithie sounds a little more strained than usual, and the guitarist gets to indulge in a ten second blast of 'All Day And All Of The Night'. The sound is remarkably clean, possibly a result of the 'mixing' by Robert Smith and Brian New, and it's a consistently listenable live album, even at ninety minutes long. Any faults it has lie in the fact that it rarely sounds like a live album at all; there are no fucked-up intros, no band squabbles, the audience applause appears to be made to order, and as a result, Show lacks something in the way of atmosphere and excitement.

It makes up for it by allowing the listener to hear hitch-free versions of some of the very best Cure songs without having to stand in a stadium for three hours surrounded by people reeking of hairspray. Sounds like a good deal, really.

• Lorraine Freeney