Editing Seventeen Seconds (section)

== Reception and legacy ==
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name="AllMusic">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/seventeen-seconds-mw0000194817 |title=''Seventeen Seconds'' – The Cure |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=28 January 2013 |last=True |first=Chris}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3479 |title=The Cure: ''Seventeen Seconds'' |magazine=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]] |issue=41 |date=October 2005 |access-date=2 November 2015 |last=Wolk |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Wolk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051123005820/http://blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3479 |archive-date=23 November 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''
| rev3score = B<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2005/04/11/ew-reviews-latest-album-reissues |title=EW reviews the latest album reissues |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=11 April 2005 |access-date=7 January 2016 |last=Sinclair |first=Tom}}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[The Guardian]]''
| rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/20/popandrock.shopping14 |title=The Cure, ''Seventeen Seconds'' |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=19 May 2005 |access-date=12 November 2012 |last=Sweeting |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Sweeting}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| rev5score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Death became them |magazine=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]] |issue=139 |date=June 2005 |last=Perry |first=Andrew |page=116}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''
| rev6score = 7.5/10<ref name="Pitchfork"/>
| rev7 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev7score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Cure |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Sheffield |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor-last=Brackett |editor-first=Nathan |editor-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&pg=PA205 205–06]}}</ref>
| rev8 = ''[[Smash Hits]]''
| rev8score  = 8/10<ref name="Cranna">{{cite magazine |title=The Cure: ''Seventeen Seconds'' |magazine=[[Smash Hits]] |volume=2 |issue=9 |date=1–14 May 1980 |last=Cranna |first=Ian |page=29}}</ref>
| rev9 = ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]''
| rev9score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Garden gnomes |magazine=[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]] |date=26 May 1980 |last=Sutcliffe |first=Phil}}</ref>
| rev10 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev10score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Power of three |magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |issue=97 |date=June 2005 |last=Martin |first=Piers |page=124}}</ref>
}}

The album's songs have been described by critics as featuring vague, often unsettling lyrics and dark, spare, minimalistic melodies. Some reviewers, such as [[Nick Kent]] of ''[[NME]]'', felt that ''Seventeen Seconds'' represented a far more mature Cure, who had come very far musically in less than one year.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Why science can't find Cure for vagueness |magazine=[[NME]] |date=26 April 1980 |last=Kent |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Kent}}</ref> Ian Cranna of ''[[Smash Hits]]'' wrote that the band were creating more ambitious music, while still retaining their "powerful melodic intensity".<ref name="Cranna"/> [[Chris Westwood (author)|Chris Westwood]] of ''[[Record Mirror]]'' was less enthusiastic, viewing the album as "a sidewards step" rather than a progression; he found the material "biteless, a bit distant", showcasing a "reclusive, disturbed Cure, sitting in cold, dark, empty rooms, watching clocks".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Cure: ''Seventeen Seconds'' / Monochrome Set: ''Strange Boutique'' |magazine=[[Record Mirror]] |date=26 April 1980 |last=Westwood |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Westwood (author) |page=19}}</ref>

[[Simon Reynolds]] said the album was "translucent-sounding", with shades of [[the Durutti Column]], [[Young Marble Giants]] and ''[[Another Green World]]'' by [[Brian Eno]].<ref name="Reynolds">{{cite book |title=Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 |title-link=Rip It Up and Start Again |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |year=2005 |isbn=0571215696 |page=429}}</ref> [[AllMusic]] writer Chris True said that while ''Seventeen Seconds'' had come to be largely overlooked in later years apart from its single "[[A Forest]]", it nonetheless represented an important development for the Cure, capturing them becoming "more rigid in sound, and more disciplined in attitude", and anticipating the bleak lyrical themes that would become more apparent on subsequent Cure albums.<ref name="AllMusic"/>

''Seventeen Seconds'' was included in the book ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref name="Dimery">{{cite book |title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |title-link=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |editor-last=Dimery |editor-first=Robert |publisher=[[Universe Publishing]] |edition=revised and updated |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7893-2074-2}}</ref> The authors note: "Like the album's cover art, which is little more than an abstract blur, the bleak, minimalist sound of ''Seventeen Seconds''-era Cure is subtly suggestive." Attention is drawn to the "beguiling bleakness, both in its brief instrumentals and the more pop-oriented tracks (such as the sharp, hook-laden 'Play for Today') that hark back to their earlier work."<ref name="Dimery"/> In 2020, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' included ''Seventeen Seconds'' in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-1980-1075743/|title=The 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 What came out of all this was, arguably, the greatest year for great albums ever|publisher=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=11 November 2020 |access-date=12 November 2020}}</ref>