Expanding the latent arena rock sensibilities that peppered Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by slowing them down and stretching them to the breaking point, the Cure reached the peak of their popularity with the crawling, darkly seductive Disintegration. It's a hypnotic, mesmerizing record, comprised almost entirely of epics like the soaring, icy ...
"First time available on CD" is often a way of putting a spin on words like "scraps" or "rubbish." This is the case with the second disc of Rhino's Pornography reissue. Like all the deluxe editions of the Cure's back catalog, the album is packaged with a spectacular layout containing plenty of photos and biographical liner notes, but the decision ...
Simultaneously more accessible and ambitious than any of the Cure's previous albums, the double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me finds Robert Smith expanding his pop vocabulary by tentatively adding bigger guitars, the occasional horn section, lite-funk rhythms, and string sections. It's eclectic, to be sure, but it's also a mess, bouncing from ...
The Cure were never afraid of artistically defining themselves. They had their own sound, an eerie glamour surrounding a dark whimsicality, yet fans flocked to them throughout the '80s and '90s. Commercial or cult favorites, they're impressive as being one of the '80s' seminal bands who culled more than 30 critical singles. Compilations like 1986 ...
Part two of an unofficial trilogy that begins with 1980's Seventeen Seconds and ends with 1982's Pornography -- acknowledged as such by Rhino, who unloaded deluxe reissues of all three on the same day -- Faith now comes with the expected second disc of demos, outtakes, scarcities, and so-so-sounding performance material. The most noteworthy ...
Approximately five months after Rhino released the two-disc reissue of Three Imaginary Boys, the label gave Cure albums two through four -- 1980's Seventeen Seconds, 1981's Faith, 1982's Pornography -- similar treatment, with scads of photos, biographical liner notes, and archive ransackings all part of the design. The initial bare-bones CD issues ...
It's ironic that the Cure, a band whose albums have always seemed like definitive artistic statements, were at their best as a singles band. On the group's singles, Robert Smith's ideas reached their full potential, since they captured not only the group's off-kilter pop sense, but also the haunting melancholy and wacky humor that interlaced Smith ...
An assortment of remixes, re-recordings, old singles, and one new song ("Never Enough"). Most of the remixes are quite radical, leaving only the bare bones of the original song. There are enough oddities and rare tracks on Mixed Up to make it necessary for Cure fans, but it's too specialized for casual listeners. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All ...
For a long time, maybe 15 years or so, Robert Smith rumbled about the Cure's imminent retirement whenever the band had a new album ready for release. Invariably, Smith said the particular album served as a fitting epitaph, and it was now time for him to bring the Cure to an end and pursue something else, maybe a solo career, maybe a new band, ...
It's hard to believe that the Cure could release an album even more sparse than Three Imaginary Boys, but here's the proof. The lineup change that saw funkstery bassist Michael Dempsey squeezed out in favor of the more specific playing of (eventually the longest serving member outside Robert Smith) Simon Gallup, and the addition of keyboardist ...
After recording one of their darkest albums, 1983's The Top, the Cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup in 1984 and ended up changing their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound and even recorded one of the lightest songs of the '80s, "The Lovecats," The Head on the Door is where they become a ...
Later hailed as one of the key goth rock albums of the '80s and considered by many hardcore Cure fans to be the band's best album, Pornography was largely dismissed upon its 1982 release, witheringly reviewed as a leaden slab of whining and moping. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between: Pornography is much better than most mainstream ...
After the relatively straightforward pop of Wish, the Cure moved back toward stranger, edgier territory with Wild Mood Swings. Actually, that's only part of the truth. As the title suggests, there's a vast array of textures and emotions on Wild Mood Swings, from the woozy mariachi lounge horns of "The 13th" to the perfect pop of "Mint Car" and the ...
Certainly not the "darkest" the Cure would eventually get, Faith is, as represented by the cover art, one of the most "gray" records out there. Melancholy and despondent (the feel of funerals and old churches just oozes from this record) without the anger that would over take Pornography, Faith comes off as not just a collection of songs, but as a ...
Falling somewhere between official release and compilation, Boys Don't Cry was released in February 1980 in hopes to get the band exposure outside of the U.K.. It captures the first phase of the band well, showcasing the angular new wave that had garnered them acclaim in England. What separates this from the debut full-length (and thus qualifying ...
On the surface, Wish sounds happier than Disintegration, and the sunny British Invasion hooks of the hit single "Friday I'm in Love" certainly seem to indicate that the record is a brighter affair than its predecessor. Dig a little deeper and the album reveals itself to be just as tortured, and perhaps more despairing. Granted, the sound of the ...
Concentrating on their recent, pop-oriented material, Show is a good, if unspectacular, representation of the Cure in concert. Only devoted fans need to own this album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
The Cure's High single really isn't all that remarkable, but that's not to say there's anything wrong with it. "High" is one of the high points on Wish, much the same as it is here. The opening track sounds identical to the version on Wish with its winning R.E.M. meets Joy Division (jangle meets gloom) glories. "This Twilight Garden" is an ...
Maybe it was youthful exuberance or perhaps it was the fact that the band itself was not pulling all the strings, Three Imaginary Boys is not only a very strong debut, but a near oddity (it's an admittedly "catchy" record) in the Cure catalog. More poppy and representative of the times than any other album during their long career, Three Imaginary ...
Normally speaking, a box set of nothing but B-sides and unreleased tracks would only be of interest to rabid fans, but the Cure have never really been a "normal" band. While their longevity alone -- nearly 25 years -- is certainly the most obvious clue to their uniqueness, Robert Smith's true charm lies in his ability to craft memorable songs that ...
Show featured mostly hit singles; Paris features the songs that built their cult, including "Close to Me" and "Letter to Elise." Consequently, most fans will find this the more interesting of the two live albums, and, out of the two records, it is the more consistent and satisfying. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
The lead single in America from Disintegration, "Fascination Street" is a compelling example of the Cure at its considerable best. The single mix shortens the album cut without reducing its roiling dark power, thanks to Gallup's impressive bass work and Smith's increasingly nervous, edgy delivery. As was then the common case with the Cure, a band ...
Simultaneously more accessible and ambitious than any of the Cure's previous albums, the double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me finds Robert Smith expanding his pop vocabulary by tentatively adding bigger guitars, the occasional horn section, lite-funk rhythms, and string sections. It's eclectic, to be sure, but it's also a mess, bouncing from ...
Simultaneously more accessible and ambitious than any of the Cure's previous albums, the double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me finds Robert Smith expanding his pop vocabulary by tentatively adding bigger guitars, the occasional horn section, lite-funk rhythms, and string sections. It's eclectic, to be sure, but it's also a mess, bouncing from ...
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