Dez Record Guides: The Cure

I think that The Cure is one of the most significant bands to emerge since the late 70's. Never critical darlings, in part because they helped pioneer a generally lambasted genre, they nonetheless gathered a fiercely loyal core following, and at times have gained massive commercial success on the strength of their more pop-oriented hits. There really are two Cures. One are the mopey goth kings and the other is a jubilant pop band. As one of their album titles suggests, Wild Mood Swings. More than just mood swings, their music is bipolar.

When speaking of The Cure, of course, you are speaking primarily of Robert Smith, frontman, singer, lyric writer, guitarist, avatar. Others have spent substantial time as band members and made crucial contributions (Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson, Lol Tolhurst, Roger O'Donnell, etc.) and the music composition for their songs is usually credited to the whole band while lyrics are credited to Smith. But Robert Smith is the only member who has been there from the beginning and he is the face of The Cure. Not only that, he is really the face, the representative, the caricature of an entire subspecies of teenager. The goth teen, often morose-looking but usually not really, sitting in the back of class, wearing black, pale because they only come out at night, heavy black eyeliner (whether male or female), also often very intelligent. Smith is good natured about his status as goth icon, going so far as to voice himself on 'South Park.'

ABOVE: Robert Smith on 'South Park'

Funny personal story. I attended a Cure show in 1992 on the Wish tour. One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, convinced the other three of us going to the show that we will not fit in to the goth convention that would be a Cure concert unless we dressed the part. So we donned the black eyeliner, wore all black and frizzed our hair. Of course when we show up to the non-goth Woodlands Pavilion outside of Houston, 95% of the crowd looks completely normal. And naturally we run into people we know.

Caricatures aside, the music stands on its own merits. Depending on which record you are talking about, it can be waves dark yet comforting, sweet depression, or sharp pop music of the highest order. Sometimes both are on the same record.

Boys Don’t Cry (1980) ****
Note: I am reviewing the American version of the debut, which some technically categorize as a compilation. In Britain it was released as Three Imaginary Boys with a different tracklist. As usual, the American version includes singles that in Britain were released as singles only. The debut doesn’t really sound like anything else in their discography, I think in part because Robert Smith probably did not have as much production/creative control as he would subsequently have. Smith has said that he is not a fan of the record. All of that aside, BDC is a fantastic piece of minimalist, post-punk rock. The thin production that Smith complains about is a strength, actually. The thin guitar and simple rhythms give space to these quite catchy, short songs. They are equally pop (Smith, despite even when he does not want to, cannot help but write catchy melodies) and experimental. A sprightly beginning before Smith and co. would head down the darker paths of the next three records (and help invent goth along the way).

Seventeen Seconds (1980) ****
Faith (1981) ****
Pornography (1982) ****
The gloom and doom trilogy are landmark goth rock records. I guess it depends on how much you enjoy goth. Even though The Cure's overall discography is quite diverse and full of joyous pop music, their reputation with their core audience rests here, and everything that follows either continues in this vein or blatantly rejects it. I find SS to be the most enjoyable, it still has some remnants of the spryness of the debut ("A Forest" and "Play For a Day"), but also moves into the darker territory as well. It has a nice balance. Faith and Pornography are unrelenting in their despair, some may say to the point of caricature. The gray cover of Faith perfectly captures the music within, an overcast melancholy as one song flows into the next. The songs themselves are often hard to distinguish from each other, but I think that is part of the point. It is a mood piece intended to be taken as a whole. It is indeed a gray record, but also beautiful in some ways, like how an overcast gray day is not altogether unpleasant. Pornography, though, has very little beauty to it. It is more aggressive and the bleakest of all, and it splits opinions. For many Cure faithful it is their greatest achievement. The first line you hear on the record is "It doesn't matter if we all die..." and it goes downhill from there. Honestly, I more admire Pornography than love it, but its influence is undeniable.

Japanese Whispters (compilation) (1983) **
The Top (1984) **
Concert: The Cure Live (live) (1984) ***
After the landmark gloom and doom trilogy helped to pioneer goth (both as a sound and teenage subculture) Smith was (surprise) depressed and wanting to shift directions. Where to go after Pornography? The group fell apart around him, so these two records are transitional in every respect. As with many of the latterday Cure releases, there are some fantastic singles surrounded by filler. The filler here is weaker than usual, but the singles are phenomenal. "Let's Go To Bed", "The Walk", "The Love Cats" and especially "The Caterpillar" are 80's pop at its most catchy and innovative. NOTE: Technically JW was a compilation because it collected 1983's singles and b-sides, but it works as a full, new record. Concert is an energetic live show that while nothing here is revelatory, features a tougher Cure than in the studio. "Killing an Arab" is taken at punk speed and energy, a far cry from the BDC version.

The Head on the Door (1985) ****
One of the more consistently great Cure records, it sets the blueprint for most of the records to follow. A handful of truly great singles (in this case, "In Between Days, " with classic depressing Smith lyrics joined with buoyant pop music, and "Close to Me") and moodier album tracks. THOTD marks a dividing line between the goth kings and a more pop, radio friendly direction. And is "Push" their greatest non-hit? Often lost in the mix, but it is one of their best records.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) ***1/2
In a certain respect, KMKMKM suffers from the malady of most double albums. With smart editing, you could have a more cohesive, stronger single. But the space does allow for an interesting schizophrenic effect, where on one hand you have a handful of fantastic pop singles ("Catch", "How Beautiful You Are", "Why Can't I Be You", "Hot Hot Hot" and what is definitely one of the great 80's songs, "Just Like Heaven"). But then you have more expansive, languid, experimental tracks that predict the masterpiece to come. Songs that vamp instrumentally for 2 or 3 minutes before Smith even decides to sing. And I really dig "Like Cockatoos" for some reason.

Disintegration (1989) *****
Entreat (live) (1991) ****
Their undisputed masterpiece and most enduring work, Disintegration combines the best of what they had done before and takes it to a new level. Filled with slow to midtempo numbers, it creates a melancholy yet seductive mood like few records do. The singles are amongst their most affecting (“Lovesong,” “Pictures of You” and the none-more-Cure “Lullaby”: "don't struggle like that, I will only want you more...the spiderman is having you for dinner tonight"...oddly romantic or sung from the perspective of a serial killer?), while the more expansive numbers create a gorgeous soundscape. "Prayers For Rain," "Same Deep Water As You" and the title track are epic, expansive, beautiful, depressing, essential stuff. Entreat is a live version of Disintegration that stays fairly close to the original arrangements, but has enough variation to where fans will find it interesting.

ABOVE: Gotta give him credit for staying true to his roots. Even today as a much older and more bloated man, Smith still goes out there in full goth garb and make-up.

Wish (1992) ***1/2
Paris (live) (1993) **
Show (live) (1993) ****
Wild Mood Swings (1996) ***
Bloodflowers (2000) ***
The Cure (2004) ***
4:13 Dream (2008) ***
Bestival Live 2011 (live) (2011) NR
From here on, their records feature some fantastic singles surrounded by decent to good filler. I give a slight edge to Wish (their biggest seller) and Bloodflowers as they have a more cohesive feel to them. Show is a great latterday live recording from the Wish tour.

Compilations:
The Cure are an interesting case, since they definitely view themselves as an album band and present many of their records as a cohesive piece of work, yet they are also one of the greatest singles bands in rock history. Listening to a good collection of Cure singles is like getting into the ring with a heavyweight champ, and he just hits you with one knockout punch after another. Standing On a Beach: The Singles (1986) ***** is essential, collecting The Cure’s singles from their first decade. If I were to make a list of ten essential 80’s records, this Cure collection would be there. It makes sense to then follow it up with Galore: The Singles (1997) *****, continuing on with the next decade of their career. Greatest Hits (2001) **** is a single disc that attempts to cover everything, and there is simply too much to make one disc anything close to definitive. Stick with Standing on a Beach and Galore. Mixed Up (remixes) (1990) ** is a pretty bad collection of remixes for the dance floor. Smith and co. always had an overflow of material, and the four disc box set Join the Dots: B-sides and Rarities 1978-2001 The Fiction Years (2004) **** proves that they had several records worth of A-level material sitting in the wings or stuffed onto b-sides.